Testing an Idea: Intentional Marketing
As some of you may know, Joanne O’Connell and I are co-writing a book. The latest title of the book is “Measure Twice, Cut Once: A Guide to Intentional Marketing”. My contribution to the title is the first part. Joanne’s contribution is the second part.
QUESTION: What do you think of the title?
As part of the concept of “intentional marketing”, Joanne and I have developed a new image to replace the traditional marketing funnel. Have a look at the description below and let me know what you think.
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Intentional Marketing System
The obvious challenge with any business is the need to acquire new customers. Startups need new customers in order to generate revenue. Established companies need to meet the demands of customers who move, change brands, grow older, and change technologies or levels of interest. These customers can leave the company and become past customers. As a result, companies need to find and acquire new customers in order to sustain or increase revenue.
So, how do you locate, or attract new customers?
There are many strategies and techniques to generate new customers - figuring out which techniques are essential and perform well is what business is all about.
Broad strategies include:
Increase Market Share - develop aggressive marketing campaigns
Use New Channels - try marketing channels that you have not used before
Expand to New Markets - target new demographic groups or new industries
Expand to New Areas - target new geographical regions
Diversification - develop new products and services
Develop Strategic Partnerships - develop strong relationships with other companies
Re-position Your Company - rethink the solutions you are offering to your market
Regardless of which strategies a company uses, they all have one thing in common: it costs money to acquire new customers no matter how you do it. The cost associated with acquiring new customers is called the average customer acquisition cost.
This metric is often miscalculated, misunderstood, or it is always underappreciated. But if you start managing this metric then you can put more money in your pocket. If you don’t manage your average customer acquisition cost then you can actually end up having much less money in your pocket.
In addition to this metric, most companies nurture (herd) people through a journey from first contact (or first impression) to a purchase. Only a fraction of the people who see an advertisement actually make a purchase. Each stage of the journey has levels. In marketing this concept is often described or diagramed as a Funnel. However, instead of customers flowing down a funnel, we prefer to think of customers as having to move up to succeedingly higher levels or platforms. Gamers would refer to this as “levelling up”.
The idea of the Intentional Marketing System model is that people are attracted to the company or product at the lowest level where Impressions occur and the the company has to keep investing in marketing in order to move people up to higher levels. Of course, there are a few losses at each level of the customer journey toward buying a product - that is the cost of marketing.
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QUESTION: Do you like the idea illustrated in the image above of “levelling-up” as an alternative to traditional marketing funnels?