When there are applications but no sales? It's too early to blame the marketers!
This article will provide a detailed description of a problem that accompanies almost every project related to marketing. Specifically, when the incoming flow of notifications created by marketers does not lead to deals.
The reasons for such actions in companies include: a lack of managers or sales department staff to handle applications (calls), limited stock in the warehouse, and the website slowing down due to the influx of applications from targeted (contextual) advertising. To protect your business or company, which is creating a new product, from burning through the budget, we will outline how to prepare for the launch of an advertising campaign.
Why should you not launch advertising without a prepared product?
The target audience portrait is not defined
As soon as the market becomes competitive, the need for customer analysis arises. For example, there are more than one type of carpet on the product shelf. The marketer or entrepreneur must raise the question: who will buy this carpet? What connects the customers: adherence to traditions, choosing a great gift for a holiday, or decorating their home interior? This connecting feature helps to assess who the company will sell the product to: newlyweds, retirees, men, or housewives. In the future, by scanning their needs, desires, and motivations to sell your product. To avoid further conflicts between the company's management and marketers, the first goal of the meeting should be to determine the reason for the product's use and identify the target audience.
From the moment the target audience portrait is formed, you will already understand where, to whom, and at what price to promote your product, how to "impress" potential consumers, and what promotion methods to use. Similarly, thanks to the target audience portrait, sales scripts are created, and systems for handling objections are selected.
Without a target audience portrait, marketing turns into sending out millions of emails: reach increases, but the vast majority of emails are thrown into spam or the trash. No matter how hard you try, they will not respond to the advertisement, as this product is not interesting to them.
It's hard to formulate a unique selling proposition and stand out among competitors
A unique selling proposition is a key point in the interests of the target audience. The essence lies in correctly explaining the product in one sentence as to why it is important to find it among hundreds of similar ones. If the unique selling proposition of a carpet company was written as "quality carpets at the best price," the buyer would start comparing. "Quality" — what does that mean? With patterns or soft with designs? And "best price" — how much is that?
Due to the purchase process, the consumer is subjected to studying technical specifications, price analysis — which ultimately leads nowhere.
If for the same buyer — you include an advertisement with the unique selling proposition "silk carpet with patterns made of natural wool," the success will be different. Most likely, the consumer will find a product that suits them, receive information about the company's environmental policies, and will go to review the list, rather than wasting time comparing.
To create a truly unique selling proposition, familiarize yourself with the locations and interests of the target audience, write the company's business plan, and specify how it differs from competitors. This is a resource-intensive but important step that increases the effectiveness of advertising and reduces the cost of recruiting new consumers.
It's hard to analyze the market and conduct competitive research
A marketer cannot launch advertising until they know the key properties of the product, its parameters, target audience, and unique selling proposition, which leads to the likelihood of setting up profitable advertising to zero.
It's hard to assess business performance results
As long as the product and business plan are not created, the company relies on words rather than numbers. The plan sounds like "increase sales" rather than "increase the average check from 30,000 tenge to 40,000 tenge in a couple of months," in which case employees are blamed for ineffectiveness due to the expectation of "the best results."
This issue is observed not only in small businesses but also in companies with a staff of 40-60 people. Where they work, not knowing either the profitability of the product or its costs, therefore they cannot calculate the reality of investing amounts in marketing.
The customer journey map is not built
The customer journey map is a visual representation of the customer's journey from the initial touchpoint to the completion of the purchase.
This mechanism is designed to identify the time a customer takes to make a decision, which marketing paths promote sales, and which promotional moves to choose for different types of customers. Without a customer journey map, significantly more time and, consequently, budget is required to conduct tests of advertising ideas.
Business plans are not organized
Well-structured business plans contribute to increasing the number of sales. The clearer and more detailed the training of actions and conversations for managers from the start of the application to the completion of the deal, the more effectively your product will be sold. Without scripts, instructions, and motivation, your applications will remain unprocessed, and the business will collapse into failure.
