An Overview of Marketing Tactics - Use the Right Marketing Tool for the Job
Are you using the right marketing tactics to achieve your business goals?
The right tool for the job makes the task easier. The same goes for marketing. Choosing the correct tactic to achieve your goals is vital to your overall marketing plan success.
Too many executives, however, hear or read about a particular tactic, and then it becomes their pet tactic. They go to a seminar that talks about Facebook advertising, and suddenly, they want their marketing team to enact a Facebook marketing plan immediately – even though their target customer is on LinkedIn or the company has already tried Facebook advertising and gotten no results.
I can’t tell you how many meetings I have sat in as a consultant and heard company leaders demanding to know why this tactic or that one isn’t being done as if a particular tactic is a magic bullet that will fix their marketing problems.
There’s no magic bullet, and there is no one ‘right’ marketing tactic to solve your particular problem. However, there are some guidelines about what tactic to choose based on the specific situation you want to solve. Below is my list. It is not the only list. However, it should serve as a sound general guideline for those who wish to use it. As with all things in marketing, test, measure, repeat what works, and discard what doesn’t. Give any campaign enough time to make an impact before changing things. And always – without exception, without fail – focus on your audience and where and how they like to receive information.
Examples of Marketing Tactics and The Goals They Achieve
Advertising
Print, television, radio, display, digital, social media ads
Best for lead generation, direct product sales, and acquisition marketing (such as building up an email list for future marketing). It can also be used for branding and product awareness.
Direct Mail or Email
Direct mail (old-fashioned “snail mail”), email marketing
Best for direct product sales and lead generation. Email marketing through newsletters is good for retention, i.e., “keep in touch” marketing with your customers.
Content Marketing
Blogs, articles, case studies, white papers, videos, podcasts.
Best for thought leadership, awareness, and branding. It can be used for acquisition marketing but is usually not an immediate lead generation or sale opportunity. Excellent for brand awareness, building brand loyalty, and developing an audience.
Events and Conferences
Exhibiting at a trade show and attending industry events.
Best for networking, brand awareness, and long-term acquisition and retention.
Marketing Tactics – The Right Tool for the Job
Again, let me stress that the list shared above offers guidelines rather than rules about which marketing tactic to choose for your needs. Often, these tactics are adapted or adjusted to support various strategies. Multiple tactics are used together (called an omnichannel marketing strategy or an integrated strategy) to produce the desired results.
This is where choosing the right marketing tools becomes an art rather than a science. Companies that struggle to solve a business problem, such as lead generation, high customer churn, or poor brand awareness, should work with an experienced marketing consultant. Experienced marketers have faced similar problems and have seen which campaigns worked (and which didn’t) to solve the problem. They can apply these learnings to your business and make better, informed suggestions.
So before you insist that “we should be doing a podcast” or “we should start a blog,” sit down with your most experienced marketing person and instead state the problem to be solved. Don’t try to guess the tactic or use the tactic in vogue. Not every marketing approach fits every situation. Pick the right tool from your marketing toolbox to achieve the desired result.
Prefer to listen to an article? This article is available on our podcast, Bricks, Brambles & Bytes on Podbean!
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The Power and Pitfalls of Cause Marketing: Aligning Values for Success
Conscious Connections – What Is Cause Marketing? Summary
What is cause marketing? This article explores the concept of cause marketing, highlighting its definition and importance in today’s business landscape. It emphasizes the necessity of aligning the values of companies, nonprofit partners, and target audiences for successful campaigns. Real-world examples such as TOMS’ One for One Movement and Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign illustrate effective implementations of cause marketing. Additionally, the article discusses the pitfalls of misalignment and provides insights on how businesses can avoid them. Ultimately, it underscores the significance of authenticity and genuine connections in creating impactful cause marketing initiative.
Listen to the Podcast on Cause Marketing
Cause marketing has become a prominent strategy for companies aiming to make a positive impact while enhancing their brand image. But what exactly is cause marketing, and how can businesses ensure its success? In this article, we delve into the concept of cause marketing, explore real-world examples, and discuss the crucial element of aligning values to create impactful campaigns.
What Is Cause Marketing?
At its core, cause marketing involves a partnership between a company and a nonprofit organization with the aim of mutual support. This collaboration typically centers around activities such as fundraising, raising awareness, or providing general support for a shared cause.
Aligning Brand Values for Success
The key to effective cause marketing lies in aligning the values of the company, the nonprofit, and most importantly, the target audience. This three-dimensional alignment forms the foundation for successful campaigns. Companies must identify their core values and seek out nonprofits that share those values. By engaging in activities that resonate with both entities’ values, companies can foster genuine connections with their audience and the community.
Real-World Examples
TOMS One for One Movement
TOMS, a footwear and apparel company, is well-known for its One for One movement. For every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS donates a pair to a child in need. This initiative aligns with TOMS’ core value of social responsibility and has garnered widespread acclaim for its simplicity and impact. By tying every purchase directly to a charitable contribution, TOMS has successfully integrated cause marketing into its business model, fostering customer loyalty and making a tangible difference in communities worldwide.
Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign
Dove’s Real Beauty campaign is another notable example of cause marketing done right. Dove, a personal care brand, launched this campaign with the goal of challenging beauty stereotypes and promoting body positivity. Through various initiatives such as the Dove Self-Esteem Project, which provides resources and workshops to promote self-confidence among young people, Dove has aligned itself with a cause that resonates with its audience. By championing authenticity and inclusivity, Dove has not only enhanced its brand image but also sparked important conversations about societal standards of beauty.
American Express’s Statue of Liberty Restoration Fund Campaign
American Express launched a groundbreaking cause marketing campaign by pledging support for the Statue of Liberty Restoration Fund. This initiative aligned seamlessly with American Express’s brand identity, which is deeply rooted in American heritage and patriotism. By associating itself with the restoration of one of the nation’s most iconic symbols, American Express not only demonstrated its commitment to preserving cultural landmarks but also tapped into a sense of national pride among its customer base. The campaign’s success showcased the power of aligning brand values with a meaningful cause, resulting in increased brand loyalty and positive publicity for American Express.
The Pitfalls of Misalignment
However, cause marketing campaigns can fall flat when companies overlook the crucial aspect of aligning values with their audience. Merely capitalizing on popular trends or issues without considering whether they resonate with the core values of their target demographic can lead to missed opportunities and even backlash.
Avoiding Missteps
To avoid such pitfalls, companies must prioritize understanding their audience’s core values and ensuring alignment with both the chosen cause and the nonprofit partner. Rather than chasing transient trends, businesses should remain true to their own values and seek authentic connections with their audience through meaningful cause marketing initiatives.
Make the Cause Your Own
Cause marketing holds immense potential for companies to make a positive impact while enhancing their brand reputation. By carefully aligning values with nonprofit partners and target audiences, businesses can create impactful campaigns that resonate deeply with consumers and contribute to meaningful social change. In the realm of cause marketing, authenticity and alignment are the keys to success.
Our Cause
This week, members of Seven Oaks Consulting’s team will support the Southside SPCA, our local animal shelter. We attend their annual Valentine’s Day dinner. We also support the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center, a wildlife rehabilitation, education, and awareness center in northern Virginia. While not true ‘cause marketing’ campaigns, both nonprofits resonate with one of my personal core value: compassion for animals and care for the natural world. We’ve found that these values resonate deeply with our team (one of our audiences) and our customers (our most important audience). And while someday I hope to do a true cause marketing campaign, I’m proud of my team for choosing the SPCA as their cause to support.
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Sustainable Business Practices
A Purpose-Driven Approach
As society becomes more socially and environmentally conscious, consumer trends are beginning to shift. In a fast-paced, digital world obsessed with hashtags and causes of the month, finding your purpose can seem overwhelming. By incorporating a purpose-driven approach into your business strategy, you can attract more customers and expand your clientele.
Beyond Profits - The Importance of Having a Purpose
A purpose-driven business approach focuses on a specific social or environmental cause that resonates with potential customers who care about making a difference in the world. Understanding your target audience is vital to this type of business approach.
Another critical aspect of creating a purpose-driven business approach is to look beyond your profit margin. The key is understanding the impact your business has on society and the environment. This will allow you to find your niche in a purpose-driven market and refocus your brand.
One successful example of a purpose-driven business approach is the Green Circle Salons program. This award-winning initiative emphasizes sustainability and seeks to reduce the environmental impact of beauty salons by recycling up to 95% of all waste.
Sustainable Business Practices: Statistics
Recent surveys show that the majority of consumers care more about corporate responsibility, and, by extension, sustainable business practices, than ever before. According to statistics retrieved from a 2017 Cone Communications CSR Study:
- 63% of Americans are hopeful businesses will take the lead to drive social and environmental change moving forward, in the absence of government regulation
- 78% want companies to address important social justice issues
- 87% will purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about
- 76% will refuse to purchase a company’s products or services upon learning it supported an issue contrary to their beliefs
Boost Your sustainable Business practices - Finding Your Purpose
With many social and environmental causes currently being addressed, any business model can find sustainable business practices to align itself with in a meaningful and effective way.
- Be sincere - Find a purpose that is important to you and your target audience rather than jumping on the latest social or environmental cause currently trending on social media. The Container Store focuses on what they refer to as conscious capitalism. Ranked under Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for, they promote creating a positive and inclusive work environment and business approach.
- Aligns with your brand - Your brand needs to reflect your core business values. Your core values should reinforce how your business is making a difference in the world. Patagonia, an outdoor clothing and gear company, is very passionate about environmental impact and community activism.
It’s important to remember that a purpose-driven business approach is not the same as running a charity or non-profit organization. Instead, you are focusing more on social responsibility and how your business impacts the community. Sustainable business practices can help you make your mark on the world in a positive way.
Text by Laura LaFrenier, a freelance writer who works with Seven Oaks Consulting. Photo by Roshan Dhimal on Unsplash
Marketing Case Study: Mailing List Fail
Direct mail continues to produce strong results with an average response rate of 9% for house lists. A house list is a list of a business' customers or people with whom the business has a connection.
Prospect lists also do well these days with an average 4.9% response rate. Prospect lists can be sourced from other companies, compiled from public directories, gathered from subscribers of magazines, or rented from sweepstakes and coupon companies. The results of a mailing using either a house or prospect lists depend, of course, not just on the list, but on three additional factors: the offer, timing, creative.
This marketing case study looks at how a company got everything right...except for the mailing list.
It's a company you may have heard about: Chewy.com.
Marketing Case Study: Pet Product Company Mailing List Fail
Chewy.com is an online retailer of pet products selling everything from dog training equipment to goldfish food. They are known for great customer service, fast shipping, and competitive pricing.
A few months ago, we received an offer of $15 off of our first order. With seven cats and a new puppy on the way, we gladly used our coupon and were delighted with the entire ordering experience. We purchased cat food and continued to hope for more offers from the company via email, but the offers we received were for specialty products and gourmet foods, which our rescued cats don't get. (Sorry, fellas, but y'all just showed up here...you get what you get, and that's Friskies and Meow Mix.)
Marketing Case Study: Direct Mailing List Failure
Then in July, we received another mailer from Chewy.com. This mailer touted $15 off again. We held onto it knowing our new puppy, Zeke, would arrive in August and need some items.
We tried to utilize the coupon this week only to find we could not - it was for first-time customers only, and of course, we were returning customers now.
It was supposed to be our second order. We did not place the order.
Always Suppress Current Customers from a Mailing to New Customers
Chewy offers excellent customer service, but somehow, their marketing department neglected to update their mailing list against their customer list.
An offer for a new or first time customer should NEVER be sent to current customers.
Mailing lists can be compared using specialized software so that any potential duplicates are flagged and removed. If Chewy purchased a list of pet owners or people who own pets, for example, they could then send this list to a mailing list company or data provider and have any potential duplicates suppressed from the final list.
Why bother spending the money to suppress duplicates?
Because customers like us, eager to order again, left disappointed and annoyed at the fine print on an offer that we thought we qualified for but didn't.
If a company mails us a coupon, we assume we can use it. It should never be incumbent on the customer to get out a magnifying glass and check the fine print on the offer. And it is deadly to your e-commerce business to have customers get all the way to the checkout and as a last step, enter a coupon code only to be told the offer isn't valid.
We abandoned our shopping cart and bought the cat food and dog harness from Amazon. No, we didn't get $15 off, but we got free shipping and didn't feel cheated by the offer.
Key Takeaways: Direct Mail Basics
DO...
- Create a compelling offer. The Chewy offer was great. So was their timing and their creative execution.
- Be 100% sure that offers for new or first-time customers ONLY get sent ONLY to new and first-time customers. You can do this by sending your list data to a mailing house who runs it through a computer program and compares the prospect list to your customer file and suppresses any duplicates.
- Provide a way to honor the coupon if you make a mistake. Don't just turn customers away.
If Chewy woos us back with a great offer, we may consider shopping from them again. But with Amazon so convenient and accessible, and no feeling of being screwed over by them as we did when we were disappointed at finding our coupon didn't work, we may not.
Reinvigorating Retail through Pop Up Stores
Pop up stores are here and they may be reinvigorating retail throughout the United States.
As a teenager in the 1980s, I spent an inordinate amount of time at the local shopping mall. Roosevelt Field Mall became my home away from home. My sister worked at Macy's. She would drive to work, drop me off to roam the mall, then I'd meet her several hours later for the drive home.
Retail pop up stores back then were kiosks. Small, self-contained kiosks in the central aisle of the mall's corridors. Some sold only items during peak gift-giving seasons: I remember the bonsai tree concession, another that sold crystal pendants during the pendant-wearing craze of the late 1980s. Another etched personalized messages, monograms and the like on silver picture frames, mugs, etc.
Each of these tiny stores focused exclusively on a single them. They differ from today's pop up stores the way your grandfather's Chevy differs from the Volt parked in your garage and recharging from the household current.
Linda Niehm, professor of Apparel Events, and Hospitality at Iowa State University stated in a recent press release, "What we're seeing is in part of a natural evolution of the retail cycle, and old formats are replaced with something more relevant."
Retail is a dynamic industry. It is constantly evolving and changing. Stores evolved from single-category shops (the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker) to the grocery store and supermarket (with butcher and bakery counters along with thousands of other products) and the department store (which sold everything including candles in one convenient space.) The internet added pricing competition along with an intense focus on fresh new goods; if I can get a pair of jeans from Amazon at a lower price, why should I bother driving to the Gap in the mall to buy a pair?
Enter the pop-up store. These stores take over small retail spaces for short amounts of time - weeks, perhaps - with a themed experience. Vacant stores or unusual structures such as disused cargo containers are transformed into a retail space.
Niehm and colleague Ann Marie Fiore conducted a study in 2010 that indicated that retail consumers like novelty in their shopping experiences. The same old stores in the mall bore consumers; the novel experience of discovering a new brand, product category, or style in a pop-up store may invigorate the shopping experience and draw customers away from their computers to shop on the internet and back to physical retail spaces. Millennials especially are interested in brands that resonate with their values. They eschew large, traditional stores.
Brands are experimenting with pop-ups in unique ways. Bonobos khakis opened pop-up stores in the lobby of an office building and netted $250,000.
Technology offers another way for pop-ups to succeed. Although the small space prohibits stocking multiple colors or sizes, with the touch of a tablet, shopkeepers can order items from their online store to be sent to the consumer. No hassle, no additional steps for the customers, and an easy in-person shopping experience that lets them see and touch the items in person.
Are pop-ups right for you? They may be a passing fad, but anything that can reinvigorate retail offers additional methods for small business owners to sell more. It may be the right time for you to explore pop-ups for your retail business.
Walmart Thinks It Can Tell if You're Happy
Last night I read an article in Direct Marketing News which literally made me LOL (for those not familiar with online acronyms, that's laugh out loud - LOL for short).
Walmart is exploring installing facial recognition software to install in their stores to assess how happy their customers are with their shopping experience.
Are you laughing yet?
Because I am.
First of all, shopping at Walmart is never a happy experience. It's mostly neutral with a bit of stress and exhaustion thrown into the mix. I shop weekly at Walmart for groceries (don't just; it's one of only two choices in my tiny rural town). I feel as if I have walked several miles by the time I have found a cart without wonky wheels that spins me in circles, passed the endless center aisle displays of sugar and fat laden junk food, and reached my destination aisle.
Half the time, the shelves look as if a tornado has cruised through, and the other half of the time they've moved what I know should be in that aisle to somewhere else in the store and I spend an awful amount of time playing hide-and-seek with the laundry detergent or whatever it is that I want.
According to Inc., Walmart's facial recognition software will assess your happiness level as you search for the last non-crushed box of graham crackers and if it detects you aren't ecstatic will staff up accordingly.
As if lack of staff makes anyone unhappy at Walmart.
Listen, Walmart, if you really want to make customers happy and not creeped out that big brother is watching them with facial recognition software - which may or may not violate several rights to privacy I have, I'm not clear on that yet - let's get a few things straight.
There are stores people shop at for pleasure and stores people shop at for necessity. You fall into the latter category. Therefore, few people are going to grin from ear to ear when they look at, say, the crumpled blouses on the floor in the clothing aisle or the whirlwind of jumbled cans in the soup aisle.
The expression of unhappiness on my face may be caused by a thousand things outside of a store's control. I may have just had an argument with my spouse and stomped off to do the grocery shopping. I may have realized I am almost out of gas and have to stop for more if I want to make it home. My shoes may hurt because they're pinching my feet. Who knows? Who cares? Who made it your prerogative to assess my happiness, anyway?
There are four places where staffing matters in any given Walmart and you are already failing miserably in most of them. So fix these before buying happiness software, please:
- Registers. Thankfully, our Walmart in Farmville, Virginia, has some of the nicest cashiers around. But for goodness sake, OPEN MORE REGISTERS.
- Fabric counter. Anytime I've wanted to purchase fabric, it's an ordeal. I wait. And wait. And then a clueless person shows up who can't stop to cut my fabric because he or she is a manager or something. If you're going to have a fabric counter, have a button or something customers can press to call help over to cut their yards of felt or whatever.
- Online order pickup. Oh, what a nightmare. What an awful, time wasting, soul sucking nightmare. I order online. It ships to the store. I then wait at an empty counter for 15 - 20 minutes while employees run by on their way to jolly old breaktime and I grow gray and stooped and old waiting to pick up my water filter or whatever I ordered online. Then, someone does show up, and THEY CAN'T FIND THE THING IN THE BACKSTOCK. One time, they lost an archery target on us. Let that sink in. A freaking three foot by three foot archery target box was somehow hiding itself in the backstock area. Fix this, please.
- Stocking shelves. See above - my comment on shelves that look like a tornado breezed through them once, twice, or three times. Restock. Stock again. Then, check your stock. Because you can't sell what you don't have.
Do you know what these four areas have in common? Low tech, low touch solutions.
I'm all for high tech. I love high tech. I love technology in all of its wonderful forms. But the area where Walmart and many other 'big box' stores needs to improve is not in their use of technology but in their use of people or the current staff and resources they have on hand. Scanning my scowl won't make a difference.
About the Author
Jeanne Grunert is the President of Seven Oaks Consulting, a company focused on making customers smile (but not through facial recognition). She helps marketing agencies, publishing companies, and technology businesses with client-centered marketing strategies and content marketing that helps them acquire, retain, and create loyal customers. Visit Seven Oaks Consulting or Jeanne's Amazon Author Page for her fiction and nonfiction books.
Content Marketing Example: Gerbils on a Train
Have you seen the PSA (public service announcement) "Gerbils on a Train?" It's a great example of getting your point across by telling a story. While not specifically content marketing, it is a terrific video that's part of an overall content marketing strategy from the Ad Council and the Children's Oral Health project.
Here's the video. Turn the music up. The music and the tiny engineer cap on the gerbil makes me smile every time.
Content Marketing Example:
Gerbils on a Train PSA (Linked from YouTube/AdCouncil)
Why This is a Great Content Marketing Example
Content marketing should move consumers from awareness to interest, engagement, and education before their final purchasing decision. While kids aren't buying anything in this campaign, and neither are their parents, the 2x2M campaign (the sponsors of this piece) are trying to get you to "buy" an idea. Buy in can be treated the same way as buying a product or service when it comes to marketing, and this video makes the case for how it can be done effectively.
The premise of the campaign is that in the span of two minutes, or about the time it takes to watch a silly video, children can brush their teeth, keep their teeth healthy, and prevent future tooth decay and tooth pain. This video is part of a series of PSAs and other advertisements featuring silly videos, video games, and other things children do for two minutes to make its point: two minutes flies by when kids do what they want. Two minutes isn't a lot of time to spend while brushing your teeth!
Another bonus of the campaign is that parents can download the videos and play them on a tablet while kids brush their teeth. Children who can't tell time yet can be taught to brush for as long as the video is playing, thus helping them learn the "two-minute rule" for proper oral health.
There are five factors that I think make this campaign a total winner, a great content marketing example and content marketing best practice:
- Appeal: The content (video in this example) appeals to both the target market (parents, who need to understand proper oral hygiene for their children) and the "buyer" (the child, who must "buy into" the idea or he won't do it.) It's a win on both levels.
- Creative Direction: It uses a simple, catchy piece of content that has everything going for it for both target audiences. Adorable gerbils riding around on toy trains? Check! Catchy music? Check! Hey, my husband and I found the video online and played it one night just for a laugh. Don't judge. It's a great example, however, or why it's a good piece of content. We don't have children and aren't their target market yet even we loved it. How wonderful is that?
- Multi-Purpose Content: It functions as both a content marketing video and a useful give away. You can watch the video for the sheer lovableness of it or as a parent, download it as a timer for your kids to brush their teeth. It works on both levels.
- Integration: It's part of an integrated awareness campaign that includes multiple content channels to reach the "decision makers" (kids) and "influencers" (parents).
- Engagement: It engages without talking down to the target audience or without preaching to the influencers. When creating content around a serious topic like oral health, the tendency can be to go overboard with seriousness. Yet people tune out serious messages or worse, make fun of them. Remember the egg in the frying pan and the "this is your brain on drugs" campaign? Serious topic, serious message, important message, but it became fodder (pun intended) for late night talk show hosts and Saturday Night Live skits. It takes a delicate balancing act to strike a humorous, gentle note while engaging your audience in a serious topic, and this video hits the bull's-eye.
So that's my take on the content marketing example, Gerbils on a Train. The video above is linked from YouTube, and you can follow the Ad Council link to learn more about the talent behind the campaign.
You can make your own marketing videos using Lumen5. Download the videos and use them in your content marketing or contact us for help.
Want to have your company's content marketing featured as a case study? Contact me. And be sure to learn more about my content marketing and freelance writing services. Great content can help you engage customer interest, convert browsers into buyers, and build your brand online. Let's talk about your content marketing!
Content Marketing Case Study: The Whole Seed Catalog
This week's content marketing case study focuses on an excellent example of content marketing: The Whole Seed Catalog from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
If you're a gardener, then you probably know about Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. This seed company, founded by Jere Gettle in 1998, sells heirloom, non-GMO, organic seeds. Sounds simple, right?
Their marketing, however, is anything but simple. The 2016 Whole Seed Catalog is like a symphony of excellent content marketing in one gorgeous, can't-stop-looking at it package.
Here's what this company's content marketing gets right:
- The catalog tells a story. From the first page, where the reader is introduced to Jere and his family and their life's mission to preserve historic seeds to the stories from the seed growers around the world, we're drawn into this amazing global community of gardeners. It made me want to run out and start gardening immediately even if it was only January.
- The pictures are gorgeous. The cover looks at first glance like gemstones stacked one on top of the other, but it's actually a close-up photograph of corn. CORN! Beautiful, gorgeous, multicolored Indian corn. Inside, each plant is featured in color photographs that also capture the people who raised the seeds.
- Throughout the entire seed catalog are sprinkled well-written, in-depth stories that support the Baker Creek story. These stories or articles explain what GMO seeds are and why the company believes they aren't good for the environment. Other stories share the history of various plant varieties or stories of the people who grow them.
- Each item's description includes all the relevant information you'd expect to find in a catalog, such as item number, price, growing season, cultural information, etc.
- The catalog's layout is clean and easy to read.
- The paper quality is excellent.
The catalog isn't free. I received a free copy because I am a member of the Garden Writers Association, but the cover price of this book is $9.95. I'd say it is well worth it. I actually brought my copy with me to the salon while getting my highlights done. As any woman will attest, that means hours of styling, coloring and drying...and I was engrossed in my seed catalog. Can you imagine reading a seed catalog so intently?
Content Marketing Tips
All in all, the Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog gets an A+ from me for its expert content marketing.
Great content marketing hits the sweet spot between informing customers about products and services, entertaining and engaging them, and yes, selling products. Some content marketers talk about the undersell or soft sell, and some pretend that they don't want their content to sell anything at all. While content marketing isn't direct marketing (it's not about the direct sale), your content marketing programs should always support the consumer's choice to buy your products or services. Information is the key to helping people move along the decision ladder, ultimately choosing YOUR company to do business with among the many companies available.
That's where the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog hits all the right points. It's incredibly informative while simultaneously being entertaining, and that's not easy to do in a market saturated with seeds. Seeds aren't particularly high margin items, and it can be difficult to invest in marketing them. But because garden seeds are everywhere for consumers to purchase, you've got to make customers understand why your garden seeds are different or better than other companies'. And that's where Baker Creek gets it right.
They are selling a different product. They invest time, money and resources into finding heirloom seeds - seeds passed down through generations of gardeners, families and communities. These seeds are free from genetic tinkering by humans and are open-pollinated. Some are said to be more nutritious or tasty than commercially grown varieties. Others are quite difficult to find among the large commercial growing operations. Baker Creek tells a unique story, and because they tell it well, consumers understand what sets them apart and why they should shop from their catalog.
Would You Like Your Company Features as a Case Study?
I'd love to share YOUR company's content marketing case study here. Please contact me and share samples of your firm's content marketing program if you'd like to be featured on the Seven Oaks Consulting content marketing blog.