Have you built a marketing megaphone?

I spent a few days in Vegas recently and the 24/7 chaos was overwhelming. It’s pure overload for all your senses – tons of people everywhere, driving billboards, TVs in the restrooms, a wide array of smells, and a cacophony of sounds at full volume.

It’s a little like how we’re assaulted by marketing messages every day. Over 5,000 messages a day – aimed at all of our senses, pretty much 24/7.

As consumers — it feels like an attack we have to guard against.  As marketers — it’s like a mountain we have to scale.

But somehow our message needs to fight its way to the top and actually be heard. How do we make that happen?

We need a marketing megaphone. (Download 8.5 x 11 version by clicking here) Something that amplifies our message so it gets right where it needs to be.

But that megaphone has to be built in the right order and contain the right elements.  Otherwise, it’s just more noise.

Here’s how to construct a marketing megaphone that actually works.

It starts with you: To break through the clutter – you need to be crystal clear about your core messaging. You need to completely understand how you’re different from your competitors, why you matter to your customers and how you can improve their world.

Imagine your voice in the din of over 5,000 messages. You’re whispering and counting on the next layers in the marketing megaphone to magnify your message. So it sure better be the exact right words/sentiment.

Once you know yourself, you need a plan: Marketing doesn’t happen by accident. You need a clear-cut vision for how you’re going to get out the word. Over 90% of businesses operate without a marketing plan and yet they wonder why they have to work so hard for new sales.

A marketing plan eliminates stutter (you hurry up to market when you’re slow and then stop when you get busy, losing all momentum along the way) or inconsistent marketing.

Your inside advantage: One of the most costly mistakes made by companies is that they forget how vital their employees are to their marketing efforts. A team that’s left in the dark can’t possibly help amp up your message. In most cases, they have the contact with your customers and prospects. So why wouldn’t you want them to be completely plugged into your core messaging and your marketing plan for spreading the word?

Be worth bragging about: Another way to turn up the volume in your marketing megaphone is to give your current customers something to talk about. If you delight them or are the kind of organization they’re proud to be associated with – they’ll shout it to the world via their social networks, their in person networks and through referrals.

All too often, we forget to romance them once we actually get the sale. But, by making them feel wanted and special – you not only create recurring revenue at a lower cost of acquisition but you create a legion of cheerleaders, all out there, putting some oomph into that megaphone.

The exact right prospects: One of the key benefits of truly understanding your brand is that you learn who your perfect customers are. You will identify who really needs what you offer and who would be elated to buy it from you. When you have a profile of exactly who that is – you can aim your marketing megaphone right at their ear and not worry about the rest of the world.

Getting heard isn’t easy but with the help of a properly built megaphone, your message can rise above the din and get to the right audience every time.

Want a full-sized jpg for your own? Click here to download one.

Enhanced by Zemanta

9 comments on “Have you built a marketing megaphone?

  1. Christelle says:

    Nice article Drew!
    It’s an interesting view and I agree with your points, mainly the fact that employees should participate in the marketing efforts, not just the marketing executives.
    In my company at the moment I try to involve my colleagues in spreading the word, sharing our blog articles, use some social media, etc.. It’s actually hard work to show them the value of all these actions, they don’t see it as real work.
    Knowing the audience is also so important, you could shout as loud as you wanted, but if you shout at the wrong person it won’t make a change, will it!
    It’s a great idea to create a graphic to illustrate your point, but if you want to push it a little bit further you should create a nice infographic, they share so well on the net!

    1. Matt says:

      Great lesson. Can you resend the link to graphic. It does not print out well. Thanks.

      1. Matt,

        Sorry about that — the link was not to the full-sized version. Here you go: http://www.mclellanmarketing.com/images/2012/08/marketing-megaphone.pdf

    2. Christelle,

      Actually we did create this in infographic size…it just had a bad link.

      http://www.mclellanmarketing.com/images/2012/08/marketing-megaphone.pdf

      Drew

  2. Greg De Tisi says:

    Great, concise info here. It basicly spells out what most people seem to ask me everyday. I will send them here from now on thanks to you.

    It is always amazing when I get peeps saying that they cannot find the right info for them when all you have to do is search.

    It really is not that hard.

    Thanks
    Greg

    1. Greg,

      It can get overwhelming for people which is why I tried to tie it to a visual they could wrap their head around. Thanks for pointing others this way!

      Drew

  3. Larry Lewis says:

    We do get bombarded by marketing messages every where we go. Yet you are giving brilliant advice, by telling your readers to first and foremost get clear on their message. Too many online work so hard, but don’t actually know what they are actually offering.

    1. Larry,

      Like most things in life — it starts with a little self awareness.

      Drew

  4. Sam Johnston says:

    To do many of these things a company must make customers and employees believe in the product or service that is being marketed. Trust is important in both business relationships and personal relationships. Without it you will never get anywhere that you want to go, and if you do you will not likely stay there.

    Though I just glanced through the marketing megaphone, I like the idea. Particularly the “know yourself part”. People tend to focus on the differences between people instead of realizing that we are all much more similar than we are different.

    Customer habits can be very predictable regardless of industry. We are customers. To predict what a customer may do or think when presented with a certain message one must take the time to do introspection into one’s own thoughts. It is likely that what drives us to have a certain experience about a marketing message will likely drive other people to have a similar experience.

    This is not to say that we all will have the exact same experience or opinions of things. We wont. However, the core of our experiences may be similar.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *