Holistic marketing: A 3 stage process of communication.
(Ooh and stick to the end to nab my free website goal-setting mini-course…)
Blogging, SEO, email marketing and social media management.
It all takes time and can feel extremely draining.
I’ve found through trial and error and by developing my understanding of human psychology, that there are conscious steps we can take to help our marketing efforts feel more intentional, efficient and effective, and less like we’re throwing spaghetti at the wall:
Through our marketing strategy, our objective is to take someone from being a total stranger to piquing their interest.
The next stage of the process is getting them to engage and relate to us/the brand.
Finally, we want to lead them to the conversion (which is the point where they buy a product or service from us).
By giving consideration to each and every step of this process, we can see more significant results from our marketing: meaning less time wasted, no more trial and error, and better results.
Imagine your marketing strategy is a chain. Each link of the chain moves a passive scroller a little closer to giving you money. Each link has its own role which is paramount to getting a potential customer from A to B.
But sometimes there’s a kink or weakness in the chain along the way that is difficult to locate, let alone fix. Just one link that isn’t doing its job and the flow is broken, so getting from A to B is significantly more difficult, if not impossible.
Like the chain, if there’s a problem at any point in your marketing strategy, it will struggle to function as a whole.
And if there is just one ineffective element in your marketing chain, it’s very hard for another link to compensate for the weakness elsewhere.
So do any of these sound familiar?
You get great engagement on social media and your grid looks great, but little of this follows through to sales
You’ve got a ton of people on your mailing list but no one clicks through to the links of your emails
You’ve put time and energy (and possibly even your money) into finding new leads through hashtags or SEO or ad campaigns, and you’re getting more traffic onto your website, but that’s as far as it goes
You’ve worked hard on your website and its copy to connect to your audience’s problems but you’re not getting enough eyes on your website
If you’re nodding your head to any of these it probably means there is some kind of gap in your chain.
There are 3 main links to the chain. I like to think of them as 3 different types of investment that you are asking from your audience.
The TIME investment.
The TRUST investment.
The CASH investment.
The first thing you are asking of your audience is for them to give you their attention.
The internet is so busy, our industries are getting crowded and there always seems to be someone doing what we’re doing but a helluva lot cheaper.
So asking for someone’s time is a big ask. However, it is key for leading someone down the route of passive scroller to paying customer.
The second chain in the link is asking for the trust of your audience.
You need to communicate that you understand your target market, proving that your product or service fits them better than any of your competitors.
Without having something in common with your target audience, it will be hard for them to relate to you or see themselves using your product/engaging with your services.
So likeability is also a biggie. This is how you will stand out from the crowd: by being direct in your messaging and ensuring how you communicate with your audience is memorable.
The third and final link in the chain is asking for the sale.
You can be super clear of your target market, understand their motivations, relate to their problems or desires whilst standing out in the crowd, but taking that final step is the only way this is going to ensure your business is viable.
Ultimately it is about ensuring there are no barriers to your ‘almost-customer’ achieving this final stage.
Sometimes our audiences just need a gentle nudge in the right direction to remind them that we are running a business with products and services for sale and not just showing up online/on social media/on our YouTube channel to give out free advice, insight or entertainment just for the hell of it.
It is important to remember that each link in the chain is significant in its own right. It is a holistic process.
Trying to jump from the first link to the third link means there’s no connection with your audience.
Without nurturing your relationships with your potential customers, you might get some impulse buyers, but it isn’t strategic.
It is not a sustainable way of expecting to gain good quality customers and clients.
And right now, when the world’s purse strings are a little tighter than usual, we need that extra something to ensure we’re giving our hard-earned cash to someone we believe in.
That’s why the second link (asking for a TRUST investment) is fundamental to sustainable connections with your audience.
Gaining the trust of a customer means you’re more likely to get return customers and they are more likely to tell their friends about you, recommend you to a stranger, share their experience on social media, and/or write you a review.
If you want to find where you’re leaking customers (using this 3 step process), you’re gunna love my free Website Mini-Course: "The website life raft“.
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