When it comes to geospatial marketing, the errors and missteps are all too common. The precision that the field demands really should extend to your marketing strategies as well! And yet, we often see these epic geospatial marketing disasters. Pay attention and learn from others’ mistakes.
What? No Landing Page?
Picture this: You’ve just launched a fantastic marketing campaign. You’ve invested time and resources to create the perfect ad (or email or social post), and it’s drawing clicks by the dozens. Everything should be sunshine and roses from here, but you’ve neglected to create a landing page!. Instead, your potential customers are left wandering around your website, looking for the offer dangled before them in your ad, email, or post.
Avert disaster: Always, ALWAYS create dedicated landing pages that align with your campaign offers, content, and goals. Make sure they’re optimized for conversions, with clear calls to action (CTAs). No one likes a digital dead-end!
Unfocused Content: A bigger disaster than you think
Your geospatial marketing campaign is a labyrinth of content that even Lew would struggle to navigate. You’re throwing out buzzwords like “geospatial intelligence,” and “geodetic surveying” to visitors who just want to know where the property line is, and offering free consultations to customers who’ve been with you for years. The result? Your audience is confused, lost, or worse – they don’t feel like you know who they are.
Avert Disaster: Map out your customer journey as well as your buyer’s journey (yes, they’re different!) and provide content that’s relevant at each stage. Start with educational, informative content and gradually guide your audience toward more technical material as they progress. Keep it clear and concise, so your customers won’t feel like they’re on a quest. (Note that some content management systems (CMSs) and marketing platforms can actually help you dynamically guide the right content to your audience.)
Ignoring Your Power Base: Marketing in a bubble
What is your Power Base? It’s your network of friends, family, acquaintances and connections as the initial prospects or customers for whatever product, service, or venture you are offering.
Don’t ignore your power base like they’re invisible! You should be leveraging your connection this audience to support your campaigns.
Have you heard of the six degrees of separation? Look it up! Any person on this planet might be connected to any other person through a chain of acquaintances that have no more than five intermediaries. What does this mean to me? Well, think about it: Your power base potentially links you to an untapped pool of potential customers. Your Uncle Joe may never buy from you, but you don’t know who he knows. By liking or sharing your posts, he may connect you to your next best customer.
This is why your power base is so important.
By sharing your post, it’s clear that Uncle Joe knows and trusts you. When is friend Lucy sees your post, she sees someone she trusts endorsing a business that they trust.
That’s why leaning into your power base is an important to marketing success – and ignoring it is a potential disaster.
Avert Disaster: Write a list of all the people in your power base. These can be family, friends and acquaintances, customers you have sold too, not sold too. Write them down?
Social Media Hoarding: Remember, sharing is caring
You have a team of rock stars, and their social media accounts are collecting dust. Meanwhile, your company’s geospatial achievements and news are being seen by the twelve people who actually follow your page. It’s sort of like having a treasure chest but never bothering to open it.
Avert Disaster: Encourage your team to share company posts and news on their social media accounts. They may have their own massive networks of potential customers and partners who know and trust them, and that can help your company reach new audiences. Remember, every retweet, like, or share extends the reach of your posts.
Making enemies in the press: Shooting yourself in the foot
Reporters are like the “mean girls” in marketing. If they want something from you and you don’t give it to them, you’re going to pay. Ignoring their queries, providing vague (or worst, inaccurate) information, or being downright rude can lead to some disastrous PR nightmares.
Avert Disaster: Treat reporters with respect. Respond to their queries promptly and provide them with the information they need. Be clear and professional. It’s a small world, and you don’t want your reputation to suffer because you rubbed Jimmy Olsen the wrong way.
Those disasters are all too common, and more harmful than you realise. While it may seem that any marketing is better than no marketing, inviting your customers and prospects to a bad experience may do more harm than good! And why invest time and energy into creating marketing campaigns that will drive business away from your business rather than to it?
To ensure you’re well-prepared to avoid disasters moving forward, here are some tips to help guide you to marketing success instead.
Map Out Your Campaigns:
Before launching any marketing campaign, have a plan. This should include target audiences, messaging, goals, and, of course, landing pages. Your landing page should have the same (or a very similar) headline and offer as your email, ad, or social post so that when your customer clicks, they know they’re in the right place – and they know what they came for.
Gain Some Content Clarity:
Segment your content to suit different stages of the customer journey. Start with user-friendly, easy-to-understand content for newcomers and gradually delve into more technical information. Think of it as creating geospatial breadcrumbs. There are lots of great graphics out there that can walk you through either the customer and buyer journey, or more simply, the sales and marketing funnel, showing you the kind of content you should have available to visitors at every stage.
Leverage Your Power Base:
Your friends, family, past customers and clients, and currrent customers and clients are your greatest allies. Keep them informed about your marketing efforts, and encourage them to support your campaigns. Word-of-mouth recommendations from satisfied customers are more valuable than gold doubloons.
Social Media Teamwork:
Encourage your team to use their social media accounts to spread the word about your company’s achievements and news. It’s like having an army of digital ambassadors. Why not empower and encourage them – even reward them – for amplifying your brand profile?
Respect Press Relations:
When dealing with reporters, be professional, prompt, and respectful. Build relationships with them, as they can be important allies for generating positive media coverage and bolstering your industry reputation.
In the competitive world of geospatial and survey, a well-executed marketing strategy can give your company a tremendous advantage over competitors in your local market. So, do your best to avoid disastrous pitfalls! Hopefully, this guide will help you get on the right path.
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