6 Musts of Marketing for Top-of-Mind Awareness

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:41:32 +0000

Coming up with the content of this short article originally cost $500,000. And it was worth every penny…

So don’t take it lightly!

If you apply this simple knowledge, it could easily be worth twice the original $500,000 to your bottom line (or 1,000X if you’re ambitious enough).

First, a demonstration.

Think of a cough medicine. First one that comes to mind.

NyQuil?

What about an American car company?

Ford?

A soft drink company?

Coca-Cola?

Pizza delivery?

Dominoes?

I’ll bet your answer was the same that I gave on 3 out of 4.

That’s the power of top-of-mind awareness.

These companies dominate their markets, because when their customers and potential customers need a solution that they provide, their name comes up first. Sure, not everyone chooses them. But many – if not most – do. So their sales soar.

Not too long ago, there was a company that was determined to find out what was consistent between companies that had top-of-mind awareness. As you can imagine, if you know what systems these companies use to gain that level of awareness, you can duplicate those systems in your company and your sales increases will be practically guaranteed.

So they did their research – about $500,000 worth of it – and here’s what they came up with.

These are the “6 Musts of Marketing for Top-of-Mind Awareness.”

1. Personal Contact with customers

2. Company Literature describing products and services

3. An ongoing Public Relations program

4. Consistent and ongoing Customer Education

5. Consistent and ongoing Advertising

6. Regular use of Direct Marketing

How many of these have you implemented in your company? Which are part of your goals for the next 6 months? Which can you make part of your goals?

If you want top-of-mind awareness so your customers think of you before your competitors, these are things you’ll seriously want to consider.

But… Just doing each one independently only has so much power. A notable difference about the way top-of-mind companies do these things is that they do them with consistency.

Their consistency comes in three areas: Design, Message, and Timing.

Design. This one is easy. Make sure everything from your website to your customer literature to your business cards to your direct mail pieces have a similar look and feel. Do not do these things completely independently from each other. Make sure you use the same graphics and templates to ensure that your image is consistent in customers’ and prospects’ minds.

Message. This one is a little more difficult. You want to make sure everything you do reflects your core message, your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). For a very thorough and complete set of instructions on how to develop and implement your company’s USP, go to this page I wrote: Resource: Create a Unique Selling Proposition to Differentiate your Business and Increase Profits. That gives you everything you need to know – and is an invaluable resource.

Timing. This one just requires some organization and dedication. You need to set up systems within your business to make sure you’re touching on each of the “6 Musts of Marketing for Top-of-Mind Awareness” on a regular basis – weekly, monthly, bi-monthly. Whatever is appropriate to your business. But do it, and do it regularly. Because repetition will make it more successful than trying each thing once or just doing it when you “remember.”

So here’s what to do today – set up a goal. Do it. If you have 3 of the 6, start by implementing a 4th. If you have 2, do a 3rd. If you have 5, do the 6th. But always be moving forward. And keep in your sights the goal that you’ll be doing all 6 within a set length of time.

Then you can experience the real benefit of top-of-mind awareness in your industry.

By: Roy Furr

Soft Power » Direct Marketing

6 Musts of Marketing for Top-of-Mind Awareness