“Marketing communication is an audience-centred activity so it is vitally important to understand the way in which audiences process information prior to, during and after making product/service decisions.”
When applying the above statement, one would suggest that it is vital to know what how your customers are thinking in order to select the correct marketing tools.
Question put to candidates:
From the following list, can you please tell which marketing tools that you have used and which work best for your business?Respondents answers were noted on the following tables. See Fig 5.1, Fig 5.2 and Fig 5.3.
CGrogan & Co Solicitors – Fig 5.1
Advertising Digital Internet Marketing
Business Cards Yes FaceBook Yes Google Adwords Yes
Vehicle Signage No LinkedIn Yes Microsoft AdCentre No
Brochure Yes Twitter No Comment on
BlogPosts
No
- Digital Version Yes Instagram No Squidoo Lens No
Website Yes YouTube No Video Blog posts No
Chamber of
Commerce Meeting
No GooglePlace No - Upload to Youtube
Trade Show booth No Business Blog No Google Analytics No
Direct Mail No Groupn No
Free Samples No Tradesmen.ie No
Yellow Pages No Adverts.ie No
Radio No Ebay.com No
Billboard No
Local Newspaper Yes
Sidewalk Sign No
Email Marketing Relationship Building Content Marketing
Email Opt In on website – Free download or gift No Customer satisfaction survey No Record a podcast No
Send regular email to contact list
No Ask for referrals Yes Write a press release No
Free monthly newsletter
Email Signature Yes Sponsor local team Yes Audio, Visual, social sharing functionality to emails No Cross promotion with another business Yes Member of professional organisation (Go to question) Yes
Holiday gifts for best customers
No
Marketing Help Unique Marketing
Marketing Consultant No E.g. Wearable Advertising PR Professional No Others - Online marketing firm
SkidProof Ltd – Fig 5.2
Advertising Digital Internet Marketing
Business Cards Yes FaceBook Yes Google Adwords Yes
Vehicle Signage No LinkedIn Yes Microsoft AdCentre No
Brochure Yes Twitter No Comment on
BlogPosts
No
- Digital Version Yes Instagram No Squidoo Lens No
Website Yes YouTube No Video Blog posts No
Chamber of
Commerce Meeting
Yes GooglePlace No - Upload to Youtube
No
Trade Show booth Yes Business Blog No Google Analytics No
Direct Mail Yes Groupn No
Free Samples Yes Tradesmen.ie No
Yellow Pages No Adverts.ie No
Radio No Ebay.com No
Local Newspaper Yes
Sidewalk Sign No
Email Marketing Relationship Building Content Marketing
Email Opt In on website – Free download or gift No Customer satisfaction survey No Record a podcast No
Send regular email to contact list
No Ask for referrals Yes Write a press release No
Free monthly newsletter
No Make referrals No
Email Signature Yes Sponsor local team No
Audio, Visual, social sharing functionality to emails
Yes Cross promotion with another business Yes Member of professional organisation Yes
(Go to question)
Holiday gifts for best customers
No
Marketing Help Unique Marketing
Marketing Consultant No E.g. Wearable Advertising PR Professional No Others - No Online marketing firm No NetTech Ltd – Fig 5.3
Advertising Digital Internet Marketing
Business Cards Yes FaceBook No Google Adwords No
Vehicle Signage No LinkedIn Yes Microsoft AdCentre No
Brochure Yes Twitter No Comment on
BlogPosts
No
Website No YouTube Yes Video Blog posts No Chamber of Commerce Meeting No GooglePlace No - Upload to Youtube Yes
Trade Show booth No Business Blog No Google Analytics No
Direct Mail Yes Groupn No
Free Samples Yes Tradesmen.ie No
Yellow Pages Yes Adverts.ie No
Radio No Ebay.com No
Billboard No
Local Newspaper Yes
Sidewalk Sign No
Email Marketing Relationship Building Content Marketing
Email Opt In on website – Free download or gift
No Customer
satisfaction survey
No Record a podcast Yes
to contact list
Free monthly newsletter
No Make referrals Yes
Email Signature Yes Sponsor local team No
Audio, Visual, social sharing functionality to emails No Cross promotion with another business No Member of professional organisation (Go to question) Yes
Holiday gifts for best customers
No
Marketing Help Unique Marketing
Marketing Consultant
No E.g. Wearable Advertising
PR Professional No Others - Yes
firm
Findings
Advertising - Business cards, website, brochures, free samples and local newspaper are the most predominantly used marketing tools within advertising. Of all the options, the respondents were amused by the notion of using radio.
Digital - FaceBook and LinkedIn are the most predominantly used concepts within digital.
Internet Marketing - Google Adwords is used by two of the micro businesses but the rest of options were alien to the ME owners.
Email Marketing - All of the respondents use email signatures with only respondent 2 using social media functionality on their emails.
Relationship Marketing - This is a strong point for all of the respondents. From asking for referrals to being part of a professional organisation, they all take this form of marketing quite seriously
Content Marketing - This marketing is quite alien to the respondents with only respondent 3 using Podcasts.
Marketing Help - Beyond hiring someone to develop their websites, none of the respondents have sought any marketing help.
Unique Marketing - Respondents 1 and 3 use a number of unique and innovative marketing ideas to help promote their business.
Two of the three respondents are currently members of local business groups. These include CLD (Clane Local Development) and The Knocklyon Network. Both of the respondents felt that these were very worthwhile and that new business was gained by participating in them.
Summary
All of participating micro firms keep current contact lists so they are missing out by not taking advantage of this with marketing tools such as ‘sending regular emails’. Due to the importance of networking being highlighted so often, one would suggest that the Relationship Marketing tools are of vital importance to all of the micro firms. It is interesting to note that none of the micro firms hire any professional help such as a marketing firm or PR professional. This is noted due to the ME’s answer in the final interview question, where all three indicated that they would recommend a new businesses to hire somebody with marketing experience.