Our Process
Our Process or how we work
TrendStrategics.com process starts with a conversation we call discovery. We need to know what you want to accomplish and then create a plan of marketing attack that fits within your timeline and budget.
It all starts with a conversation. Your business is unique to all others in the world. Similar, maybe, but unique in it’s size, offerings, structure and pretty much all other aspects. Because of that, there is no “package” that can be applied to make your business grow. Anyone who has stock packages and tries to sell you on one of them, either doesn’t know much about business, doesn’t care about yours or a combination of both.
Your Business is Your Baby!
We are talking about your business. It is your baby. Your sweat, your equity. It means more to you than to anyone else on the planet. If you want help to make it grow, then you should choose to work with a company that focuses on you and helping you grow your business.
We need to dig deep and find out where you are in your business development. Where you are, where you’ve been, and most importantly, where you want to go and what you want to achieve. After digging deep and analyzing your current marketing and previous marketing history we can start to devise a plan.
Each Business requires Unique Marketing!
As every business is in a different stage, we can only strategize after an in depth study and careful research. This process is known as discovery. It can take some time to come up with a full plan of attack. If you are a start up, then certain other factors need to be addressed first. Perhaps we need to develop your brand, logo, tagline and in short your new business identity. In developing your new business identity we need to take into consideration your target demographics and target market. We need to design based on your audience.
We need to choose colors and font style and design business identity on cards and letterhead and brochures and perhaps other printed materials.
If your business is active and you have been in business for a length of time, then we take a different approach and work from the vantage point of where you are. It may be that some of the basics were not done professionally or are really outdated and we need to be tweaked and rejuvenate your identity.
Should I use Google and Facebook to advertise?
If you are good with your basics then we can look at social marketing and/or digital advertising in places like Google or Facebook. Of course this depends on your business type. Facebook may be the wrong place for your business, or incorporating Google Adwords may be spending money needlessly. There are lots of ways to increase awareness of your brand that doesn’t require tons of cash.
Our conversations will lead to discovery and discovery is necessary to uncover where problems are or holes in marketing exist. Then we devise a way plug those holes by developing a marketing plan that addresses the inadequacies in marketing and aim for our target market with pin point accuracy so we have minimal wasted expense and maximum exposure.
Whether it is qualified leads, or email addresses of interested people, phone number acquisition for your sales force to follow up with or direct sales, we will establish a plan that is aimed to convert to what ever you are wanting to make happen.
If you keep doing the same thing, you can expect the same results!
You might ask, how do I know this will work? I would respond with the above. Some marketing is better than no marketing. That said, nobody ever knows if they’re going to get a base hit or a home run. But it is sure that if you don’t go to bat, you don’t even have a chance at scoring.
You would be surprised that so many businesses miss the mark by not providing the basic 3 things in their marketing efforts. These are “Who You Are”, What You Do”, and “How to Contact You”. Basic right? But so many companies fail to include these in their advertisements.
You know your company name and you know what you do, but other people may not. You can not assume that your brand is a household name. It is easy to forget because you have been tethered to your brand since the first day. So don’t forget to not assume anything.
What do we do?
You have a business where you offer a product or a service. There are thousands of prospective people and/or companies that can utilize what you offer. Problem is that they don’t know about you or know that you even exist. That is where we come in. We act as a bridge between you and your potential customers. Through our efforts, we tie you two together so you can both get what you want. You want more business which equates to more profits and your customer wants what you offer. We provide that bridge that allows both of you to get what they want.
How do we do it?
For the answer to this question, just look to the services we offer. As mentioned, every business is different, is in it’s respective market, has been in business for various lengths of time, has few employees or lots of employees etc. So every business has it’s own unique needs and our marketing plan will be developed on an individual business basis.
We will evaluate what your business needs.
Depending on our evaluation, we will use website and internet marketing in various forms and facets to achieve your desired results. This includes marketing tools such as your website, Google Adwords, Facebook Advertising, other social media marketing and advertising, tweak branding, e’commerce, graphic design, printed media, photography, video production and Youtube and/or Vimeo uploads and promotional products.
What is Marketing?
While the word “Marketing” is only one word, it encompasses an almost limitless world. The definition of the word Marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
What is Sales and Marketing?
Do you have people in place that have titles such as “VP of Sales & Marketing “. This is a common misnomer. Sales is sales and marketing is marketing. While they are supposed to work together, they are two very different things. For my entire career, I have talked to people who introduce themselves as sales and marketing… I know right then, that these people, nice people all, have absolutely no concept of what they do. And I have found that most don’t know enough to know the difference.
This is really vague
If is very sad when a company labels a person as such and gives them a missed title with a vague concept of what they are supposed to be doing. It is a recipe for failure. And unfortunately, I have seen it over and over again. These people struggle with what they are supposed to be doing and wonder why their efforts aren’t growing the company.
How many fonts can I use on my copy?
I remember talking to one such person who sent us a short piece of copy that had 3 different fonts. One font for each line of text. I tried to explain some basic font usage rules and she said, I know, but that’s what I want. So this person had some experience or training in graphic design but ignored what she learned. It isn’t up to me to argue, but it is up to me as a professional consultant to make the client aware that there may be some issue with a particular thing in question.
What is the best promotional product to advertise a business with?
Same goes for the people who call wanting to buy a promotional product for their business, perhaps a trade show or other event. They would ask for a known staple such as an ink pen or other common item and after a bit of discovery introduce them to something that would “speak” to their audience and have much greater impact. The decision is ultimately the clients to make, but most of the time they vied for the staple they asked about. Maybe it was an easier decision for them. Maybe they didn’t want to put on their creative hat and think about the influence the product I recommended would have.
You don’t know what you don’t know!
We have worked with Realtors nationwide. One of the sadest stories I can remember is talking to a Realtor who called wanting some ink pens. She lead with “How much are your ink pens?, I want some cheap pens”. Of course, the cost of ink pens are across the board and beyond, so my response was the question she needed to be thinking about and that was “Who is the Recipient?”. To that she replied, “I want to give people a pen at closing”. I asked her what the mean price of the houses she sold and she replied “Oh, they vary from the $80’s to well over $200K. (She wanted pens under a dollar) My response was, ok, you sell houses with an average price of $140,000 and you want to give the new home owner a pen worth a dollar at closing to say thank you? She hung up. I was trying to help her see the value of that client to her and how she could make a huge impact with a gifting of a proper pen.
I never got to help her!
The suggestion would have been to buy a “nicer” pen, doesn’t need to be a Mont Blanc, but a $20-30 dollar pen in a handsome gift box. Slide it over the desk at closing and tell the home buyer they can sign the contract with this. They open it up and see the beautiful pen with THEIR name engraved into it. This is marketing, this is impact, this will bring you referrals, referrals will bring you more business, more business will bring you more profits, more profits will take you to the Bahamas!
You have limited knowledge of the products available.
This is the type of interaction we do with our clients. Sure you have ideas and if you want them, we can incorporate them into your marketing strategy. You are good at your business. You are the expert in your business. You need to concentrate on your business and leave the marketing to someone who knows marketing.
Evaluation is unique to every business.
This evaluation process is unique to every business and changes with time as the company changes, so does the marketing need to change. Marketing is not a one time do it and have it done type of line item. It is not like fixing something that is broken or replacing a part on a machine. It is a constant needed necessity that businesses need to thrive.
Are you growing TOO Fast?
That said, if your company is growing too fast for you to keep up with and start to fall behind in production or delivery of product or service your customer satisfaction could take a nose dive and that would affect your future. So there may be times when you need to cut back (short term) on marketing if your business is out growing your ability to keep up. If this is the case, then you could scramble to hire the help you need in certain areas or increase production if possible.
Examples of fast growth.
Shippers are a good example of this. During the Holiday Season, Fedex, UPS and USPS have a difficult time keeping up. For this short time every year, they have to hire extra drivers and 3rd party companies to fill in for the extra deliveries coming through. The rest of the year, everything works as clockwork and they hire as necessary, but during the Holidays, they need to scramble for help.
Are the Holiday Sales tough to keep up with?
Some retailers experience the same thing. During the Holidays, they need to hire part time to address the increased flow of traffic. Obviously, they can’t keep these people on the payroll all year long, so flexibility is important here.
Now considering that many retailers depend on the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to become in the black for the year, it makes sense for them to hire and market and expand during that crucial time of each year. That is not the time to cower back, but to embrace the increase and do everything possible to initiate sales.
Can you schedule product launch dates?
Other types of business can just schedule out their services or product availability months in the future and people understand that as part of that business. Consider a new extremely hot mobile phone that is launching worldwide. The company can only make so many in advance to accommodate the rush. In such extreme situations with high demand, people expect that they may have to wait a short time to get the newest, the latest, the fastest etc…
You can’t have it!
Case example is Harley Davidson. Some years back their product was in such demand, that they had a long backlog on their motorcycles. If a person wanted one, or was thinking that you “may” want one, that person needed to put a small down payment to order. Many people actually sold their “contract to buy” for a profit before ever taking possession of the motorcycle. Did Harley Davidson say no, you can’t buy one because we don’t have any to sell? No, they took the orders and the people knew they had a six month wait.
Smart move on Harley Davidson. Remember that fear of loss (even loss of ownership, in this case) is a very motivating emotion.
Is Fear of Loss the most powerful call to action?
Psychologists will tell you there are many scenarios where fear of loss occur. Fear of loosing ones Spouse, fear of loosing money, fear of getting sick or dying, and on and on.
But in marketing, we use tools like timelines on sales, low inventory levels (availability – like Harley Davidson example above) to get people to act now. Much of the time these fears are irrational as psychologists will tell you, but they are real and do move people to act. There are mechanical ways in marketing to elicit this type of behavior in your prospects but be aware that if a decision is made only on emotion, it may be reversed if possible. This means if you offer returns, that your return rates will be higher than normal rates of products bought without fear.
Emotion & Logic are key players in our decision process.
The strongest decision a person makes is one based not only on emotion, but on logic as well. They are able to justify a purchase for example if they can convince themselves that it is a necessity in their life or in some way will save them time, effort or other money. They may want it on an emotional basis, but would fail to move on emotion only. But when they can justify that purchase in some way, then it becomes an easy decision for them to spend the money and make the purchase.
Use both Emotion and Logic
What does this tell you? It suggests if possible to introduce two separate yet connected messages in your marketing. You need to speak to their problems and bring in some sort of emotion to enhance the offering. That is good marketing and leads to solid sales and low returns.
What is the most effective advertising method?
Depends on the type of your business. No one marketing effort is a catch all campaign. TrendStrategics can analyize and recommend a marketing strategy unique to your business.
Give us a call today to schedule your one on one.