Intentional Marketing: Lesson 10 of 10 Things I Learned from Joanne
Image by Tanya White
This is the tenth and final article in a series called “10 Things I Learned from Joanne”.
In this article, I’ll summarize what I learned from Joanne about Intentional Marketing.
Joanne O’Connell is the co-author of the book that we recently published called Intentional Marketing: A Systematic Approach to Optimizing Performance.
Scroll down for a list of other articles in this series.
Intentional Marketing
I don't remember the exact date, but I do remember where I was when Joanne told me that all our discussions about marketing could be summed up in two words.
I was in my home office and we were talking on the phone. Joanne paused, leaving her comment hanging, and prompting me to ask, "Okay, what are the two words"? As mentioned before: Joanne is brilliant. So I was anticipating something profound. And profound it was.
Her reply was “Intentional Marketing”.
It was like a bomb went off in my head. Even though I had never put the two words together before, it made sense. I got it immediately. After all the work I had done with digital marketing and analytics: marketing should be intentional. It seemed obvious and simple.
I got it but I didn’t get it. I’m a bit slow. I wanted more information, more detail, and Joanne’s perspective, so I used my Dad’s favourite statement, “Tell me more.”
Image by Tanya White
Outcomes
Joanne started with the concept of outcomes. As described in the last article, outcomes are at the end of the customer's journey. It is the thing that you, as a marketer, want people in the market to do. It is a behaviour. It is an action. It is measurable.
To be intentional, marketers should start by understanding and defining the outcome. The outcome is usually payment for a specific product. They can click on a link to add a product to a shopping cart, but they need to pay and check out. They can fill a shopping cart with products, but they need to go through checkout and purchase the items. The number of outcomes (products) can be predicted or set as a target.
Future outcomes can be predicted by using historical data. Alternatively, targets can be developed to estimate the number of outcomes that the company wants to achieve. Predicting is less aggressive. Setting targets implies that changes need to be made to marketing.
Changes could include any of the following:
Increasing investments
Adjusting the pricing to match people in different segments of the market
Trying new marketing channels to find prospects who are more qualified and interested
Expanding to new segments of the market
Expanding to new geographical areas
Developing messaging that is more interesting, humorous, or relevant
Developing creative that is more attractive and eye-catching
The outcome happens when the person experiences a trigger that motivates a change and consideration of an offer. Some people need additional persuasion after reviewing an offer but before that, a prospect needs a reason to consider an offer.
As an aside, Craig Elias wrote the book on identifying triggers in his book Shift Selling. See his video Trigger Event Selling. In the video, which is excellent, Craig identifies three different types of events that lead to a trigger:
Awareness increases
Bad experience
Changes within an organization
There’s more to this excellent concept. Great book. Get a copy.
Joanne then reviewed the Customer Acquisition Model which we had spent many hours discussing. Joanne started by tracing the customer’s journey through a series of levels. Between each level is a gate to the next level.
Impressions are where the customer’s journey starts. Impressions are bought. The gate leads to a visit.
A Visit occurs when a person has some level of interest in a product. At this level, the person is interested in learning more about the product and the company. The gate leads to becoming a prospect.
A person becomes a Prospect when a way of communicating is established and the company can communicate with a person who is interested in the product. The gate leads to the prospect being presented with an offer.
An Offer is where a price for the product is displayed or delivered to the prospect. The next gate gives the prospect the opportunity to trigger the outcome.
If everything goes according to plan, the person performs the behaviour required by the Outcome and buys the product.
Impressions to Visits
Joanne then jumped to the beginning of the customer’s journey and talked about how people moved from level to level.
I wrote about impressions in Lesson 8: The Importance of Impressions. Impressions are what marketers “buy”. When marketers request a budget for marketing what they are asking for is money to invest in various types of impressions.
Impressions can be:
Traditional: radio, TV, out-of-home, print, signage, tradeshows, infomercials, etc.
Digital: SEO, search ads, display ads, social media posts, drip emails, etc.
Word of Mouth: Testimonials, Reviews, Recommendations, Referrals
Without impressions, sales won’t happen. A company has to generate impressions to develop a brand and drive up awareness of the product. It’s that simple.
Visits to Prospects
When people visit a webpage, a social media platform, or an event, the experience needs to be attractive and engaging. Most people are coming to learn and decide if the product has any relevance to their situation. There needs to be a Call-To-Action and a way to capture the contact of a person visiting. This is the gate between a Visit and a Prospect.
Not everyone becomes a prospect. Many are lost for the following reasons:
The product isn’t relevant to their situation and problem
They get confused and leave
They get impatient and leave
They get overwhelmed and leave
They get annoyed and leave
At this stage of the journey, paying attention to the customer’s experience is critical.
Prospects to Offers
Ideally, after a person becomes a prospect they should look at the offer to see the prices. But many people in the market are just “tire-kickers”. These are people who saw the promotional message, visited a location to learn more, expressed some level of interest, and even gave their contact information only to bail on the journey and go in a different direction.
The reasons for losing prospects include:
Not being seriously interested
Adjusting priorities
Being influenced by a competitor’s marketing or product
Not having any urgency to change
Having a negative experience
Offers to Outcomes
Sadly, for those in the business of selling products (like marketers), not everyone interested in a product ends up buying the product. There is often a significant loss in the number of people who end up disappearing when they see the price of the product. They don’t go through the gate to trigger the Outcome.
This happens when the prospective buyer:
Is not ready for change
Can’t afford the product
Realized that they are okay with their existing situation
Don’t trust the company offering the product
Suddenly realized that the product won’t solve their problem
The gate between a prospect seeing an offer where the price is displayed and the outcome is critical.
When it comes to the offer, there are many variables where the prospect can get derailed including:
Features of the product
Benefits
Price
Availability and delivery
Packaging
Guarantee
Training
Service after purchase
Alignment
Image by Tanya White
The concept of Intentional Marketing doesn’t stop at the levels and gates of the Customer Acquisition Model. In our discussions, Joanne emphasized the importance of “alignment”. I outlined Joanne’s concept of alignment in Lesson 3,
I have been learning about and even teaching students about the concepts of marketing for years. In one sentence, Joanne changed my perspective on marketing. She simplified everything to 3 words: product, market, and marketing.
Summary
In summary, to be in alignment a company needs three components. There must be a product for sale. There needs to be a market - people who need the product and are willing to buy it. The third component involves the marketing strategies and tactics to fulfill the following functions:
Improve the strength of the brand
Drive up awareness of the product
Generate interest
Find prospective customers
Display the offer, and
Trigger the outcome behaviour
Past Articles
The other articles are posted on the Anduro Blog.
Lesson 1: Each Level of the Model Must be Measurable
In the first lesson, I learned that each level of the marketing and sales model must be measurable. Joanne’s logic is that if you have a level in the model with no measurement, why bother with the level? I agree, wholeheartedly.
In the second lesson, I learned the difference between a measure and a metric. Read the article to discover Joanne’s genius and the magic between collecting and calculating.
In the third lesson, I learned that the basic components of marketing are simple but need to be in “alignment”. You need a product that solves a problem, a market that wants the problem solved (and is willing to pay for the problem-solving product), and a series of marketing activities that connect the market with the product.
Lesson 4: Inside vs Outside the Model
In the fourth lesson, I learned that Joanne distinguishes between “inside the model” and “outside the model”. This simple but not-so-obvious concept helps to simplify marketing and make it less overwhelming.
Lesson 5: The Stupidity of Ignorance
In the fifth lesson, I learned that people who design and develop a model of what is happening in marketing are much better able to see what is happening. In other words, they move from a position of ignorance to a position of understanding and enlightenment. In Joanne’s words, “People can do better.”
Lesson 6: Classifying Situations
In the sixth lesson, I learned from Joanne that from a high level, there can be issues with the product, the market, or marketing – or any combination of these. Classifying your company’s situation is the next step. In short, there are only a few situations that make logical sense.
Lesson 7: The Value of Estimating
In the seventh lesson, I learned from Joanne that estimating involves thinking and asking questions. By Joanne’s standards, this means doing a lot more thinking and asking many questions than I do naturally. I have to set time aside to think and develop questions consciously.
Lesson 8: The Importance of Impressions
In the eighth lesson, I learned that paying attention to impressions is important. I outline 5 reasons why in the article.
Lesson 9: Understanding Outcomes
In the ninth lesson, I learned that marketing can and should be intentional. This may sound obvious, but in my experience, many companies invest in guesses, wishful thinking, and hopes instead of a clear path to making outcomes a reality. The practice of Intentional Marketing and using principles from our book will help companies reach outcomes with less guesswork.