The 4 C's

Connect-To connect with your customer, you must ask them questions and then the hard part begins, you must listen to their answers. Do you know their spouses name, where they went to school, how many children they have, their children’s names? Connecting is connecting on a very personal level. I think you must earn the right to ask for someone’s business. And until they trust you, why would they entrust their hard-earned cash with you? Connecting happens every time you call them, or see them, or you text or e-mail them. Are you providing value to that individual? Are you thinking of ways to grow their business? Are you thinking of ways to connect with your customers customer? Are you thinking of additional marketing strategies that will help them grow their business? Or are you thinking of ways to make your customers life easier? Are you offering your customer additional services that may be helpful? You can’t fake connection and when you do have that connection with your customer, you can’t believe how easy it is to lose. Hard to earn, easy to lose, and that is a fact. Cohesive-Your marketing message should be cohesive, in other words, recognizable, relatable and remember-able. Being cohesive takes time to develop the proper strategy to grow your business. Typically, promoting the most profitable part of your business is the quickest way to develop revenue, but this is not an absolute of any kind. The cost associated with generating sales in a profitable area may be cost prohibitive. Your marketing should look and feel the same and resonant with your target audience. By knowing who your customer is, by understanding what they like and what they don’t like, you can market to them in a cohesive manner to illicit the desired predetermined response. Being cohesive with your marketing message is important so your marketing builds upon itself. As your marketing grows and gains traction, your business should be doing the exact same thing. Constant-Your marketing message should be constant, unrelenting, exposed to your target market repeatedly. Pick platforms or tools that allow you to be dominate inside that space as much as possible, so you are constantly gaining exposure for your company, products or services. Your marketing should be steadfast and firm, on target and filling up the space inside the marketing tool being utilized. Less is more here, it’s better to be consistently constant in one area versus trying to be constant in too many places. When you finally feel like you’ve been constant with your marketing message and you are growing tired of it, this is typically when you are breaking through to the consumer. Coherent-Is your marketing message coherent? Is it understood? Does the consumer know precisely what you need them to know about your company? Is your marketing message logical, integrated with everything else in your business and understandable? If your target market does not understand your message, your marketing dollars are being wasted. I think many companies would rather just buy more goods or services and take their marketing dollars and not spend them on different ad platforms. Because their marketing is not coherent, their marketing does not work. It’s not the platform being utilized that doesn’t work. It’s because the message is not coherent, and it fails to reach the right consumer at the right time. Or the wrong platform is being used or being used incorrectly. Marketing works but is not a simple process. It takes time, energy, thoughtfulness and wear with all to stick with the plan to achieve results .

Original content produced by Tracy C. Smith.