The Real Reason Behind Our Success in Marketing.

I'm not about to blow my own horn here and create some type of advertising piece for our company, Palmer Creative Group. The fact is that we do something that other people don't in our day to day activities - and these things that we are doing have set sales records at many of the places that we've been engaged with over the years. I'll try and share a few little tricks that we've used over the past.

#1 - We Listen First!

To start each project, we always conduct an over-the-phone survey with the best clients of the firm that we've engaged with. Why? The past best customers are your best source of marketing materials and information, they know your weakness, strengths, they see opportunities and threats for your business that you as the owner can't possibly see. The have vital market intelligence to offer that you simply can't get in any other way - you need to listen.

Questions that prompt discussion are always open ended - never a yes or no answer is possible. This way, we are getting information that we record (typing speed is vital) and this information is critical to creating a marketing plan for the next 3-5 years for our clients. In one case, I didn't insist on a Marketing Plan to be created and predictably - we failed to create sales through the marketing department. Granted, we ended up getting in front of some of those best customers eventually - but by then, the marketing dollars were close to being exhausted and it was really too late. If I can tell you one thing as a business person in mining, forestry, pulp and paper, or mining services - do a marketing plan and a best client survey FIRST - before a nickel is spent creating media.

What kinds of questions do we gingerly ask the past best clients? Here's a few of my favorites:

1. What do you love about client's services?
2. What do you not love about the client's services?
3. If, you could tell me one thing that you would tell my client if you could do so anonymously, what would that be? (ps. I don't include the past best clients names on the survey report at the end, protecting confidentiality is essential)
4. What shows do you always attend that my client will probably want to attend as well?
5. What media do you personnally read, watch or listen to?
6. In your mind's eye, what do you see as an image that best represents what our client actually does for you better than anyone else?
7. In your opinion, how does our client fit in price wise, service wise and other comparitables with our competition?
8. In your car / truck - what type of music is on the radio station that you listen to daily while driving?
9. If we asked you to remain our our marketing committee after the survey was completed - and we'd only take up 2 minutes of your time following the creation of our creative, is this something you'd be willing to do?
10. Can you tell me about a time when our client was super-valuable to your firm - either in the field, or otherwise?

By carrying out this survey, a few things happen automatically:

a) The Client knows of the value that we have for them

b) The Client will feel like they are helping to direct traffic in the future (which they are)

c) The Client will feel a certain level of loyalty and an openness to express concerns in the future. This is of significant value to our clients.

d) We automatically have a list of activities that are appreciated, a list that needs to be dealt with immediately, a list of potential new services that are not being offered now, the precise shows that should be attended, the precise audio tracks that we would use in our videos and advertising things on social media and we'll get random and easy access to go back to further get information from these clients in the future.

e) We'll have sales stories that aren't bullshit, they're real and from actual customers. We'll know exact product lines are attractive, pricing details will come out and Management will then have the truth about things - and not just what their key support team provides them - which is often an opinion to support further future raises and benefits to the support team. hahahaha.

#2 - Treat That Survey Information as Our Guide Forward in Everything We Do

So, you're handed the magic bullet in a report format - documented analysis of your entire company, from a client's perspective.

We would recommend at least 50 client interviews to really make sure that these ARE the opinions of the best-client data base. The opinions of anyone else falls behind the attitudes and opinions of your best clients: they pay the bills and their opinions matter - lose the experts around you and find your existing best clients, today! Following that, it's so simple:

a) Rework the show schedule to be where the clients are - every single show that scored repeatedly in surveys. Attend those shows! Simple.

b) Rework the media to show precisely what was in their collective mind's eye when they think of what you do best. Change the video to mimic the response to flavour of music in the cars, shoot the photos that show the client's perspective on your services - follow the information to 100% given by the best clients, they are never wrong. Simple.

c) Change the strategy to include the customer often in everything that is done, make more newsletters featuring the clients - they are never wrong - and mostly they come up with better ideas that guys like me do - 100% of the time. They are the client - and know exactly what they would like to see done differently. Simple.

d) Get rid of the 5 syllable words - write like a 3rd grader and people will read and read your stuff. Get rid of those nasty phone videos and still shots - professionally produce your artwork, your videos, your stories deserve the attention to detail that experience provides - not just by coincedence, it's hiring a team that has failed hundreds of times before your project - and have learned the ropes through trial and error, massive study sessions and discipline.

e) Plan and budget every step and you'll never fail. Failure to plan is planning to fail. Each year, media planning budgets need to be developed - the creative then has all year to be considered, planned and executed.

#3 Write Out the Marketing Plan in Detail

We have a template which has never failed to outsell everyone in the business. It's smartly done and I stole it from some of the best minds in the marketing business.

Doing this extent of study does a few amazing things for you at this point. It forces further analysis: competitor / internal / audits of advertising expenditures / audits of show expenditures / etc. Although this is a process, it always pays dividends for years in the future. We didn't set sales records by accident and we are no smarter than others - it's the intense process by which we conduct our work, intensely high quality in our media - that always stops social media scrolling and attracts the interest of future best client types.

And, when it comes time to finish up the original marketing plan, don't forget to create the media plan at the same time. At this point, we'll know what has been wasted in the past and make corrections, potentially changing up what has been the patterns - and introducing new customer-based media planning which is likely less costly and much more effective going forward.

#4 Create Better Media Overall - Make Every Word Count!

It takes a bit longer to do a nice job on your stuff, but always pays off. How? You get way more views when something is well done, just look on Linked In. The sloppy stuff gets lower hits, is far less viewed - and the company has wasted time and money on that resource if no one looks at it, ever.

Across the board, all staff should also be instructed to like and share every post to maximize the reach across Social Media. After we do imagery / video / posting, we optimize the look as well as we optimize the hit counts to ensure views on our critical pieces of media exceed the norm - I'm suggest that 5,000 views or more need be optimized by a member of our team. It guarantees that the time and money put into the campaign creation is not wasted. It guarantees views, social media views/reads / comments and more. Above: 476,000 views on our Linked In page previous 365 days.

#5 Connect with More People on Social Media, Daily!

We have about 17,500 connections on Linked In. How? We have spent years inviting key target groups one by one onto our platform. We have also built groups on Linked In that house our primary targets for the clients that we currently have.

Here's a little video that we did for CoreSafe. Our voice over guy is quite good and the video clearly communicates the value of the Coretrays.

Here's a good case in point, this group was created as we started conducting introductions from Junior Mining Clients of ours to the Finance Community. So, we built a group just for them - and everything we post in there can only be seen by group members. We're at 170 now or so - and all of them were hand-picked by us as potential investors in our client's projects. Here's a good example of how this works, it's an Investor's Group that we built last month, and already has had much success in finding investment professionals.

#6 Don't Scrimp on the Stories / Imagery / Video Because It's Cheaper to Do it Yourself . . .

Well if that doesn't say "we cut corners" more than any single thing you can do. When you're seen as corner cutters, you're value is questioned. They wonder if you'll be half-assing their important stuff when you're outward view doesn't really appear to be a priority.

One can look at the stock price of certain clients and see a dramatic fall once they stop doing good advertising, repeated updates to clients, information to investors and more. You can quite often see share pricing fall when attention to marketing diminishes, I can see it with our own past clients.

"The same person that shuts off a watch to save time is the same person that stops advertising to save money" - Henry Ford

If you have time, nose around on Our new website Also, on Linked IN - check out all of the groups that we've created to make "prospect groups" for our clients: VP Exploration Group, Driller's Group, Inspirational Mining Investor Group, Inspirational Mining Maintenance Group - and many more. These were all created by us for the benefit of reaching more clients for our clients. Time-consuming but very well spent time!

There are a ton of ways to get the skill sets used in these examples - you will be better served by digging in and learning what it takes to make a great marketing campaign, increase sales, reducing stray media costs and more. I would be available if someone wanted to discuss your own situation. Reach me at 1.807 625 1441 or email: [email protected]

Kevin Palmer is a Registered Professional Marketer certified by the CIM in 2007. He has extensive experience in developing sales strategies that outperform by utilizing a combination of CRM, Imagery, Video, Stories, Chat GPT, Web design, sales and marketing materials, client surveys, marketing plans and much more. He is known as a highly disciplined leader in the Marketing Field and has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute of Marketing. (volunteer term completed)