The Power of White-Hat Marketing and how to exploit it

In my previous articles (here and here), I already discussed what marketing is and the different approaches that white-hat marketers and black-hat marketers adopt. It’s now time to see in detail what are white-hat marketing best practices and how to implement them in a marketing campaign.

We will then (in another article) analyze the black-hat approach and compare it with that of white-hat marketers, to show that trying to force your customers, instead of leading and convincing them using sound reasoning, might produce disastrous results.

Some of the indications that I will list below might seem obvious, but that’s precisely the point. In fact, we’re trying to apply the “keep it simple” approach to marketing.

The funny thing is that once you add up a series of seemingly obvious rules, the final result is not always as obvious, quite the opposite, to tell the truth, sometimes it might even seem the result of magic.

That said, here are the rules of the white-hat game:

1.?????Know your product's strengths and weaknesses

Let’s face it: every product has strengths and weaknesses. Companies, usually tend to emphasize the former, trying to minimize (or completely omit) the latter, particularly in marketing communication. That is a mistake, because, as the adage goes "someone's ceiling is someone else's floor". And it’s not just a cliché: Viagra was not initially thought of as a remedy for male sexual défaillances. It should have been a drug against hypertension and angina instead, but, in that regard, it wouldn’t work well. On the other hand, a nurse noted the embarrassment of the male patients being administered the remedy during trials, and that started a change of name and a totally different usage of the medicament, which is now worth 1,8 billion USD in annual sales. Now try to imagine what would have happened if the heads of the company had denied the weaknesses of the product and persisted in selling it as a cure for angina. So, know your product well and never negate its weaknesses. Try to use them to your advantage, instead.

2.?????Let your USP be your guide

Just like every dog has its day, every product has its unique advantage over competitors.

This is precisely what you have to promote. Will it be enough to win a good share of the market?

That is out of your power to decide, it’s in the hand of your potential clients, but, in my experience, if the advantage, as small as it might be, is solid and you present it without the help of fraudulent messages, it usually convinces many users at least to give it a try. Then it will be up to your customer care and your post-sales services to convince them to stay with you. Always keep in mind that marketing can drive people to your shop, but then it’s up to your salespeople to make them buy and stick to your product. So a good idea would be to set up your commercial communication around your Unique Selling Proposition, which is exactly the unique advantage you have over competitors. This way you will be able to use your budget on a very focused and effective message, without dispersing it in many streams that only end up confusing your prospects.

3.?????Use both your Small and your Big Data

These days everybody talks about big data, and rightly so. Big Data can help you identify your weaknesses, or better understand your target, but they have also big limits, the main of which is that they are a bit “aseptic”: they don’t tell you a thing about people’s desires and fears, their emotions, or their aspirations. All these intangible elements have been renamed “small data” by the rightly famous Danish marketer Martin Lindstrom and they are essential to make marketing more personal and closer to its audience, which is precisely the objective of white-hat marketing. According to Lindstrom, getting a good insight into our customers’ emotions towards themselves and our products and how the two things interact with one another is essential to win more sales. In his books, he provides loads of examples of how he applied this principle and managed to save his customers’ day. The main element of his method is usually direct research in the field. Even if not everyone can afford to make extensive and prolonged research, there are at least a few things that almost everyone can do: first of all, ask your users. Aside from running polls, which can be done easily on any channel, it is important to ask users when their experience is not satisfying. If you have a cart on your site and a user is leaving before completing a purchase, ask him why. If he does not complete a subscription form and abandons it, ask him why. If he decides to cancel his paid subscription, ask him why and try to act based on his reply. Most of all: pay attention to his feeling. Chances are, that if you are respectful enough, he might decide to come back and perform as required.

On the other hand, use your big data to understand if you are on the right track or not: are sales increasing? Or is it abandoned carts that are increasing? Have you conquered all the market segments you planned to conquer?

But when it comes to changing things, always study customers' reactions and try to figure out the small data (i.e.: the emotions behind customers' behaviour).

4.?????Know your target

An old aphorism says that: “if you don't know where you want to go you will never get anywhere” and that’s precisely the case when you define a target. You need to know everything about people you want to hit with news about your products, but that’s still not enough, as you need to also keep an open mind. That is because, until you don’t launch your marketing campaign, everything is still a guess until proven right. You might think that, by using your big and small data, you have framed your target once and for all, but that often isn’t true. I often saw myself, for instance, that a YouTube campaign brought customers much younger than I expected. So, what I mean by knowing your target is also “keep on studying your target”. Who’s your target, then? Anyone that responds positively to your messages, and no one can predict in advance where the next gold vein is going to show up.

5.?????Decide a single specific advantage you want to communicate

Even if it might seem counterintuitive, USP and product’s advantages are not the same things. The reason why is that USPs tend to be descriptive and regroup more than one advantage. The specific advantage you are looking for, to start your marketing campaign is a claim, a motto. Usually, successful companies know this very well and present users with a motto, before explaining their USP.

Some examples:

·????????Stripe: “Payments infrastructure for the Internet”

·????????Shopify: “The platform commerce is built on”

·????????IKEA: “To create a better everyday life for the many people”

·????????McDonald’s: “Who comes to us for the first time, always comes back”

We are busy people nowadays, we do not have time for many words, you have to tell me the problem you solve in the quickest possible way, otherwise, you lose me once and for all. On average, the timespan you have to capture the attention of a customer is about fifteen seconds, probably less, so if reading your claim takes more than that you are toasted.

That is also why YouTube is generally a very effective channel in which to advertise, as it forces you to be very synthetic and talk through images, two things which do very good to one’s commercial communication.

Do you want another good reason to stick to the single advantage to communicate rule? It makes your life a lot easier when you have to check the results of your campaigns, as you won’t have to wonder what worked and what did not.

6.?????Decide a specific call to action

This rule mirrors the one just above. As much as you don’t want to puzzle your target audience with many messages, in the same way, you need to ask them to do something for you, but it must be just one thing. Unless you have millions to spend on brand building, a campaign without any call to action, or with more than one call to action is a poorly executed one.

As a matter of fact, I usually recommend inserting a call to action also inside branding campaigns. It does not cost you a penny more than planned and it might often produce unexpected outcomes.

7.?????Decide the (right) channels

Once you have your mind set on a particular target, you have to study their habits.

Where do they usually gather? Where are you more likely to find them? What kind of social interactions do they prefer? Which levers are they more sensitive to?

If you want to hunt lions, you won’t find them at the North Pole, and the same applies to customers.

If you are targeting recurring customers, a leaflet containing a discount for the next party night, given away in a disco, can sometimes produce more results than a social ad. On the other hand, if you are looking to expand your audience, you might want to look elsewhere or promote a discount only if you bring another friend.

Use your imagination and strive to take paths that others usually do not take. Changing a channel often leads to identifying a new audience that one previously never thought about.

As you might have realized, in no one of the above points have we suggested manipulating conditioning or redirecting users’ attention, ideas, or consciousness. White-hat marketing is centered on getting the user's consent, with his full awareness and all of his mind. But white-hat marketing is also very simple and effective because it is designed to win trust easily, as it hides nothing and longs for customers’ responses. It’s a two-way channel: you try to reach your customers honestly and correct the shot based on the feedback provided. It’s also scientific, as you make a guess, run an experiment and validate or reformulate the presumption based on the results you get.

And, most of all you do not have to worry about users finding out you've duped them, which is the worst that can happen to a company.