In my home town, Dunsborough, a coastal holiday destination in the south-west of WA, there’s great community concern about developers and their plans to build multi-storey blocks of million dollar apartments. Both the townspeople and the local council are against it. Recently we held a public rally to demonstrate support for the council’s proposed amendment to limit heights to three storeys or less.
No fewer than 1,000 people turned up at that rally, a huge turnout considering the entire town’s population is less than 9,000.
The reason so many turned up was simple: a well coordinated, multi-media marketing campaign launched ten days before the event. We ran ads on Facebook and Instagram, volunteers delivered thousands of hard copy flyers, we had mainstream media coverage and an ad in the local paper, as well as widespread viral comment generated on Facebook.
People turned up with home-made posters, we had the local radio station board, as well as TV coverage.
The rally had a big impact. It drew comment from the state Minister for Planning, and wide support from the local council.
It took an enormous effort, with the resultant big payoff.
It took an enormous effort, with the resultant big payoff.
Yet it’s remarkable how many businesses never figure this out.
Last month, a development company proposing to turn acres of local farmland into housing estates decided they would do the right thing and hold a ‘community consultation’ session about their plans.
They sent an email – one lazy email – to 1,000 people announcing the date and location for the information session. That was ALL they did.
On the day, just ten people turned up. Ten. And self-righteously, the developer claimed they’d done their job, and the community clearly wasn’t interested. No, they didn’t do their job. If they had, they would have had people queuing up.
Here’s the lesson:
If you want to make an impact, you have to get the attention of the market.
And that means taking Massive Action.
And repetition.
A single email just doesn’t cut it. More than half will end up in junk folders. Of what’s left, 80% will be ignored. And most of the small number of people who actually read the email will have forgotten about it within half an hour.
No follow-up, no result.
Successful marketing isn’t about doing one thing – one email, or one Instagram post, or one text message, or one of anything, for that matter, then sitting on your hands and expecting a stampede of customers beating down your door.
Neither is it about doing one thing now, waiting a month and doing something else next month.
Success requires a hundred different things, all done simultaneously.
In business, less is not more. More is more.
WANT HELP TO CREATE A BUZZ…MORE CLIENTS…A STAMPEDE?
HIT THE BUTTON BELOW AND BOOK A FREE
