Ever watched an ant trail? After a close examination, most people would probably agree that it is one of the most efficient systems in the world. Despite its efficiency, the slightest disruption will paralyze all efforts. Think of what happens when an ant trail approaches an unexpected crack on the sidewalk or if a leaf falls in the middle of it. Efficiency immediately evolves into chaos and all efforts made will yield no results.
Ever wondered why some of your best marketing efforts did not achieve desired results? Basically, what you thought was the best marketing initiative was just an ant trail that got disrupted by a leaf or a crack on the sidewalk. There was an objective, a plan and an investment of sufficient resources, but there was propably no effort made to anticipate disruptions and a reaction plan. This is why we marketers should value the importance of a follow up plan and make it a part of every marketing initiative.
If the content appears to be too abstract, here is an example to better illustrate my point. With a newly purchased car, I was in the market for modification parts or anything that will put an extra shine on it. About two months ago, while going through my messages in my Outlook inbox, I received an email from Acura promoting OEM parts in my gmail account. At the point of contact I was excited to see what Acura has to offer, but I also had to finish replying to several important messages in Outlook. I saved the message and intended to return to it later that day. As I was finishing up replying to the never ending list of messages, I was summoned to a meeting by my boss, received a couple of phone calls, and got several RSS alerts. I forgot about the offer message from Acura after a series of distractions. I did not recall the message until just now, as I am writing this blog post.
Acura had a plan of targeting all new car owners and the message was appealing to their target, but there was no follow up plan. It has been over two months now and I, as a consumer, am not as excited or motivated to install modification parts on my car. As consumers, we occasionally experience sudden urges to make a purchase that we later realize we can live without. Acura did not anticipate the disruption, a series of distractions, as a barrier to their initiative. If I had received a follow up email shortly after receiving the first offer message, I would probably have some new rims on my new car by now.
Disruptions can be costly to marketing efforts and cannot always be anticipated. Fortunately, unlike ants, we marketers can learn from mistakes and past experiences. We may be startled by a leaf in our path the first time, but we should have a plan of going around it the next time we encounter it. Until we make an effort to anticipate disruptions and have a follow up plan in place. we will not be able to prevent our efforts from falling into cracks it may come upon.
Disruptions will and can occur in any part of your marketing cycle. Check out these links for more insights on follow up marketing initiatives:
Customer service, Customer Relations, & Networking
Just something to think about…
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A lot of marketers still look at marketing as one-off campaigns. For some this may still lead to satisfactory results but they can be a lot better with a campaign plan to follow-up with prospects based on how they responded.
If they opened the email, remind them to click on the website or URL link, if they clicked but did not complete the purchase, send them an email reminding them that their order has yet to go through, how about 30% off if you complete the purchase?
In this economy, marketers need to continue to be vigilant and patch any leaks in their marketing to be able to get through the economic recession. Having a clear strategy for marketing campaigns is clearly one leak that needs to be patched.
Check out the whitepaper “Increasing response with 1:1 campaigns” (on the right hand column of this page) to see how we almost doubled response by following-up effectively based on how the prospect responds.
That was a good saying that marketers do make mistakes and then they learn from them. Its the best part. To learn and not sit and think about the past what was the mistake done by me. Remember that mistake for motivation in future.