Do you know the 3 Most Important Factors in Marketing?
In the real estate business it has long been said, “the three most important factors when selling a home or property are location, location, and location.”
For marketers, the three most important factors are: repetition, repetition, and repetition. Why? Because repetition puts your products in front of prospective customers when their need arises and repetition reinforces perceptions about your products and company. In other words, repetition gets attention, builds brands, and most importantly, generates inquiries.
There is no magic pill when it comes to meeting the above marketing challenge. However, the closest thing to a magic pill is a well-executed product publicity campaign. First, you have to know what publicity is. It isn’t “free advertising,” as is often promoted by some in the advertising business. Publicity is news and information. By itself, publicity has tremendous value. In fact, the more newsworthy a media outlet, the more it charges for advertising. In other words, the value of the “space for sale” is directly correlated to the value of the editorial. So, the first thing that is necessary to create a well-executed publicity program is to change your point-of-view.
Rather than seeing publicity as free advertising, see it as making a contribution to the very reason why the media exists: to bring readers news and information. Develop press releases that help editors and Web hosts accomplish this by illustrating how your products solve problems. And if they “choose” to publish your contribution; everybody wins!
Why is product publicity so effective? First, if an editor or Web host decides to publish news about your company, it is because they deem it newsworthy. By definition, it will carry more credibility than an advertisement. This helps establish and solidify your brand. Just reflect on Apple’s introduction of the Mac, Ipod, and Iphone for validation of this idea. The widespread exposure and repetition of the message in various media outlets not only reinforced the notion of Apple as an innovator, it also generated sales inquiries from potential customers and distributors.
I can hear it now; I’ve heard it before, “I’m not Steve Jobs and my products are not like his.” Well, they don’t have to be. If there is a need your product or service fills, there will be media outlets interested in learning how they accomplish this. As marketers, we have no control over whether our prospective customers are “ready to make a change’ and try our product. They may be happy today with their current vendor, but tomorrow might bring a price increase, botched delivery, or some other opportunity may be created as a result of expansion, a personnel change, or another factor out of our control. The real marketing challenge is: To “be in front of that prospective customer” when such an opportunity arises and to do it in the most cost-effective way!
You want these prospective customers to call your company, visit your Web site, or search for your product or company. Widespread product publicity will accomplish these objectives more effectively than any other tool in your marketing toolbox. Product publicity can also uncover new markets functionally and geographically, drive traffic to your website, and help determine the best media outlets for advertising programs. And, if properly done, it will do it more cost-effectively than any other element of the marketing mix.