Mosquito Bite Marketing
How many times have you been bitten by a mosquito in your lifetime? What did you do? Have you ever tried preventative measures? Have you done research about how to avoid them? Have you asked a friend about what to do about mosquito bites? Are mosquito bites an annoyance or do you spend time, effort and money to either avoid them, or heal them? Do you just decide there’s nothing you can do, and then just deal with the consequences?
First of all, this isn’t about mosquitos, this is about marketing. What I want you to imagine is what we can learn about effective marketing from a simple mosquito bite. The follow are three things that will get you thinking differently about your marketing, your message, your prospects and how to convert them into customers — all based upon something nobody likes — a mosquito bite.
1. No mosquitos, no bites, no worries
At any single minute of any single day, most people will not think about you, your products or your company. There is a complete lack of interest. Actively marketing or selling to these people is a complete waste of time, effort and money. If you have a budget that will allow you to create “informative” or awareness marketing messages, then feel free to do that — in fact, figure out how to educate without spending a ton of money — because those people without a perceived “want” are too busy to listen anyway — they might politely nod and smile, but they aren’t buying today. So my suggestion is quit doing it — spend your precious resources someplace else.
2. I hate mosquitos
Mosquitos range from a mild annoyance to a health hazard — which translates to how your customers will react to your product or service. They will run the gamut, from “nice to have” all the way to “gotta have it, can’t live without it”. But that’s the “product” and not necessarily your product. The key is recognizing the general spectrum of customer desire, then create messages accordingly. Personally, I want so spend most of my effort in marketing and selling to the “gotta have it” crowd — and convince them, my product or service is the best one to give them relief. One last point here, not everyone has the same reaction to mosquito bites — relate that to the perception of your products or services — and start determining two things (1) who are your best (and worst) prospects (2) how many there are in each category and (3) the best way to “talk” to and close them.
3. I can’t stop scratching
Having a problem (or know you might have a problem) will cause most people to look for a solution. Here’s the situation, in our interconnected, always on, information-on-demand world, finding a solution is easy. For any specific solution (insert your product or service here) there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of solutions — and breaking through the white noise of our markets is key to individual success. If you’re not either top of mind as a solution for their particular problem, then you need to figure out a way to be “first” in the door when they go looking for a solution. Either way, it will be your research or marketing message that will be the difference maker. Take time to determine how you accomplish either of those (or best would be both) — success or failure will be determined in planting your seeds, not necessarily at harvest time.
Another point around solving problems …. Sometimes the customer will choose to either just “deal” with the problem or decide to fix it themselves. The only time when this subset of prospects become “real” is after the problem has grown bigger and is now out of control — that may be your niche, if it is, then realize it — if on the other hand, it’s not, feel free to completely disregard these types of prospects — they will never be satisfied with the solution you bring, they will continue to want to be involved in the delivery solution, or potentially, they will be there to tell you how you did it wrong.
BONUS POINT … It’s mosquito season again
You may not know realize this, but every product or service has a “season” — or at least a point in time when your prospects and clients are more aware of their problem, and are starting to think about the solution. Tax Season is a perfect example. For many, it’s a one-time annual event; for others, it’s a quarterly event; and still others, it’s an ongoing battle that is always top of mind. The question to ask yourself, what is the season for my products and services? When are people generally looking for the solution I provide? This is a very broad subject, with individual and specific answers — only you can answer them. What I will say, time your messages according to your specific buying season, and you have a much better chance (along with easier time) getting your message through the buyer’s filters, closing sales and increasing revenue.
What do you think? Are there more thing to keep in mind? What do you do in your marketing and sales efforts to help your organizations before, during and after they are bitten? And BTW, go ahead and Like, Share or Comment — by engaging, we learn.
