A Smart Move Is To Assess How Your Brand Is Being Brought To Market.
Chances Are, Your Staff Is Working With Less Than A Compelling Sales Story.
It’s happening all too often. Publishers have made extraordinary investments to expand their media portfolios. The result — product lines are full and the content is relevant. However, revenue from marketers isn’t nearly as robust as expected.
There could be a variety of causes — market conditions, staffing or competitive issues. But in their rush to produce more products, many media brands have missed a critical step — they’re now seriously under-marketed. What does that mean?
- Proper Positioning: Being “under-marketed” means your sales story is focused on your own media products rather than on the problems faced by marketers. After all, advertisers aren’t looking to buy subscriptions to your magazine or gain access to the information on your site. Their selfish interest is to sell more products or services. So your job is to make sure they understand the problems they face in taking advantage of your market … then position your brand as a unique solution.
- Independent Documentation: “Under-marketed” means your sales materials contain a loose collection of facts and statements without proof of a core selling proposition. You’ve got a few fundamentals — perhaps an audit statement, readership numbers, and audience demographics. But advertisers no longer take claims on faith. They want to see your entire sales story unified and documented by independent research … regarding market conditions, the sales problems they face, your audience’s buying power, the power of your brand to make contact, and more.
- Moving Buyers Through The Product Adoption Process: And even if you can demonstrate your audience’s buying power and engagement, you’ve got to go further. You need proof that your brand helps drive buyers through the four stages of the product adoption process …
- Awareness that the marketer’s product & company exist.
- Impressions about what their product & company stand for.
- Differentiation of their product & company versus competitors.
- And preference to contact the company when buyers are ready to take action.
So times have changed, marketers have changed, and media brands must up their games. Thy must reengineer themselves to bring far more distinct, customer-focused, compelling and accountable market positions and sales stories to the advertising community.
About the author: Martin Akel, President, Martin Akel & Associates, www.akelandassociates.com, Email: akelassoc@earthlink.net, 805.219.0208