Well THAT was fun! A recap of the Ottawa Business Summit

Pardon the image… still feeling a bit high.  A couple days ago I had the opportunity to speak at the Ottawa Business Summit with my esteemed colleagues: Jim Donnelly, Editor of the Ottawa Business Journal, Karen McNaughton, Founder of The Marketing Hub, Arash Mahin, CEO of vdoLIFE and Kneale Mann, Founder of YouIntegrate!  Our room was PACKED with about 200 people.  We had some excellent questions from the audience about Email Campaigns, Social Media, Video, Traditional Media relations and how to relate to the media (even when you don’t have big news).

Sadly we ran out of time… our topic could have consumed a whole day I’m sure. I know I’m hungry to do more!

Small-to-medium-sized businesses all over the world are struggling with how to integrate all the new tools into their marketing strategies:  Where to begin? How to reach their audience in effective ways? How to keep the audience?  The focus of our discussion a few days ago was really about the fact that businesses have to look at marketing from a cross-media perspective.  One stream of marketing is typically ineffective.  There are multiple customer touchpoints and each needs careful consideration in an overall strategy.

We also recognized (as we all should) that many SMB’s are stretched for resources (financial and human) and it’s tough to “do it all”.  But those who can’t afford to outsource their marketing strategy and tactics, can still do many activities themselves.  Marketing isn’t only for companies with money… there are many ways to build awareness on a shoestring.  It just requires dedication and effort – and more importantly an understanding of your audience/customer, what they want and what they expect.

I’m reminded of an infomercial with a very memorable slogan.  I’m not suggesting you go to this site, but here’s the link if you want to…. LOL!  Remember the Ronco Rotisserie?  Remember his slogan, “set it and forget it”?  This a classic marketing mistake.  We’ve seen it many times:

“…okay, I’ve distributed the flyers, I bought a week’s worth of radio advertising, and I bought one newspaper ad  and I have a Facebook Fan page.   There… done…”

A business that does this may see a blip in sales and activities, but often owners end up disappointed because nothing super-sustainable comes out of it.  Worse, owners then begin to blame the medium. Marketing is never finished… NEVER.  And here’s the usual response when their efforts don’t meet the expectations:

“…well newspaper and radio sure doesn’t work! And I only have two fans on my Facebook page…”

Back up here…

Yes, this scenario is somewhat of a “multi-touchpoint” approach.  But really?  Seriously? What, in that approach, is sustainable?  NUTHIN!

What was the message? What was the call to action?  Did you give them a reason to come back? Did you give them a reason to stay?  How are you building loyalty?  How are you telling your story?  Did you give the customer a voice? Did you leverage the medium in the right way?  Did you think about “what’s next”?  Chances are…. Not likely.

The adage is true – “out of sight, out of mind”.  One off’s DON’T work…. Ever!  And if they do, congratulations, you’re a phenomenon (or you’re Susan Boyle, from Britain’s Got Talent)!

Marketing, regardless of the tactics you choose (PR, Social Media, Email, Web site, Video, etc.), requires constant care and feeding.   It requires hitting the audience through multiple touchpoints – not once, but constantly.  It requires an iterative approach – review, review, review.  It requires flexibility.  It requires vigilance.

There… done! not really… but for this post… I’m done!