What if I told you that there as a way to make your organization recession proof, crisis proof, uncertainty proof? Wouldn’t that come in handy for future pandemics or changes?

This was the topic of discussion at my second TEDx talk. In it, I share the robust strategies of the TELCoS Model of Immunity. You can watch the talk here or read the transcript below.

I heard a joke recently. It goes something like this: “The Oxford English Dictionary is planning to replace the word ‘disaster’ with the word ‘2020’. How was your job interview? Don’t ask. It was a 2020”.

Honestly, I won’t be surprised if someday this joke becomes a fact because what a horribly unforgettable year 2020 has been! It pulled up ‘health’ from somewhere low on the list of our priorities and plonked it right at the front and center of our lives.

This pandemic has highlighted the proverb ‘Prevention is better than cure’ in bold, capital letters. Everyone, even those of us outside the medical fraternity, now use PPE kits and immunity boosters because we know that the only protection against coronavirus is in being more cautious.

The pandemic has made not only our health vulnerable, but also our businesses, economies and brands.

A total of over 6.8 lakh companies had been closed across till June 2020.

That begs the question: Was there anything we could have done to prevent such a business outcome?

Whatever has happened has happened. But going forward, what if we build a PPE and Immunity Kit for our brands and businesses that would safeguard them from not only pandemics and recessions but also from competition, changing consumer preferences or technological changes?

I propose the TELCoS model of Immunity as one of the solutions. It contains strategies that I think would make for a fairly robust PPE and Immunity Kit for any company.

1. Try the T

For the first part of the TELCoS model, picture this.

Brand Goliath has 4 employees. One each for finance, sales, marketing and HR. An advertising crisis comes up and their marketing expert needs additional help. She does not need an expert marketer. A non-expert with passable marketing skills would also do.

But none of the 3 other employees have any skills or knowledge outside of their field. So what does Brand Goliath do? It goes out searching for new people to hire. In all this searching, hiring, training of new people, the crisis blows out of proportion and is out of their hands. Brand Goliath’s time and money both get wasted.

Now meet Brand David which also has 4 employees. The difference is that each person at Brand David has extensively worked in cross functional teams. That’s why each one on the team is not only an expert in their field but also knows enough about the other 3 fields to chip in when needed . So, if the same advertising crisis were to hit Brand David, what do you think would happen?

Nothing bad would happen.

Brand David would instantly divert the other 3 employees to assist the marketer. Thus, at no additional cost and with the same number of people, Team David would be able to respond immediately to the crisis as compared to Brand Goliath.

People such as those of Brand David’s team are popularly known as T-shaped people.

They not only have deep expertise of their chosen field but also knowledge and skill in other broad areas ( Forbes).

You could say they are Jacks of all trades AND also masters of one or two.

If a company wants to stay protected from upheavals and become recession proof, it must ensure its PPE kit contains many T-shaped people.

This will remove flab from the system, increase labour productivity. The company can get more done with fewer executives.

Leaner the team, more agile the company. Greater the agility, stronger the chances of business survival.

2. Elastic and Fluid Systems

The next critical component of your brand’s Immunity Kit is elasticity in each of the 6Ps. When crisis hits, it is not enough to only have an agile workforce. For your workforce to take quick action, they will need the support of elastic and flexible systems.

If you can build flexibility in each of your 6Ps, you will end up with a structure fluid enough to take whatever shape the situation demands.

Most restaurants and shops had fixed rental agreements with their landlords and how did that work when the pandemic hit? It worked as a stone around the necks of these businesses. They had zero income because they were shut yet the fixed monthly rents had to be paid. How long could this be sustained?

Now, after learning this harsh lesson, the industry body of Indian restaurants is working with the landlords and mall owners towards a fluid rental arrangement like minimum rent plus revenue sharing.

Let’s consider one of the Ps i.e. ‘Pricing’.

3 students from Taipei University have created barcode stickers called ‘Barcodiscount’.

These stickers change color AND price as the expiration date nears. So for example, in your nearby mall, if the pack of strawberries is 5 days away from expiry, its barcode sticker will turn say orange and will display 20% off. 2 days before expiry, the sticker will turn red and display 40% off.

This is the epitome of flexible pricing, don’t you think? (Springwise)

You don’t always need inventions and technology to create elasticity. But you do need to make a conscious and proactive effort to build that elasticity into your systems. Even a simple step of adding gig workers and freelancers to your full time workforce can make it fluid. Bottom line? Elastic systems make a resilient company.

3. Learn how to learn

At the start of the pandemic, GE Healthcare was facing a huge demand for hospital monitors to track BP, heart rate, etc. These monitors and their accessories needed to be assembled at the factory itself. GE Healthcare’s factory did not have sufficient space. But its Aviation factory had space and also volunteering employees to start this job immediately. The only problem? Theirs was an aviation factory making power systems for aircrafts.

In the interest of time, the Healthcare team provided production expertise, training and supervision to the aviation engineers. The aviation engineers quickly picked up the basics of health monitors, started making prototypes and changes quickly so much so, that they managed to bring down assembly time from 13 minutes to 4 minutes over the months.

What do you think made it possible for people who had never worked with such a product, to not only make it but to also improvise and improve?

Continue reading here

Originally published at https://ifiweremarketing.com on June 6, 2021.

Customer Is King

- Philip Kotler

Customer is your wife

- David Ogilvy

Customer is NOT king. Customer is NOT your wife. Customer is your BABY!

- Jinal Shah, If I Were Marketing

We marketers have been taught since decades that Customer is King and Customer is always right. I beg to differ.

Kings were feared. It is true that they were respected, but that was often out of obligation or by law. Kings were no one’s friends. You couldn’t just talk to the king, as you would with anyone else. You had to maintain your distance and always be on your best behavior. Can you imagine conversing with the ‘King’ on social media? Engaging him, drawing his attention, giving him a promotional offer? That would be a bit absurd, according to me!

If this is how Kings and their subjects interact, what does it say for your relationship with customers when you treat them with fear or are nice and respectful only out of obligation? You will hesitate to show your mistakes or behind the scenes moments. You will do what is needed, nothing above and beyond. You will know cursory information about them without really knowing what makes them tick. It will be a superficial, distant, polite and somewhat forced relationship.

Hence, I repeat. Customer is NOT King

So….is the customer your wife?

One of my favorite marketers and admen of all time, Mr. David Ogilvy famously said “ Customer is not a moron, she is your wife “. Yet again, I beg to differ. A wife is an equal partner. She has her own mind, judgement, opinions, rules, ego! Ask any married couple if they have arguments, fights, disagreements. The answer will be a resounding yes! When it comes to couples, ego also comes into play, however subtly or sneakily. Expectations are sky high from each other. Forgiveness for not meeting expectations is slow to show up.

Keeping this in mind, when you think of customers as your wife, aren’t you doing them a slight disservice? The above mentioned issues with your wife are counter balanced with love and friendship. With customers, love is iffy. ‘Honorary wife’ without love or friendship carries only the attendant problems.

Time to repeat: Customer is NOT your Wife, either!

So who is the customer?

Even if you are not a parent yet, you can easily imagine how you will behave with a baby.

• You will be obsessed with your baby: its comforts, its happiness and health.
• You will do anything in your power to make life as easy and enjoyable as possible for your baby.
• You will stay up nights for it and not mind it one bit.
• You will have zero expectations and unconditional love for it. When you give unwavering love, your baby reciprocates likewise.
• There will be instant and constant forgiveness for anything it does.
• You will go out of your way to become the best you can for the sake of your baby.
• You will research healthy recipes, nutritional information, brain games, developmental games, anything else you can find for its all round growth and development.
• Patience will come naturally when you are around your little one.
• You will lovingly guide and teach your baby things that will help it grow into a good, strong, independent individual.
• The baby does not know what it needs. Even if it knows it wants to be fed or needs its diaper changed, it will not be able to communicate those different needs clearly. But you anticipate its needs and fulfill them intuitively. That’s because you know your baby well.
• You will never think of your baby as dumb. You know that it is still learning and you respect that.

Now let’s see how each of these Baby points translate for your Customer, shall we?

Simply replace the word Baby in the list above with the word Customer and see if it doesn’t make sense. It will make you the best consumer service brand, most customer-centric brand around.

• You will be obsessed with your customers: their comfort, their happiness and health (Can’t get more customer centric than that, can you?)
• You will do anything in your power to make life as easy and enjoyable as possible for your (E.g. you will figure out ways to increase consumer convenience such as home delivery or COD or free customers pick up and drop)
• You will stay up nights toiling away for your (E.g. customers and not mind it one bit FMCG brands like Unilever kept their factories open and fully functional even at the peak of coronavirus lockdown, to ensure their customers didn’t face product shortages)
• You will have zero expectations and unconditional love for them. When you give unwavering love, they will reciprocate likewise. (You will be awarded with their loyalty and love! Ask Nestle’s Maggi)
• There will be instant and constant forgiveness for anything they do. (Even when they troll you on social media or share complaints).
• You will go out of your way to become the best you can for their sake. (Think CSR initiatives, philanthropic efforts, cause marketing, purpose led turnarounds)
• You will research and share relevant information, helpful tips, unbiased advice for their all round growth and development. (Some examples are social media content, whitepapers, infographs, tutorials, webinars, etc).
• Patience will come naturally when you are around them. (Even when they take prohibitively long to arrive at a buying decision)
• You will lovingly guide and teach them things that will help them grow. (The best example would be services such as Canva or Coursera or Google Skillshop which teach people things they find difficult and thus help them grow their business)
• Steve Jobs once said “Some people say, “Give the customers what they want.” But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’” People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.” Customers often don’t know what they need or want. You need to anticipate their needs and fulfill them intuitively. This is possible by knowing your customer as well as your own baby.
• You will never think of them as dumb. You know that they are still learning (about you, your industry, its products, etc) and you respect that.

When you think of your customers as your baby, you will happily put them and their interests first. You will not do it only because your company has trained you to put them first, out of duty.

Are you are convinced by now that Customer is your Baby?

Just try looking at consumers with this new lens and tell me how it goes. Did it help you be more patient, forgiving, proactive and willing? Eager to hear your experience. Do share it with me on Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter!

Originally published at http://ifiweremarketing.com on July 8, 2020.

How would you market a restaurant post lockdown? Which restaurant marketing strategies would you adopt? Being part of an industry brutally impacted by Covid-19, restaurants are unlikely to get respite or recover anytime soon.

Restaurants thrive on social gatherings. and since the only way to flatten the curve is social distancing, it brought the F&B industry to its knees to say the least.

April, 2020, The Economic Times CIO

Though, with the right restaurant marketing strategies, they can at least attempt to kickstart their revival.

As a marketer, I look forward to daunting challenges to test my marketing chops. In my previous article, I had shared strategies useful for marketing during Covid-19. They were meant for businesses in general. Now, for this article, let me temporarily join Team Restaurateurs to help figure out doable and (as far as possible) affordable restaurant marketing strategies during coronavirus.

If I Were Marketing @ A Restaurant…

Let’s begin with some background.

The restaurant industry is the 2nd largest employer of human capital in India, after agriculture. It contributes to about 2% of the GDP.

It is filled with a variety of formats such as Dine-in, Quick Service ( QSR), fine dining, fast food, takeaway, hotel restaurants, small local players, large franchised chains, lounges, bars, cloud kitchens. All of them have got affected by the coronavirus- induced lockdown.

Many restaurant chains are now mulling to shut 20–30% of their branches as they are forced to reassess business strategies………..the restaurant industry is staring at losses to the tune of about Rs 1 lakh crore during the lockdown…….As the government has released guidelines……restaurants expect an increase in hygiene and sanitation costs.

May, 2020, Financial Express

Because many people are still ordering food at home, largely through Food Service Apps (FSA) such as Zomato or Swiggy, impact on takeaway and delivery based restaurants has been comparatively less harsh than on the dine-in/ fine dining restaurants.

In the Capital, to continue making some revenue and in a bid keep customer engagement, hotel chains like the Hyatt and Hilton are offering customers the opportunity of home delivery. Both Hyatt and Hilton have partnered with Zomato and Swiggy and share their menus on WhatsApp.

April, 2020, Times Of India

After the lockdown, as the surviving restaurants reopen, they will have to keep 3 distinct expectations in mind. Even though health is another newfound interest of customers, it is not the primary expectation from a restaurant.

To create a Restaurant Marketing Playbook satisfying these 3 expectations, let’s first revisit the basics of this business.

Why do people turn to a restaurant, in the first place?

In no particular order:

• To celebrate
• For the experience
• For the ambience
• To avoid cooking at home
• For the love of food
• To catch up with friends/ family
• To break the monotonous routine
• To entertain business associates/ guests
• To dress up (for us, ladies)

Most of this list applies to restaurants in the organized sector. It does not apply to roadside hawkers, small stalls, neighborhood family-owned eateries. Though people love the food at these places, they don’t expect hygiene from them. That acceptance of zero hygiene from these players will mostly continue. Any hygiene initiatives taken by the players voluntarily (e.g. using mineral water to make pani puri, wearing gloves while cooking) will be considered bonus by the customers.

Thus, restaurant marketing strategies and ideas given ahead are not expected to be adopted by the above mentioned formats. They are most likely to be adopted by places where people pay a decent amount for the meal, ambiance, experience i.e. the whole package. This includes fine dining places, large restaurant chains, large standalone restaurants, restaurants within hotels, etc.

Based on this background, let’s dive in.

Marketing Objective:

To create strategies that assure customers of hygiene, ensure social distancing while maintaining business goals of profit, revenue and growth.

Before we get into the unusual restaurant marketing strategies, here are some basic practices/ tactics that will be de rigueur for any restaurant, irrespective of format or size.

Standard Restaurant Marketing Strategies

1. Wearing a mask- Every person on staff may have to wear a mask throughout the shift.
2. Hand hygiene- Every employee may be expected to practice hand hygiene, especially before and after touching food + serving + using the washroom + coming from outside.
3. Temperature checks- You may have to check the temperature of every employee at the start of the work day to ensure no one is unwell.
4. Sanitization and disinfection- Restaurant premises and high touch surfaces such as door handles, tabletops, chairs, cutlery, taps, washrooms, soap/napkin dispensers, menu cards and similar others may have to be cleaned with soap AND also disinfected with approved disinfectants multiple times a day.
5. Placement of sanitizers- Customers may expect a bottle of sanitizer or sanitizer dispenser at each table and common areas such as hostess stand.
6. No waiting area- It may be better to remove the waiting area to prevent overcrowding.

Once these essential practices are addressed, you may move onto the unusual yet doable strategies given below to market your restaurant.

16 Unusual, Doable Restaurant Marketing Strategies and Ideas

The strategies that make up The Restaurant Marketing Playbook can be divided thus:

1. Trust Building Strategies- These strategies will primarily address customer’s hygiene expectations without adversely impacting business expectations of revenue/ profits. Using these strategies will help build trust for your brand.
2. Safety Enhancing Strategies- These strategies will mainly address customer’s hygiene expectations and Government’s social distancing guidelines. They will enhance the safety perception of customers.
3. Revenue- Per- Customer Strategies- These strategies will focus on fulfilling Government’s social distancing guidelines without compromising on revenue per customer for the restaurant.

1. Trust Building Strategies

1. See- through kitchen

Customers will be wary and words will not suffice. They will want proof of hygiene, especially in the kitchen. Make your kitchen see- through, with a glass partition perhaps. This is more likely to make them believe your establishment’s hygiene claims.

2. More live counters

Usually, 5 star hotels have live counters in their restaurants where people can see specific dishes being made such as dosas, pastas, chaat, etc. If you cannot make your kitchen see-through, atleast try this. It is another way to reassure guests of your hygiene standards and earn their trust. Try this especially for your cold menu items such as falafels, salads, mocktails and the likes. Most people are now aware that to avoid infections, when eating out, it is better to have hot cooked food instead of cold/ raw food. So, if you cannot change your menu, at least prepare the cold food in front of the guest, proving it is safe.

3. Disposable Table Cover

Tables are one of the most touched surfaces in a restaurant. Along with cleaning and disinfecting them multiple times a day, cover them with a disposable table cover. It can be made from eco-friendly material like bamboo and it should stretch end to end. As soon as previous guests leave the table, remove the table cover and once the new guests have taken a seat, place that fresh cover on the table. This gives them visible tangible proof of hygiene consciousness.

4. Disposable cutlery or cutlery on sale

Another hygiene expectation from guests is going to be around cutlery. Most guests will be iffy about using cutlery some unknown person too used, even after it is washed. To address this hesitation, offer these guests the option of disposable cutlery or branded cutlery for purchase (spoon, knife, fork). This is akin to giving every guest the option of mineral water or regular water. Those who are particular about health and hygiene will not mind spending a little extra.

5. Spoon sleeves

An alternative to the above option, give people the option of a sleeve to hold serving spoons and other cutlery. So that even if they have unintentionally been touched by an unwell server or waiter while being carried from the kitchen, the guest is still protected. Like placing tissue boxes at tables, place a set of spoon sleeves too. Whoever wants to use, can use. Even those who are not so finicky, will appreciate the eye for detail and hygiene displayed by your restaurant.

6. Tray sleeves

For self service or quick service restaurants and food courts, supply disposable sleeves to hold trays. Usually trays are not cleaned as often because the paper mats take all spills and crumbs with them when discarded. Even if the base of the tray is comparatively clean, what about the tray handles? Hundreds would have touched them soiling them with germs/ infections. To circumvent this, along with the ordered items, place two disposable tray sleeves. Customers will be glad to not touch the handles directly.

7. Personal butler

A butler for each table. As soon as guests are seated, the butler sanitizes his hands. For the duration of the meal, the butler should not go anywhere else, not touch anything else. So guests can rest assured of his hygiene. The waiter should bring hot food from the kitchen and hand it over to the butler. The butler can use food-grade disinfectant wipes to wipe the serving spoons, bowls etc before serving, ensuring total hygiene.

You can read the rest of the restaurant marketing ideas at www.ifiweremarketing.com

Originally published at http://ifiweremarketing.com on May 24, 2020.

Ever since WHO announced Covid-19 a pandemic, our minds have been hijacked by health, hygiene, safety related thoughts, news, content. There has barely been any place for other thoughts. Survival has rightly became the main concern. Now, who is going to think of marketing during Covid-19? Not me (Truly, I didn’t… initially, at least)!

From our various locations on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, all of us have been subconsciously migrating back towards the first 2 levels i.e. Physiological Needs and Safety Needs.

But as weeks are passing, we are getting used to living with Covid-19. It is here to stay for the foreseeable future. And as the world takes slow steps towards normalcy, we marketers must figure out and strategize about marketing during Covid-19. There is a difference of day and night between the BC Era (Before Coronavirus) and the AC Era (After Coronavirus) across both, our personal lives and work lives. And we need to start getting ready to adapt and roll with these changes.

Henceforth, our work lives are going to be far more intertwined with our personal lives. This is going to impact every work decision- be it in marketing, finance, HR, etc. In all aspects, we are going back to the basics. For example, within marketing, in the BC Era, our advertisements were largely focused on creating aspirations, building community or were purpose led. But in the AC Era, most ads have reverted to the basics of product features and benefits

That is why, even the epitome of aspirational advertisers like savvy luxury hotels, are not promoting their hotels as “luxurious or dream holidays” but are instead portraying their hotel rooms as “ luxurious quarantine spaces” or “peaceful remote working rooms”, et al.

So this background begs the question “What changes should we marketers prepare for in the AC Era?” The changes will be led by changed customer mindset and expectations.

8 Impactful Customer Mindset Changes

1. Few wants, more needs: Conservative Spending

Madovermarketing got it right when they shared this post. People have indeed started spending only on need fulfillment i.e. only on products or services that fulfill their health, hygiene and safety needs. Wants have taken a backseat. This conservative spending is not going away anytime soon, what with mass layoffs, salary cuts, business shutdowns, etc.

2. Reassure me and give me peace of mind: Hygiene and health mindset

Pretty wild how we used to eat cake after someone had just blown air from their mouth onto it

- Eric Schmidt (@TalkingSchmidt) April 26, 2020

Customers are now looking at every product or service through a new lens, that of health and hygiene. Even for services traditionally not linked to hygiene, like home delivery or for products like pizza or events like parties, they want hygiene assurance. They will not be satisfied with empty words from you touting these two features. They want an explanation, a peek into your back end, to feel the reassurance. Only then will they bless you with their confidence.

3. Cut the faff please: Focus on fundamentals

In the BC Era, most brands faced stiff competition with barely any noticeable differentiation. Their solution was to appeal to the emotional side of consumers by using popular themes like ‘Female Empowerment or Femvertising’, etc. Oftentimes, this was used even when it had barely any connection to the offering. This is the faff customers do not want in the AC Era. They want you to give them the straight talk i.e. what is your offering, how does it address their current emotional climate and physical needs and why should they buy from you.

4. Buy local, be local, stay local

The way ahead lies in LOCAL.

Local Manufacturing.

Local Markets.

Local Supply Chain.

Local is not merely a need but a responsibility.

Be vocal about local! #AatmanirbharBharat pic.twitter.com/eYqt5IDtBp

- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 12, 2020

Even before the motivating speech by PM Modi on Buying Local or ‘Aatmanirbhar’, closing of international borders taught customers a valuable lesson. They realized how dependent they were on other countries to fulfill many critical needs. Also, in times of dire need, it were local business leaders and companies who rose to the occasion such as Mr. Ratan Tata and the Tata Group, Mr. Anand Mahindra and his companies, etc. Their generosity and patriotism is another reason why people want to reciprocate by buying and supporting such local or Made In India brands.

5. Were you a good brand? Show me the proof

-To help in the response to this unprecedented threat, we at the Mahindra Group will immediately begin work on how our manufacturing facilities can make ventilators.
-At Mahindra Holidays, we stand ready to offer our resorts as temporary care facilities. (3/5)

- anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 22, 2020

Covid-19 helped separate the ‘Good’ brands from the ‘Fake Good’ brands. ‘Good’ brands rose up to the challenge, went out of their way to help the community during the crisis, even at a financial cost to themselves.

E.g. the Tata Sons and Tata Trust donated Rs. 1500 crores, Mahindra offered its resorts for use as quarantine facilities or hospitals, Shah Rukh Khan (a personal brand) gave the use of his private office building for quarantining patients, Hindustan Unilever donated Rs. 100 crores along with its cleaning and hygiene products, many many other brands started using their factories to make products most needed by GOI to fight against Coronavirus.

These are just some of the initiatives undertaken by these ‘Good’ brands. Consumers are smart. They can distinguish the genuine brands from those who are either tone deaf (pushing their wares as if it is business as usual) or just give lip service to community service (“we care, we hope you are well, etc” but nothing beyond that).

Guess who the customer will gravitate towards and trust more in the AC Era?

6. I am not a loner. Tell me ‘What’s in it for US?’

Everyone reconnected with their families, friends and colleagues on an emotional level during lockdown. People realized what they were missing out on in the BC Era. That is why the insane popularity of Zoom, Whatsapp games and quizzes, group games like Psych, etc. They are now keen to continue this revival of social relationships.

Hence, they are interested in how your product or service can help them stay connected with or involve their extended family, friends, colleagues? Instead of answering ‘What’s in it for ME?’ they would appreciate you answering ‘What’s in it for US?’

7. I am social but I am anti-socializing

In the AC Era, most people will be wary of large crowds, gatherings or events like launches, conferences, concerts, etc. They would prefer a smaller, intimate gathering or a virtual one instead. And you need to adapt to this hesitation, if you want them to participate.

8. Can you come to my doorstep? Preference for ‘@home’ deliveries/ services

Being forced by the lockdown to stay home, people have gotten habituated to ordering online or getting home deliveries even from offline stores, more than ever before. They appreciate the convenience and are going to expect this going forward. And this expectation will extend even to hitherto offline services/ products.

With 4 billion internet users globally and with 51 percent of digital commerce executed now via mobile device in 2020, brands are looking toward innovation and connectivity to save themselves. With the restrictions on physical shopping, e-commerce is expected to grow by 694 percent this year, while store-based activity will likely suffer up to -86 percent

Basis these mindset changes, what strategies can we create or adopt for marketing during Covid-19?

Strategies for Marketing during Covid-19

1. Re-skilling

2. Reduce/ Re-allocate

3. Reuse/ Repurpose assets, save costs

4. Recycle- Adapt current assets to newer expectations

5. Re-organize/ rearrange teams and agencies

6. Repair broken trust/ broken promises

8. Renew- Give your marketing a makeover

To know what these strategies entail and examples explaining their meaning, continue reading here www.ifiweremarketing.com

Originally published at http://ifiweremarketing.com on May 18, 2020.

This post on Low Cost Lead Generation Ideas is a continuation of the previous article on Low Cost Marketing Ideas To Generate Brand Awareness

For those of you joining me for the first time today, I am doing a series of 3 posts covering Low Cost, Guerrilla, DIY Marketing ideas for anyone who is either facing budget constraints or team constraints or wants to bring some fresh thinking in their marketing efforts.

If you prefer video over text, then check out my webinar on the same topic. (It was voted Talk Of The Day at the Uppercase Conference).

So, recapping from the last post, there are 3 types of marketing ideas based on the objective they help to achieve:

Type 1 -Brand Awareness generating ideas i.e. ideas that will help you tell the world ‘Hi there, this is me!’

Type 2- Lead generation ideas i.e. ideas that say ‘Now that you know me, may I get your contact details please?’

Type 3- Sales garnering ideas i.e. ‘Remember, we met and exchanged numbers? I got something for you’

In this post, we will cover Type 2 (Lead Generation Marketing Ideas).

(Part 2) 11 Low Cost Lead Generation Ideas

1. Coupon Booklet of Co-Working Space

A lot of start-ups, freelancers, consultants operate out of co-working spaces because they are cost effective and perfect for networking. You can take advantage of the networking opportunity by collaboratively releasing a coupon book. Example: If there are 10 different start ups/ consultants sitting there, each can offer their service/ product at a discount and club all those varied coupons together either in hard copy or soft copy and share it with each other’s customers and networks. Multifold reach at barely any cost.

2. Amazon Book Review Comments

Amazon has books on any and every topic under the sun. Identify books on your industry. Example: If you are a financial advisor, check out reviews on personal finance books and respond to each review via comments. The reviewers are most likely customers in the ‘Information Gathering Stage’ of their customer journey. They could be potential leads. The least you can do is direct them to your landing page for newsletter subscription. This is a low hanging fruit, totally free of cost lead generation tactic.

3. Ebook on Amazon (Content Marketing)

Create an Ebook on your subject. Sell it on Amazon (you can even sell at Rs. 0). That will give you an Amazon presence. Also when you do the previous activity of commenting on reviews, you are given the option to link to another product on Amazon, any product. So you can comment on the book review, add a link to your ebook on the same topic and get a book sale perhaps, or atleast a fan.

4. Emailer Asking The Lead To Qualify Herself

As suggested by OnepageCRM, ask a question as if you don’t really need to talk to recipient such that it will make the lead qualify herself. See the above email template.

5. Dean Jackson’s Single Line Emailer

Another brilliant suggestion by OnepageCRM, apparently this email template has helped generate millions in revenues across all sorts of industries.

6. Congratulatory Email Instead Of Cold Emailing

Instead of standard cold emailing, send a congratulatory email to each company on your industry’s Top 10 or Top 20 list or some awards list. This is a better form of cold emailing. Once you congratulate on email, if you get a reply then you could try the one line emailer mentioned above.

7. Free Tea/Coffee At Exhibition

Universal human motivator- food! Trade shows and exhibitions usually don’t have food inside stalls. Unless it’s a food exhibition, of course. Offer free tea and coffee to anyone who passes by. The smell alone would make the stall stand out. Most people maybe inclined to take up the free offer (provided the beverage is really delicious). This will give you a chance to talk to them while they are sipping their beverage and get their contact details etc. Just rent a vending machine at your next trade show or expo.

8. Book Exchange Program

Create a book collection in your office filled with books related to your industry. Click a picture of the titles and share on social media. Anyone interested in reading any of those titles can drop in their address and you can deliver it to them. But its not a sale. Once they finish, they have to ask you to pick it up. They can share their favorite passages with you. You can add elements of surprise- like inserting a fun bookmark or a coffee shop discount coupon. The objective is to be interactive, show you are so into your industry, get a chance to get customer addresses, get a chance at a prolonged relationship with the customer- through the give and take.

9. Google Hangouts On-Air 15 Minutes Weekend Party

‘Weekend is here. Join our Google Hangouts video call and we will announce a discount code for pizza and drinks. Let us have a virtual party together and unwind after a hectic week’. Tie up with local partners for the food/ beverage discount coupons.

Shoot the video at your office- let customers get a behind the scenes glimpse. Start the video call with a recap of how your week was. Then ask the participants about their week (customer engagement). There are so many variations to this- you could add drama and quirk in the video by exaggerated poses of tiredness or excitement at the dawn of the weekend. you could tell people that XYZ brand of food has said they will give 50% off coupon if we can get atleast 100 people on the call so bring your friends along to the party. You could also give a bit of industry news like ‘Hey did you hear this story that came out this week…?’

10. Target Buyer Interviews

Interview target buyers as experts of your industry. The interview helps you get a foot in the door. Compile all the interviews into an ebook or use it for content on your website and nurture the relationship into a lead. (First shared this idea in my article on B2B Marketing Ideas).

11. Website Treasure Hunt And Discount Code

Through digital ads, announce a website treasure hunt. You can ask questions on social media whose answers are hidden in your website. People have to go through your site thoroughly to find them. You could give clues as to what section they can look into etc. As and when people solve each clue, they get the next one on social media. At the end of the hunt, they are entitled to some good offer. The purpose is to get people to check out your website, especially if it’s an e-commerce site. (First published this idea in my article on Amazon’s Fashion Marketing Ideas).

Finito, friends.

Now, which of these do you think will work the best for you? Let me know in the comments below. Would love to hear.

Originally published at http://ifiweremarketing.com on September 1, 2019.

This 3 part series on low cost marketing ideas is written specifically for you, if you are facing one of the following:

Budget Constraints- You are a startup, are bootstrapped or you are an SME and have very limited funds or you are a big firm but most of your funds are currently blocked elsewhere and hence you are on the lookout for low cost marketing ideas

Human Resource Constraints- You are either a one person army or you have a very tight team of multi-taskers and you cannot assign someone to solely focus on marketing.

Fresh Perspective- Your pockets are deep and your team size is satisfactory but you feel like your marketing is stuck in a rut and could do with a fresh perspective, fresh thinking.

So I welcome you to continue reading if you said a yes to either one of the three points. This series is bound to help you get atleast one idea worth trying for your specific situation.

Heads up- this is a fairly long read. If you are more of an audio-visual person, then you can get these ideas in the video of my Uppercase Conference presentation here. (You may have to excuse the technical issues in the initial 7 minutes but i promise you, you will not regret sticking around)

But before we get into the DIY, guerrilla, low cost marketing ideas, let us get the basics out of the way. Just consider the next few points as a checklist of marketing essentials. You need to get them in place before you can dive into creative marketing efforts.

Foundation for Any Marketing Activities

1. Brand Identity-

At the bare minimum, you need to have a distinct, simple yet memorable logo and brand name in place. This can be supplemented with other brand identity elements like brand color, brand personality and voice and tone of communication (whether you are a humorous, friendly brand or the trusted expert who is formal and serious or somewhere in between).

2. Well defined Unique Selling Proposition (USP)-

Identify what is the one thing that sets you apart from the rest of the competition. It has to be unique but valuable enough to convince people to buy from you. It should not be an inconsequential point of difference.

Pro tip- One of my personal favorites for identifying the USP is the Positioning Roulette. It is a deck of 26 different positioning statements. It is my go-to before starting positioning work. (I have no connection with them. I am just a happy active customer).

3. Marketing Objective-

Define what you want your marketing to achieve. Whether it is to generate leads/ inquiries or generate sales or simply garner brand awareness, unless you know what you are working towards, you will not be able to create effective creative strategies.

4. Customers-

Again, who do you want to sell to or who is likely to need your product or services? Only if you know this can you plan what media to use, where to find them, what will attract their attention, etc.

5. Competitors-

You need to know your competitors not just to beware of their offers, communications, moves but also to understand how you are different from them and thus to claim your exclusive spot in the crowded bazaar.

6. Website-

This is a no brainer. In today’s times, a website is as basic and as important as your name. It need not be a swirly, twirly, technical wonder. It can be as simple as a single page website but one that covers all your basic information. Think of it as a mix of your product brochure + business card.

7. Active blog-

Content is king. This cannot be overemphasized. Unless you write and express your thoughts, your expertise and knowledge will be hidden. If everyone who visits your website, sees that you have a blog filled with useful, relevant information, they may start trusting your word even before meeting you face to face. That is a big achievement!

8. Social Media Presence-

Be present in only one or two social channels to begin with. Do not spread yourself too thin by trying to maintain accounts in each available social channel. Your engagement and followers will increase only if you share useful, curated, relevant information and knowledge. You need to have time to gather this intel. Hence, focus on building your base in one two channels first. Then explore others one by one.

Do low cost, unusual, guerrilla marketing ideas work?

Yes! They sure do!

Cases in point from my portfolio of work

• A 360 Degrees unusual marketing campaign
  140 washing machines sold; 13000 leads; In 1 month
• Whatsapp outreach to premium bathroom dealers
  10% inquiries; Sales worth Rs. 1,00,000; Total spend Rs. 0
• Shop floor guerrilla activity
  21 microwaves sold; Total spend Rs. 2,200; In 2 days
• Outdoor guerrilla activation for an exchange offer
  2700 leads; 20% increase in walk-ins; Sales directly attributed- Rs. 2,70,000; In 12 days

Average ROI on these 4 marketing campaigns?

Minimum 50%!!

So now that you are convinced, shall we plunge into the creative yet affordable, low cost marketing ideas for your brand and business?

Alright then…

So there are 3 types of marketing ideas based on the objective they help to achieve:

Part 1- Brand Awareness generating ideas i.e. ideas that will help you tell the world ‘Hi there, this is me!’

Part 2- Lead generation ideas i.e. ideas that say ‘Now that you know me, may I get your contact details please?’

Part 3- Sales garnering ideas i.e. ‘Remember, we met and exchanged numbers? I got something for you’

(Part 1) 12 low cost Brand Awareness Generating Ideas

1. MBA Contest

Hold a viral video contest for MBA first year students. Teams of 4 students have to create viral videos regarding the features of your product or service. The team whose video gets the maximum views gets a chance to do a winter/summer project with you. MBA students are always looking for live projects to work on. The brand can get a lot of virality with this at no cost. The MBA College is always happy that its students are getting live experience. Thus, a win-win-win situation!

2. Branded Cape instead of T-shirt

Instead of wearing branded T-shirts, you and others in your company should wear branded capes. It will attract attention for sure. Also, cost wise it will be almost the same as a branded T-shirt. If you are a solopreneur, ask a few of your friends to wear such capes when you’ll hang out. Don’t be shy about it- if Harry Potter and Superman can wear them, you definitely can.

3. Branded Coffee Cups

Print branded disposable coffee cups and give it at trade shows or exhibitions where you are participating. You could offer to be the sponsor for coffee cups at these events too. Usually disposable cups are plain white. You will stand out. If you don’t have the budget to be an event sponsor, then give them to neighborhood retailers to use. They could be a replacement to your business card. Ensure your website is clearly mentioned.

4. Co-branded Business Cards

Offer to print visiting cards for your customers, especially if you are a B2B player. You could print 100–200 cobranded visiting cards. Good publicity for you and your customer is also happy.

5. Business Card With Mirror “Awaiting A Call From….”

Print a unique business card with a mirror on one side and business details on the other. Below the mirror, add the line ‘Awaiting for a call from…….’ (person would see his or her face) . Such a card can serve dual purpose- one is to ensure that people don’t throw away your business card. Second is to give a call-to-action on the card itself.

6. Journalist’s Quotes Compilation

To get PR coverage, you need to speak with local journalists. They don’t talk to everyone. Collect a few good quotes or paragraphs from that journalist’s earlier work, make it an image and share with journalist on social media or email. He/she will appreciate a snapshot of his work. Helps build a rapport with her.

7. Industry Blog With Journalist As Guest Editor

Start a blog on your industry and invite journalists covering your industry to be guest editors. For a journalist, the next career step is editorial. So they mostly will agree to this. And it will get you more publicity and build much valued relations with press.

8. Unusual Insert/ Leaflet Distribution

Distributing leaflets using promoters or newspapers is ancient and always gets ignored. Try some unusual mode instead like perhaps distributing from a scooter with side car or from atop a unicycle or while skating on a hoverboard (Rs. 600 per day rent). It is easily affordable.

9. Musician Outside Shop/Office

Play live music outside your premises (be it retail presence or restaurant or perhaps street facing office premises). Even a single musician is enough to attract attention and increase footfalls. This would work especially well during festive time. (Check out other Diwali Marketing Ideas here)

10. Festive Selfie Point

Set up an attractive, eye catching backdrop wishing ‘Happy Festival’ outside your premises. Distribute leaflets in catchment area inviting people to come and click a selfie with that wishing backdrop. Every person who clicks a selfie against the backdrop gets a special discount. Two fold benefits- this will spread the brand name across social networks of every participant and lead generation. (Check out other Diwali Marketing Ideas here)

11. Oversized Postcards

In the age of email, postcards are forgotten. We hardly ever receive any snail mail. So currently, it is an uncluttered space that is waiting to be explored. Use the government postal service and send oversized postcards to prospects (especially B2B). Works better if you have the addresses or atleast company address and designation of the person. Very cost effective

12. Toilet Paper As Direct Mailer

Flush out your ______problems. Give us a try. We promise to relieve you of your _________worries.

Again an unusual idea, this low cost yet definitely sticky direct mailer is especially great for creative services or products like maybe an ad agency or event agency , etc.

This wraps up part 1 of DIY, guerrilla, low cost marketing ideas for generating brand awareness.

You may checkout the video of these ideas and more here.

Tell me which one would you want to try first?

Next up will be Part 2 of the series- Low Cost Marketing Ideas- For Lead Generation.

Go have some nice hot or super chilled cup of coffee. You deserve it after spending quality time reading this power packed long read 🙂

Originally published at ifiweremarketing.com on April 5, 2019.

I am an independent Marketing Strategist. Why would a solopreneur like me need marketing tools? Only big brands and agencies need them. Right?

Wrong!

When you are a solopreneur, you are your own content writer, content marketer, social media manager, digital marketer, graphic designer, SEO expert, sales person, PR person, customer relation manager, etc. You get the drift.

This is true even for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Consultancies, Agencies. For established brands too, sometimes budget constraints demand DIY marketing experiments before deciding if it warrants separate budget.

Big brands and companies have marketing and adtech stacks, i.e. paid tools that help automate or simplify marketing tasks. But it is not necessary to have deep pockets to build a stack.

Here is a list of 20 free (mostly) marketing tools that anyone can use to enhance or automate or simplify their marketing.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of these brands. For most of them, I am an active user. For one or two, I am not a user myself but have got second hand feedback from my network.

20 Free, Low Cost Marketing Tools And Resources For The DIY Marketer

1.Canva–

Canva is a godsend graphic design tool. Even newbies or those who have zero design experience can create professional looking artwork in minutes. Whatever your creative requirement, be it social media post or brochure or letter, you will find a suitable free template here.

2. Pixabay–

My go-to website for free stock images for all my creative requirements. I use it heavily for website images, blog post headers, email images, social media posts. Although Canva too has images, the collection at Pixabay is bigger and better and ALL FREE.

3. Unsplash–

This is another website giving free images for commercial use. I don’t use it that often because it requests credit to the photographer. Also, I find its search capability a little less user friendly. That said, a lot of the images are same on Pixabay and Unsplash but for the truly quirky, eye catching images, Unsplash wins.

4. Mailchimp-

This is my default email service. It allows you to send free emails upto 2000 subscribers and then a nominal charge as you grow. Its user interface is intuitive, fun and easily integrates with WordPress. I also like the brand tone and voice, makes it inviting and fun to work with.

5. Semrush–

It is an online analytics tool which allows you to analyse your SEO, your own content plus that of any other website you want. A must use tool for competition benchmarking, to know what is working and not working for competitors.

6. Missinglettr–

It is now a paid tool but being an early user, I have continued free access for some more time for my Twitter drip campaign. It creates 12 tweets per blog post that you can schedule over 365 days. It is super quick, smart and useful.

7. Lumen5–

This is sort of like Canva for videos. The best and quickest way to repurpose existing blog posts is by importing the link on Lumen5, playing around with video elements like music, text, titles etc and within 10 mins, your blog post is ready to be shared as a video. Love it.

8. Google Analytics-

This tool doesn’t need any introduction. It is the best free analytics tool around. Period.

9. GTMetrix-

As is widely proven, the time your site takes to load can have a big impact on your SEO, traffic and bounce rate. Google’s research for 2018 says that 53% of the people will leave a mobile site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. This website is very useful to understand your site speed, factors hindering it, listed in terms of priority. It offers suggestions too for corrective actions to ensure your site is upto speed.

10. Crowdfire–

This app is for social media management. I use it to set up an automated welcome DM for new Twitter followers, to analyse followers AND unfollowers, to see who is following other relevant Twitter handles and then follow some of those followers.

11. Attracta-

Attracta comes as a part of the Hostgator package. It is an app that submits your website’s latest site map to all the search engines. Thus it is vital to ensure your search visibility. It also informs you if you are blacklisted on any search engine so that you can take corrective action.

12. Hubspot-

I have used Hubspot for the various free templates they share- be it for infographs or power point or free stock images or email templates. I also found their free Inbound Marketing Certificate course very useful.

13. HARO-

This is a free PR tool for everyone who does not have a PR agency. It stands for Help A Reporter Out. Jouralists post story ideas they are working on. If you have something relevant to add to their story, you can submit your entry for free. Great way to get some third party backlinks and some media coverage. It has big media houses putting in leads once in a while but I have largely seen blogs and smaller, niche media brands putting up requirements.

14. Wave-

It is my invoicing app. It allows you to create your branded invoice and helps you send, track, record payments, outstanding amounts, annual total income, payment cycle, etc.

15. Google Docs-

This is my blog backup outside of WordPress ecosystem. There was a time when some bug in my WordPress caused all my old articles to display in a distorted manner, minus images. The ecosystem of WordPress and plugins was affected. Hence, could not rely on the WordPress Backup. Thank god for Google Docs. Since I always copy each blog post in Google Docs, with images, all I had to do was copy back from this cache and I was up and running.

16. Google Trends–

This is useful for topic ideas and to some extent for keyword trends. I use it when I have to choose between two keywords for a particular topic. I see which is more popular in my country in the last 1 year or 6 months and what is the trend like. It also gives general trending topics country wise, which can spark off ideas for content. It shows if a topic has enough organic search volume to justify your efforts.

17. Mondovo–

Mondovo is a freemium keyword research tool but it is open for all, unlike Google Keyword tool which is accessible to Google Adwords users only. When combined with Google Trends, this can help create share-worthy content.

18. CoSchedule-

I use it for its headline analyser. It helps if you know what combination of words will make your blog title or headline stand out, resonate with your readers. Only if the headline grabs the reader, will they delve into your effortful content. This tool analyses the headline in terms of emotional appeal, power words, etc. You can do A/B testing for subject lines, headlines, etc with it.

19. SimilarWeb-

Helps identify competitors in your space. You just type in your website name and SimilarWeb will throw up other websites having similar content.

20. Vistaprint-

This is a critical offline marketing tool every business needs. It helps you design and print brand identity kits- everything from business cards to letterheads to envelopes to marketing material like brochures, postcards, magnets, etc. It is very DIY from design point of view. I use it religiously for brand identity material plus Direct Marketing material.

Here is a ready reckoner of the 20 Free/ Low Cost marketing tools. Feel free to download, share, tack it on your notice board, or just plain gaze upon it.

(pssst…….It’s made using Canva)

I would love to hear your experience with any or all of these tools.

20 Free, Low Cost Marketing Tools and Resources For The DIY Marketer-www.ifiweremarketing.com

Originally published at ifiweremarketing.com on March 13, 2019.

Now usually, I write marketing strategies and ideas for a specific brand. It works better since the problems are more specific. The TG is better defined. But, just to break the routine a bit, I want to try writing for a customer segment as a whole- B2B vs B2C. Instead of picking a specific industry, why not look at marketing for a specific customer segment i.e. B2B Marketing?

Now you may wonder how can we consider ideas that cater to a whole segment? This flies in the face of everything we hold dear like segmentation, targeting, customer personas, etc etc. How can the creative marketing solutions for a company selling concrete to a builder also be applicable to a company selling lace to a luxury fashion house?

You are not alone in these thoughts, my friend. I had the same doubts before i sat down to write this post. Let us jump in together and see if we can find B2B marketing solutions unusual enough to stand out, but flexible enough to work for an entire segment of customers.

So here goes…

If I Were Marketing @ A B2B Product/ Service (i.e. B2B Marketing)…

My Marketing Objective:

To create unusual yet adaptable and flexible marketing solutions to suit the needs of the entire B2B segment of companies, specifically, the SME B2B segment.

My TG:

Buyers and decision makers in companies, big and small.

My Marketing Strategy:

Company sub-segment

Why do I want to especially help those B2B companies which are smaller in size or newer in business?

Because they have limited budgets, smaller team size yet they could hit good sales if they can get a foot in the door with the big brands and businesses.

Underlying premise of this article

We can work out B2B marketing ideas that are industry agnostic because, across industries, most business buyers share common traits.

Commonality between B2B Buyers Across Varied Industries

• B2B marketing is marketing to business buyers. They understand technical details of the product or service. A B2B buyer has to make fewer but higher value purchase decisions in a year. Hence, each decision is usually well researched, giving more weightage to product quality, technical specifications, company background, ROI, etc.
• They are comparatively less swayed by typical feel good branding and marketing communication. But they are more likely to visit company operations- manufacturing plant/ office/ internal teams, etc to form their own perception of the brand and company.
• They are wise to the ways of marketers and hence, it is more difficult to surprise them with a gimmick or guerrilla marketing tactics.
• The size of the audience in B2B is usually smaller than B2C. So direct marketing is more doable in B2B marketing than in B2C. Inbound marketing would be comparatively more effective.
• Smaller buyer base makes it possible to KNOW the customer i.e. where they work, whats their name, what do they do, etc. Easier to create a very specific, very sharp customer persona. In B2C, this is not possible. We have to rely on assumptions and educated guesses to build a buyer persona in B2C.
• The effectiveness of the marketing communication is instantly visible in B2B. Feedback loop closes more often than not. Since the buyers are specific, a marketer can easily find out what has worked, what has not worked. This helps quick and efficient modification to the marketing plan.
• B2B marketing is comparatively less expensive since smaller base of prospective customers have to be engaged.

Disclaimer: I will not be giving Linkedin networking ideas because using Linkedin for B2B marketing is a no brainer. It is hygiene. So I am assuming you are already using Linkedin for networking and messaging prospects.

Based on all this background….

Sticky Marketing Ideas:

1. Targeted Linkedin Ads:

This is not the typical Linkedin networking idea. It deserves a special mention.

Draw up a list of prospective companies you want to do business with. Schedule meetings with them. A month or at least 2 weeks before each presentation, select employees from that company and target them for your Linkedin Ads. Example- In the last week of August, you have a first meeting lined up with Xerox purchase department. From the first week of August, select Xerox Purchase team on Linkedin Account based Targeting (and Function Targeting within companies) and expose them to your ads.

When you go to meet them, they will find your brand name familiar and they will assume its popular since they kept seeing it on Linkedin all the time. This predisposes them to atleast receive you with an open, if not, eager mind.

2. Interview The Buyer:

If you want an opening with your targeted buyers but don’t think they will show interest in your new or small brand, then approach them for an interview. Interview on their take on industry news or their tips on making it in the industry, etc. Maybe publish the interview on your blog or compile all responses and release an ebook on the industry, anything works.

People like being considered expert enough to be an interviewee. They would be more open to engaging with you for that. Interview may get you a lead. Plus you get relevant content for your blog/ book.

3. Industry Top 10 or Top 20:

Like Feedspot has created online lists of the Top 100 Marketing Blogs (psst…this website is on the list) featuring the best marketing blogs and websites, why not start a list for your industry? Feature your target companies on the list if they meet the eligibility criteria. Publish and maintain the list online.

This is akin to creating Awards for the industry but far less expensive. The list will need some budget to promote it and gain weightage (try PR too) but it will again get you a point of entry at your shortlisted companies. Companies on the list can be given your branded online badges to display their list ranking on their website.

4. Industry research summaries:

As most B2B buyers research before every purchase decision, why not assist them in it? You can purchase the best industry research papers and reports. Create short summaries or booklet of salient points and hand deliver them to the contacts or send a soft copy. It shows you are updated with industry news and it saves them time while staying updated.

5. Massive Open Online Course or Training Videos:

Every company has to train new joinees and interns. Training usually covers product training, industry best practices, skill or function based training. If your product is technical and caters to specific function, why not create general training videos or MOOC that companies can share with their interns during training?

It will share their training load, show that you are an expert, introduce your brand to newbies who will be your future buyers.

Example- Google Adwords- Google sells ads to brands, agencies and business owners. But its product is technical and hence it provides a certificate course in using the product and its benefits.

A design firm in Sweden had tied up with a University and released a MOOC on Design Thinking for Managers. The course covered theory and also showed practical application of the theory by shooting the process session at the firm.

Note: Try keeping the training as neutral as possible. It should not be overly promotional. You can use the product to demonstrate the technology or application.

6. Drone it!:

If you have a some amount of budget, try an eyeball grabbing idea- Fly a drone carrying your logo or banner outside the glass windows of the targeted company. (you would need to get local police authority permission but it is allowed).

Example. if you are a printer and you want Hindustan Times to consider you for printing their supplements, fly a Drone to the 9th Floor of the commercial complex where HT has its offices. Everyone on the floor is bound to notice it and talk about it. Then seek an appointment. It may just work. If nothing else, it will create brand awareness.

7. Cause it!:

As a good corporate citizen, you would be supporting CSR activites and causes. Support a cause that resonates with your industry. And invite your targeted companies to be a part of it.

Example: If you are a textile manufacturer, you can support the clean water or water conservation cause since textile industry is one of the biggest consumers of water and polluters too. Your TG maybe fashion houses or brands. Invite them to join in the CSR activities planned by you. It could be a win-win for both.

Done!

These are some unusual yet flexible B2B Marketing ideas that could work for any industry. What do you think? Which do you think could be the most effective? Do let me know in comments.

Originally published at ifiweremarketing.com on August 4, 2018.

Cape Town could be the first major city to have no water!!! Reading this was a big jolt of unpleasant reality. Water conservation has been taught, spoken about, urged by schools, NGOs, World bodies. Yet, it is not heeded or practised. I speak for all urbanites when I say that we know villages across the world face mild to severe drought but we think that cities are untouchable.

So when we wake up to headlines like the Cape Town scenario, it is scary. We realise that we could be next, unless we change.

Day Zero: What happens when Cape Town runs out of water?

Despite extreme measures to ration water, the city may go dry. And authorities are bracing for that day when all systems could collapse- Conde Nast Traveller

Making people change their lifelong habits is as difficult as changing mindset. But cause marketing is all about changing people’s ingrained habits. I want to do my bit for the water conservation cause by formulating a marketing strategy that may help change the habits of at least 10 people (admittedly, the proverbial drop in the ocean).

What better day to publish this post than today on World Water Day, 2018? Lets dive in…

If I were marketing @ Water Conservation Cause or Save Water Cause (cause marketing)….

My Marketing Objective: Get people to take action to save water, not just create awareness of water shortage

My TG: All adults, in metros (since metros are the biggest consumers of water)

Marketing strategy:

Communication emotion:

So far, most water conservation communication has used Fear as the predominant emotion. Hence, we have doomsday scenarios either painted in words or images or through experiential activities. But they have failed to spark consistent action. Most people see the doomsday communication, become thoughtful, save water for a few days and then slip back into old stubborn habits.

Instead, if we tried humor, sarcastic humor, it may be a change that gets noticed and shared. Atleast people will not tune it out as something they have heard a million times before.

What to communicate?

We have two routes open to us:

1. Show people the impact of zero water on every moment of our life and assume that they will be motivated to take action on their own and that they will have the knowledge to save significant amount of water. In other words, show them the ‘Why’ of water conservation and pray to god they understand the ‘How’ OR
2. Show them both the ‘Why’ and the ‘How’ of water conservation.

Why is the TG not youngsters?

The TG could have been youngsters since they are still not set in their ways. Their habits are forming, they are more open to learning new ways and new concepts. But the limitation in that is the lack of significant savings. Even if youngsters understand the need to save water, they have limited ability to execute it on a wide scale.

If grown ups understand the need and the water saving suggestions, they can do something at a group level, not just individual level. Example: they may be able to get a rain water harvesting system for their housing society or they may get some water friendly appliances for the house etc. Thus they can make use of their new found knowledge in a more impactful way.

Where should all the communication lead people?

Every communication effort should direct people to a website and app where they can learn all the multitude ways in which they can save water. They just download the app on their phone and turn on the camera. AR can point out areas in the house where they can save water. Eg. when they move around the house, while passing a bathroom, the app will point to the shower saying save atleast 100 litres per year or while passing a washing machine, it can say save atleast 500 litres per month, etc.

People can sign up to track their water consumption. Compete with others to see their score. They can sign up solo or as a group or they can signup a group (housing society/ college gang/ football team, etc) as the leader.

Sticky Marketing Ideas based on the above strategy:

1. Expiry Date Placard on City Roads:

Put attractive placards on roadside landscapes like plants and flowers on dividers and sides of the roads. The placards would say “Manufacturing Date: 100 yrs ago. Expiry Date: 2030. No water, no plants”.

2. Go Neat:

Inside pubs, lounges and restaurants with liquor licenses, put flashing, loud neon sign saying ‘Go Neat. Neat will be necessary. No water left for your drinks by 2030′ Or ‘Neat peene ki aadat daalo 🙂 No water left by 2030′. Whoever orders their drink neat, give them a small thank you card. “Thank you for saving water. If you want to save more water, try xyz.com (the website mentioned above)”

3. Buy 1 Wear 1 offer:

Sale Sale Sale- ‘Buy 1 garment and Wear only that 1 garment. Offer starts 2030, when there will be no water to manufacture garments’. Put this offer on all leading ecommerce sites of India. Promote this through TVC, just like the campaigns for Myntra’s End of Reason Sale or Amazon’s Great Indian Shopping Festival. Anytime people click on this offer, show them what are all the various ways they can save water right now through xyz.com so that they can still buy clothes in 2030.

4. Non Swimming Classes:

Outside swimming pools in hotels, clubs, community pools, Put a huge board saying ‘Dont bother learning how to swim. There will be no water by 2030 anyways. No poolside relaxation, only concrete side chilling’. Everyone reading the board can be given a wet wipe with instructions on how to save water on the cover.

5. Latest hi tech mobile phone ad:

Release the ad of a basic looking feature phone with a headline: ‘2030’s most advanced phone ever, Not at all waterproof. No water, no need for waterproof’. Release this ad in leading publications and on ecommerce mobile sections, tech review sites and blogs. This will be another tongue in cheek way to say that there will be no water soon, unless we do something about it. To every person clicking on the link, take them to the website mentioned earlier.

These are just some of the ideas to spread the word about Why and How to save water. There could be many more ways to try, if we only attempt.

Which of these did you like the most? What is your feedback on them? Let me know in the comments below…

Happy World Water Day, people!!!

Originally published at ifiweremarketing.com on March 22, 2018.

There are so many event agencies that there is a separate directory for it called Eventfaqs. But out of all the gazillion players, only the old and established ones keep getting repeat business. Most others have such a tough time getting new clients or a chance to prove their mettle.

I was wondering why is it so tough for a new event agency to make its mark in this over crowded space?

One of the main reasons is the product itself- the Event. It is a one time thing. It is a make or break moment. You cant afford mistakes. Hence, people go with the established names since they have proven track records. Hence, they are sort of foolproof and safe.

This got me thinking, if I were marketing at an Event Agency…what would i do?

Firstly, I would go narrow. Very narrow. As narrow as possible. Instead of being a standard event agency, which is open to any event for any client, I would choose a niche and focus on that alone.

Most event agencies try to be everything to everyone. A full service format. Why!! Focus on a niche and rock at it.

As it is rightly said, if you try to attract everyone, no one will fall in love with you. Court a select few and they will be ready to spend their money and time with you, give you their loyalty.

Be irresistible to a select few. If you manage to make a tiny group fall in love with you, you are home.

But, what sort of niches?

Unusual Clever Niche Event Ideas:

1. Divorce Planners-

Wedding planning is a multi billion dollar business. Weddings are getting more lavish. But there is an equally increasing number of divorces. And not all divorces are amicable. What if there were an event agency specialising in Divorce Planning? They would celebrate the end of the acrimonious divorce proceedings and the closure of a bad relationship. It has tremendous potential.

A whole new industry or spectrum will open up. There are ultra niche agencies which only create and execute engagement proposals like Yes Girls, Luxe Proposals, etc… And people pay huge bucks for it.

There is a site called I Do Now I Dont which solely sells engagement rings from people whose engagements have been called off. It’s turned into multimillion dollar business, spawning off competitors too.

So people are increasingly open to celebrating different stages of their romantic lives. Divorce Planning is bound to disrupt the market.

2. Financial Year-End After-Party Planners-

Specialise in offering R&R events to all who went through the rigors of year-end closing i.e. the finance team, the sales team and the senior management. For most companies, year end accounting and finance is a brutal process, completely draining the people involved. They would appreciate some time or event to unwind and restore their energies for the new financial year. Why not pitch such events that time?

3. CEO Events-

Be THE agency that manages events only for the CEO/Director/ Chairman level. Nothing below that is worth your time. If you go ultra luxury, you may strike gold.

4. Time Makers-

Conduct weekly events which enable people to make time for themselves in the weekend or the rest of the week. Example, most people don’t know how to make their 24 hours work like 25, with that one hour for themselves or for things that matter to them. Conduct weekly events taking people through time saving tactics, tricks, tips- not just theory but getting them to implement your lessons during the session, as far as possible.

5. Adoption welcome/ announcement parties-

Be the event agency that helps people who adopt (either kids or pets) to throw a welcome + announcement party. These could be simple warm affairs or lavish bragging events…

6. Event agency for event agencies-

When event agencies want to treat their teams or employees to an R&R time or conduct their own sales or planning conferences, who does it? They keep conducting events for the whole world. Wouldn’t they appreciate if they could for once outsource that work, kick back their feet and just enjoy? Like professional chefs enjoy eating other’s cooking skills once in a while, as a well deserved break. So be THAT event agency.

So here are some alternative ideas for Event agencies to stand out from the crowd. Which did you like the best?

Originally published at ifiweremarketing.com on December 27, 2017.