With marketing, it is not only what you say, but how you say it. Being authentic to your personality and your brand is paramount, especially when you can be so easily exposed in today's world where information travels in seconds and anyone can start publishing their own content to a world of hundreds of millions for free.
But, how can you communicate with your market in more effective and emotionally engaging ways? How can you change what you do as a company to create more engagement with your market?
As an example, pretend your target market cares about the environment, and your company does as well. What can you do as a company to connect with your target market on this issue?
1) Go paperless.
All The response rate for most direct mail is 2%. That means that 98% of your direct mail is wasted. Plus, in addition to the environmental impact of the 50 pieces you send for every 1 lead, there is the impact of the trucks and other transportation used to move all that mail around. If your audience really cares about the environment, send them email, use RSS, and let them know that you are not using snail mail for marketing.
2) Make your prizes environmentally friendly.
Still giving away iPods and cash prizes as part of some promotional contests you are using to gather leads and build awareness? If you want to engage with your market of environmentally conscious consumers, try changing your prizes to something they will actually care about. Perhaps a donation in their name to a global charity or purchase a parcel of rainforest to be protected in their name? If your market truly cares about the issue, this will be a great tool to provide more focus to your contest marketing efforts and
3) Use virtual meetings.
At HubSpot, almost all of our sales are done over the phone using web meeting technology like GoToMeeting or WebEx. Even for customers who are close by, it saves time, money and reduces the environmental impact because there is less transportation. For your "green" customers, they will appreciate it, but even your non-green customers will appreciate the time and money you are both saving.
Note: This post is part of Blog Action Day. For an explanation and some interesting statistics, read this article I wrote about Blog Action Day, the Environment and Viral Marketing.
