Chris Houchens of Shotgun Concepts challenges you to rethink your marketing strategy in a pithy Change This manifesto:
Your marketing works not by telling everyone that your product is great. Your marketing works when you have one person believe that your product is great. This is hard to do and it certainly wonʼt get done with a national TV buy.
Luckily, some people have caught onto this truth. Instead of BROADcasting to consumers, they are NARROWcasting. Firms now exist to create word-of-mouth for your company just by using your product on the streets. Online marketing can now zero in on specific online users. Direct mail companies can tell you more than you want to know about the people not just living in a certain zip code, but individual streets in that zip code. And on it goes.
As Steve Martin once said, “Letʼs all get SMALL.” Stop thinking big and think about your customers on a one-on-one basis. When you think of companies that you personally buy from, itʼs not the huge mega companies that treat you like a number that you are impressed with. Itʼs the small shops that know your name and treat you like a valued customer. In the end, thatʼs what makes marketing work. You have to think about your customers as people and not as costs per impression on an ad spreadsheet.
Donʼt get me wrong. Itʼs more work to do it this way. But, itʼs so much more effective.
I love this approach, but a challenge in my line of work is getting nonprofits and advocacy groups to adopt it. Cost-effective, user-friendly CRM tools now make it possible for .orgs to take the same approach, but in my experience very few do.
Many .orgs are allergic to the idea of "marketing," and they don't think of donors and advocates as "customers." They underestimate the importance of the user experience and they fail to treat their donors and advocates as well as they could, given the tools now at their disposal.
You can probably think of a small company that does a great job of treating you well and making you feel special (read: they're smart marketers), and you probably recommend them to your friends. Can you think of a nonprofit you contribute to that does the same?
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