Marketing analyst Carlton Forse illustrates a simple marketing lesson with a wildlife theme: “The customer is a gorilla and you have a banana in your hand. Give the banana to the gorilla as fast as possible or you’ll be sorry.” Marketing efforts must be quick and decisive. If you make your customers take additional steps, you will likely lose a potential customer or reader. With this mindset, you can appeal to your customer with greater effectiveness and improve your business’ marketing prowess.
The starting point: Believing in the banana
During the 2012 Olympics, audiences were captivated by a well-crafted advertisement from Proctor & Gamble (P&G). The video sentimentally touched on the core of the business, while relating its line of products at the end of the moving piece. The marketing piece was ingenious. Realizing their importance in the family dynamic, P&G capitalized on the beauty of the Olympics. After all, there are plenty of heartfelt stories attached to the Olympics, such as the Derek Redmond moment in the 1992 games. These events have become a family viewing event. P&G illustrated their belief in their line of products. They believe in what they have to offer and weren’t afraid to illustrate the true meaning behind what they do. This type of illustration can have a profound impact on a business and its customers in an authentic and compelling manner.
Following through: Handing over the banana without haste
What does this look like in your marketing efforts? Forse expands with plenty examples in the area of email marketing, which is a fundamental marketing vehicle for any business. He centers on a few simple, effective ways to make business communication appealing to readers:
- Ease: Count the actions a customer will take to see your message. Mobile users shouldn’t have to find your content and message. To help, use a single-column format and limit the width to 500 or 600 pixels. Forse notes a 64 percent rate of B2B marketers viewing email on their mobile devices, which demonstrates the need to optimize emails for mobile.
- Use video: Forse recommends an email that is all about a video. Use it exclusively in the email, but watch out for length as you don’t want it to be too long. Linking the video to the website is best, as an embedded email will add more steps.
- Test: Pre-launch testing can help you decide on a subject line and content for a campaign. Plenty of potential problems can be eliminated with this step.
Could your business utilize email marketing to deliver a video similar to P&G’s hit commercial? Optimizing your emails for mobile, using video and testing your message before its launch should provide some inspiration for crafting a message that truly delivers the banana, so to speak.
Identify how you can relate to your customers in a meaningful way. Discover opportunities to reach out to your customers to add some type of value – whether it’s helpful, based in entertainment or a simple reminder of what’s important in life. Customers enjoy heartfelt displays like the P&G commercial. Pieces like that can have residual effects in marketing. Deliver your message in the clearest way possible, without any additional steps or complications. Once you do this, your message will have the best chance of succeeding.