The 7 Deadly Sins of Community Marketing
Notes from Business Retention & Expansion International Webinar
Introduction
- Nearly all communities in North America were founded on either transportaion or natural resources, as such are currently looking for their “Second Act.”
- 30,000 states, provinces, counties, districts, cities, towns and villages in North America…All competing for tax dollars, jobs, and a piece of the economic development pie
- “Drowing” in a marketing overload where by 97% of all community-based marketing is ineffective
- We are now exposed to 5,000 marketing messages a day
Deadly Sins
Deadly Sin #1: Trying to be all things to all people
- Ask yourself if you have ever gone anywhere because they had something for everyone?
- Too many communities and businesses stuck in “group hug or membership mentalitiy”
- Cannot be all things to all people to win in today’s marketing efforts
- To win, you must narrow your focus which you must stick to with the highest determination and confidence on what makes you different or clearly better
- MUST jettison the generic
- The Rule
- Don’t be all things to all people. Promote the primary lure. Find your niche and promote it like crazy.
- The narrower the focus, the stronger your success will be
- Something for everyone will result in mediocrity and ultimate failure. Memberships can kill your marketing efforts.
- “Better to be a big fish in a small pond, than a small fish in a big pond!”
Deadly Sin #1.5: Using Focus Groups
- Cannot do branding by public consent. Build brand on feasibility, not just local sentiment.
- Focus groups are never the way to build a brand
- Creative services usually don’t get it
- Cute and/or cleaver rarely works
Deadly Sin #2: Telling the World Who Instead of Why
- Remember to always ask:
- Does it make you want to go there?
- Does it close the sale?
- Why should I visit, buy or invest?
- Importance in preceding order:
- Tell me WHY I should choose you, then WHO you are, WHAT you’ve got, and finally WHERE you’re located
Deadly Sin #3: Boring Ads and Headlines
- Stand out from the crowd and grab attention
- 5 times as many people read the headline as those who read the body
- 80 cents of marketing dollar spent on headline
- Evoke Emotion, make a statement, and hit an emotional spot
- This will create top-of-mind-awareness (TOMA) and a call to action
- Top three inches of a brochure are critical and must promote the experience
- Use bold fonts
- Yellow on a dark background grabs viewers the best
Deadly Sin #4: Selling Place Before Experience or Opportunity
- Promote experiences first, place second and outline the difference
- Overall, visitors don’t care about regions, counties, districts, cities or towns
- Interactivity, not passive things to look at
- Focus on people not places
- Processional Photos
- People
- Evoke emotion
- Forget boundaries
- Video is the best way, but again must show difference or clearly show superiority
- “Sell the rapids, not the river”
- For economic development:
- Sell the experience or opportunity not land, building or infrastructure
- Forget boundaries!
Deadly Sin #5: Missing a Call to Action
- “It’s Showtime! What are you doing this weekend?” – Call to Action
- People more than place
- Shopping and Dining as a brand?
- Walnut Creek, U.S., pop. 60,000: over $1 Billion in revenues from shopping and dining
Deadly Sin #6: Spending More on Collateral than on the Web
- 90% of North Americans have access to the internet
- Of those, 94% use internet to decided travel, live, work, establish business
- On internet searches we type experience first, place secon
- E.g. Car shows near Toronto
- 86% of internet searchers don’t go past the 2nd page of results
- 70% of advertisers are frustrated with their planning via web
- Why? Busy promoting physical attributes over experience
- Search engine optimization should include opportunities
- Provide specifics over generalities
- Web is the #1 marketing priority but needs to be good enough to close the sale
- 88% of destination marketing and economic development organizations spend more on printed materials rather than on the web
- Recommended budget:
- 45% internet
- 20% public relations media brand building
- 20% advertising to drive people to your website
- 10% on collateral print materials
- 5% outdoor, tradeshows etc.
Deadly Sin #7: Being Everywhere Yet No Where
- Repetition gets results
- In the age of speciality, marketing needs to go for niche markets
- Better to have ads in the same spots over and over again
- E.g. Promoting amazing scenic drives in 2 or 3 car and driving enthusiasts magazines
- Jettison the generic and find your niche
- Tell why and get the attention
- A bi-product of marketing for the people is the committee that compromises and kills a potential marketing home run
- In the end you MUST deliver on the promise
Conclusion and Discussion
- Sell the opportunity and where to find it and be specific!
- Membership Challenge
- CEO typically spend 80% of their time dealing with membership and fundrasing, and 20% on getting businesses involved
- Tourism is your door
- Investors come first as a visitor
- E-Newsletters are good; however need to have relevant importance; otherwise you will have a hard time getting 5% of viewers to actually read
- Can promote multiple angles but an overall theme should be present
- Secondary branding should be geared towards overall theme and niche
- For changing leadership and focu groups’ perceptions, best efforts should focus on grass roots rather than top-down and narrow focuses