Marketing 101: direct marketing vs. personal marketing

Effective marketing is leagues away from how it was thirty years ago.[i] This is primarily due to the increase of “mainstream knowledge”. While effective marketing still needs to be targeted, relevant, measurable and accountable, the literature suggest that for a business to get its message read, watched, listened to, etc., it must be targeted towards a segment of the market, whether that segment is based on demographics, usage, etc. Although marketing is more strategic today because of “mainstream knowledge”, many of those factors contributing to such knowledge can be accessed by the small business owner himself (i.e. the Internet). With this abundance of knowledge, traditional direct marketing techniques are looking more an more like an oversaturation of an undefined market (i.e. bulk emails, pop-ups). Rather the primary change experienced is that now “the customer” is at the core, rather than “the market”. As a result, direct marketing techniques are being replaced by personal marketing techniques.

Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_EliwDy74UoU/SNpQ4mJ6-jI/AAAAAAAAHRI/wvvI3jmBMLo/s400/leader.jpg

While some people, such as Lisa Guion, in her paper “Personal Marketing: A Strategy for Marketing Programs to Diverse Audiences”, define personal marketing as direct marketing[ii], there are those who would disagree. The distinction between the two is paramount.

Source: http://www.nebraskaprevlink.ne.gov/library/decision.gif

Wikipedia describes direct marketing as: “a sub-discipline and type of marketing. There are two main definitional characteristics which distinguish it from other types of marketing. The first is that it attempts to send its messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media. This involves commercial communication (direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing) with consumers or businesses, usually unsolicited. The second characteristic is that it is focused on driving a specific "call-to-action." This aspect of direct marketing involves an emphasis on trackable, measurable positive (but not negative) responses from consumers (known simply as "response" in the industry) regardless of medium.”[iii]

Whereas Wikipedia defines personal marketing (or relationship marketing) as: “a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns conducted in the 1970s and 1980s which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on point-of-sale transactions. Relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that it recognizes the long term value to the firm of keeping customers, as opposed to direct or "Intrusion" marketing, which focuses upon acquisition of new clients by targeting majority demographics based upon prospective client lists.”[iv]

In his article, “Mass Marketing is Dead: Make Way for Personal Marketing”, Robert Spellings writes: “The days of mass marketing are coming to an end as we enter a new era of personal marketing.  As technology advances, marketers are able to gather more and more data about prospective customers and reach them in new and innovative ways.  As these changes develop, it’s important that marketers recognize the changes taking place and change their tactics to match the changes in technology. Until recently, marketers have pretty much taken a “mass media” approach to their efforts:  Blast out as many marketing messages as possible on every medium available as often as you can afford it. Mass marketing is already evolving toward a more personalized touch, and as this happens more and more, prospective customers will start to demand it.  Consumers are already extremely savvy about filtering out messages that are irrelevant to them.  Think about your own behavior; while reading articles online, most of us have learned to simply filter out anything on the screen that is flashing or blinking, or flying across the page because we know that these are irrelevant ads that must use these kinds of tactics to get out attention.”[v]

Source: http://www.seobook.com/images/personal.jpg

Yeah. Been there. But how does one start to change this focus?

In his book, Relationship Marketing, Adrian Payne[vi] identifies six markets central to relationship marketing: internal markets, supplier markets, recruitment markets, referral markets, influence markets, and customer markets.

The first step, of course, would be to identify these markets for your business. For this task, assemble the key decision-makers, grab a white board and lots of coffee, then set out for a brainstorming session. Don’t try to fill in the slots and debate the appropriateness of each “customer” identified for the slot named.

The best part about personal marketing is that it costs less than direct marketing, making it “recession easy”.  Personal marketing requires a little more thought, but there are many inexpensive ways to do so. You only have to be creative…

Source: http://scorementors.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/brain_head_creativity1.png?w=250&h=302

Some ideas:

-          STAGE A STUNT

Have a specialty food store:              Hold an on-site recipe contest with samples.

Have a cleaning business:                  Put workers in public places with posters- “Maid for Hire”.

Have a restaurant:                               Host an invitation-only theme night. (i.e. must have a costume or code word or business card for admittance)

Have a pub:                                           Have a “bartender school” night where you teach people to make fun drinks for an hour.

Have a club:                                          Hire a dance instructor to teach salsa for an hour to promote salsa night.

Have liquor store:                                Host a wine/beer/scotch tasting.

Have a book store:                              Host a book signing.

Have a coffee shop:                            Host a spoken word contest.

Have a salon:                                        Host spa days

-          DONATE

Have a hardware store:                      Donate items to Habitat for Humanity.

Have an antique store:                       Donate items to be used in stage productions.

Have a gift store:                                  Send samples of your product to key individuals in the community.

Are you an attorney:                           Volunteer time to give tax advice through a non-profit like SBA.

Have a floral shop:                               Donate a few arrangements to a charity dinner.

Or simply donate products/time to various giveaways or charity events.

-          PUBLISH

Be the story:                                         Invite a newspaper to write a story on how green your business is or how the music played in your business is all by local artists.

Write the story:                                   Publish articles related to your business or advice based on the service you provide. (i.e. 10 ways to clear apartment clutter)

Self-publish:                                          Have a cookbook printed

-          COMPLEMENT Work with other businesses who sell products or services related to yours.

Have a wine store:                               Partner with a gourmet grocery for tastings, discounts, etc.

Have a fitness apparel store:               Partner with a gym for discounts, sponsor a race, etc.

Have a home repair business:             Partner with a real estate agent to meet with new buyers who want certain changes in a property contingent on sale.

Have a home deco store:                   Partner with a paint store to stage rooms, promote products.

Are you a wedding planner:              Partner with date night/speed dating events to meet potential future clients.

Have an Irish pub:                                Team with other Irish pubs to publish a map.

Have a clothing store:                         Team with like clothing stores to publish a style guide.

SOURCES