Create Effective Marketing Materials with a 2 Phase Marketin by Lee Amon

Effective marketing materials move the buying process forward. By understanding the customer's buying process, we can increase sales
With marketing dollars as tight as they are, our customers frequently ask how they can maximize the return on their marketing investment-how they can generate marketing pieces that are efficient and, most of all, effective. One of the most basic yet most underused strategies is to plan marketing efforts to match the different steps in the customer's typical buying process. We refer to this as the "two-phase" marketing approach.

The Buying Process Whether or not they are aware of it, customers follow a repeatable process when they decide to buy. We break down the steps as follows:

-Goal Setting
-Problem Recognition
-Information Search
-Evaluation of Alternatives
-Decision
-Post Purchase Evaluation
-Repeat Purchase

Not every step in the process is followed for each sale; new or complex purchases tend to follow this path most directly. And you may even want to encourage the compression of the process by helping customers skip steps. Yet however the process proceeds, it can't begin without the first step: problem recognition. If the customer has not recognized a need, there is no chance of a sale. Surprisingly, even experienced marketers often overlook this simple and intuitive concept. They focus marketing efforts on showing customers how good their product is. They demonstrate all the bells and whistles. Or, they concentrate on building a winning brand image. But they neglect to focus on the need-what the product will do for the customer. No matter how good your product is, no matter how technically advanced the product is, and no matter how cool your image is, customers will not buy if they don't see the need.

And, we can't assume that the need is obvious to our customers. Often, the need is "latent". Latent needs tend to run constant and, as a result, may not to register immediately with customers. These include issues like reducing costs, increasing sales, increasing efficiency, speeding product development, or reducing exposure to regulatory or legal risk. All customers, theoretically, are interested in addressing these issues. But they may not know of new technologies that can help them, or of potential risks that change these needs from "nice-to-haves" to "must-haves."

In the first phase of two-phase marketing, the goal is to help potential customers recognize their need. The second phase then fills it by providing further information to set customers comfortably into the buying process.

Phase 1: Making a Latent Need a Recognized One

To make customers realize their need, your message must be simple, focused, and compelling. You are not trying to sell product. Rather, you are selling an idea-that customers have a problem that needs to be solved, and you can help them solve it.. Consider the following messages:

"How to be sure that you are in compliance with COBRA requirements"
"What CFR 29 means to your business"
"Cut the cost of customer service, and make your customers happier-Find out how"
"Speed your products to market-Attend this important seminar"

Notice how each of these messages focuses on the customer's critical issue: reducing cost, improving customer service or regulatory compliance, or getting product to market faster. Talking to customer issues is the most reliable way to connect with them and help them recognize their need. It also helps customers who are aware of the issue to learn that you understand the need and have products or services that can help them.

Once your customers recognize the need, the buying process dictates that they will want information. Phase-One, therefore, ends with a call to action that positions your company as a source for that information.

. Get this free white paper
. Attend this important seminar
. See the proof in this free video.

This immediately transitions customers to the next step in the buying process and, by extension, into Phase 2.

Phase 2: Give Them Focused Information

If you are right there when customers recognizes their need, and if you provide the right information at the right time, you can influence all the remaining steps in the process. You get the opportunity to make the case about which features or capabilities are most important, and what aren't (and of course, the important ones just happen to be where your product is strongest). You can even convince the customer to skip the evaluation of other alternatives, and go straight to purchase. After all, if you've convinced customers that they have a need, and if you have already provided information that demonstrates how your products meet the need, why should customers go anywhere else?

Selecting the right communications medium.

The key to being successful in Phase Two is providing customers with relevant information. You are asking customers to make an investment, not in money, but in time. Give a good return on that investment, and you have earned a customer and an ally-and, in all likelihood, a sale.

The exact nature of the information provided, and the best way of delivering that information will vary depending on the product or service being provided, and the audience you are addressing. It might be a brochure explaining the features of the product, a white paper delving into the nature of the new technology, or a "how to" style technical document. For some of our customers, it has been a video showing their products at work. For others, the information has been best communicated by web site containing FAQ's and other technical resources that empower customers during the buying process.

Irrespective of the medium used, the following guidelines apply to any Phase Two marketing piece:

Customers want information-give it to them. Explain aspects of the technology, product, or service that they may not be obvious to someone not steeped in the technology.

Help them paint a vision. Customers will want a vision of life after the purchase; help them to create that vision. Give them examples of how other customers are using the product-, with an emphasis on demonstrating how issues get resolved.

Focus on the benefits, not the technology or the features. While it may be important to list the features, always be sure to tie the feature to a customer benefit.

Reduce the customer risk. Buying your product, hiring you, or recommending you in any way is a risk. Lower the customer's perception of risk by demonstrating your credibility

Conclusion Writing in The American Salesman, John R. Graham notes "Contacting customers is easy, but connecting with them is increasingly more difficult." The key to being successful is to reach out first with a message that talks to your customer's issues. Then provide more information as your customer needs it. Following your customer's buying process and providing the right materials at the right time will help you to get a leg up over your competitors and speed the sale.

About the Author

Lee Amon is principal consultant for MarketQwest Associates, a bay area marketing communications firm specializing in marketing for technology and scientific companies. Lee has over 20 years of marketing experience, holding positions with companies such as GE/Calma, Chips and Technologies, and MDL Information Systems. MarketQwest helps clients of all sizes to create effective marketing plans and to turn those plans into compelling marketing materials. To find out more, contact me at 510-796-9820 or lee@marketqwest.com