Each week Dimalanta Design Group hosts a Marketing Forum facilitated by Ernie Dimalanta. Gathered in the room are professionals from various industries like IT, manufacturing, promotional, and travel. We discuss different topics as it relates to marketing, delving into our respective professions to hone our skills and share insights with each other.
This week we focused on messaging, in other words, the how and what we communicate to our target audience. This message should resonate with our audience and their personality types. For example, individuals with an examiner mentality will cue in on words like “revenue generating” and “profitability.” And words like “empower” will resonate with nurturers. The key is deciding the list of acceptable messages you will use and tailoring them to fit the situation.
Ernie then lead us in an exercise that had us brainstorm all the ways a business can get its message out. The list included things like:
- a website
- press releases
- social media
- sponsorships
- billboards
- signage
- promotional items
- Google ad words
- direct mail
- and speaking engagements
While the list was quite extensive, Ernie made an interesting point. He noted that the tendency of small business was to engage in one marketing tactic, such as Google ad words, and try it for a bit only to stop it if there was little or no perceived return on investment. Then engage in another marketing strategy and try that, only to stop after a bit and try another one.
He continued by stating that in order for a company to be successful with their marketing they need to look at it as a marketing ecosystem – where all strategies co-exist under the same umbrella. A business should consider the best mix of strategies and engage them at the same time because they are actually interconnected. This interaction will have a more profound impact on the audience being targeted, which will in turn lead to marketing success.
Keep it targeted.