The Art Of Triangle Marketing
Several months ago I gave a presentation titled "Put FaceBook To Work For Your Business"
, which highlighted FaceBook Fan Page as a way to share your unique business message with FaceBook users. It helped reinforce that social media is a vehicle that can be leveraged to grow a business and how to do so. Those new to social media wondered "How much of my marketing budget do I shift from traditional media (print or radio) to social media, is it a small re-allocation or total shift." Triangle marketing provides the answer to this question - Maintain the triangle, it is not a total shift.
Maintain the triangle means just that maintain the triangular characteristics within your marketing plan. These characteristics include the following:
Focus on three factors that drive success. Three factors define a proper triangle. Less than three or more than three means that you are not maintaining a proper triangle.
Consistent, aligned execution of these three factors is key. Envision your triangle as an equilateral triangle, not a right triangle or isosceles triangle. All angles and sides are equal.
Change is inevitable and the triangle offers you a flexible model that can adapt to change. Your triangle will change and different businesses will have different triangles, but the core characteristics of the triangle remain the same. Some Marketing Triangles will contain varying numbers of sub-triangles. Remember the internet graphic which asks "how many triangles do you see?". Some people see 1 triangle, some people see 12 triangles, and others see all 27!
Don't ignore the "three elephants in the room". Your marketing planning sessions should address the traditional media elephant, the digital media elephant, and the social media elephant. Ignore the elephant that you don't fully understand, social media for example, and you risk being surpassed by competitors who understand and fully embrace.
Strategy should also be a factor in a well-defined triangle. Ideally you should adopt an offensive strategy, one that will distinguish you from competitors and grow your business. For example, most people pursue a defensive Facebook strategy. They join Facebook because it is the "thing to do" or because their competitors are on there and do little to actively promote their Facebook. An offensive, business building strategy might involve:
Joining Facebook and adding Facebook icon to your website
Develop a promotion for gaining new customers and selling product and share it with people via a Facebook Fan Page. Keep in mind that many of your competitors are on Facebook. Few to none of them have a Fan Page.
Utilize Facebook viral marketing features to actively share your promotion and grow your business.
Remember the "Good Ole Days" when all you had to worry about was sales, inventory, and simple advertising? You could create a simple message, repeat it on traditional media such tv and radio, and watch the orders flow in. The more you repeat the message, they more orders you received. I call this the Good Ole Days Triangle.
Simple advertising has been succeeded by complex advertising in which we have to juggle internet, print, tv, facebook, twitter, radio, blogging, and more. Keep things simple by viewing your advertising and marketing options as a triangle with traditional media, digital media, and social media as the legs. I refer to this as the Modern Day Triangle (MDT). Keep in mind the following as you incorporate MDT into your planning:
Each leg of the triangle is important and can't be ignored
The legs can enhance each other:Strengthen Print By Adding Digital and/or Social
Make Digital More Effective by Getting Involved In Social
MDT will evolve as new methods are developed. Recent new additions include Article Marketing and Text Marketing.
Budget traditionally allocated to traditional media must now be spread amongst all three medias. Typical allocation is 75% traditional, 20% digital, and 5% social. Organizations pursuing an offensive strategy may ultimately increase budget and use an allocation where more (greater percentage) is spent on digital and social.
Let's end by understanding how you develop and deploy your Marketing Triangle. First you need to define your starting point. There are many existing triangles to choose from. Identify the one that is best for your industry and modify it to suit your needs. Available triangles include MDT, Corporate Triangle, Market Research Information Triangle, Service Triangle, and procedural triangles, and more!
Execution should be preceded by careful planning where are you now, what are your goals for the future, how do you get there? Your planning team should include technical and creative resources identify and include external resources if necessary. Your planning team should also incorporate responses to customer feedback - what you are doing well, what you are not doing well. Preferably pursue an offensive strategy. Budget and competitive pressures do sometimes lead to a phase 1 defensive strategy, followed by a phase 2 offensive strategy.
Combine your starting point and planning outcomes to define YOUR triangle. Keep in mind that at a minimum your triangle may be one where there is a sub-triangle for each leg.
Execution is the fourth and final step. I caution you to not pursue the common "Just Do It" approach. Triangle Marketing will help you effectively and simply define, communicate, and executing your marketing program. Don't just "Do", "Do" the right things for the right reasons!
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This article represents a portion of Ed's "The Art Of Triangle Marketing" presentation. Contact Ed at 214.778.5343 or
London@gobirk.com to schedule a presentation for your business or organization. MDT, Corporate Triangle, Market Research Information Triangle, Service Triangle, and procedural triangles examples are available upon request.
The Art Of Triangle Marketing
By: edsanders
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