{"id":498,"date":"2009-02-28T11:26:48","date_gmt":"2009-02-28T11:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localenterprise.wordpress.com\/?p=498"},"modified":"2009-02-28T11:26:48","modified_gmt":"2009-02-28T11:26:48","slug":"word-of-mouth-marketing-that-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2009\/02\/28\/word-of-mouth-marketing-that-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of Mouth – Marketing that Works"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are at least three major challenges in marketing our enterprise services:<\/p>\n

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  1. More than 90% of the population does not see what we do as relevant to them – when it comes to enterprise they are pre-contemplators<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Getting our messages through – what are our key messages and how to we get them where they can be heard – by the people that matter?<\/li>\n
  3. Giving people the confidence, conviction and commitment to act on the messages – to give us a call, to come to a workshop, to make an appointment, to have a conversation<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Now the default setting for the VAST majority of enterprise projects are these:<\/p>\n

    We won’t worry about the pre-contemplators – we will target those who already have ideas they want to act on or already have the belief and the conviction that they can make progress.\u00a0 This makes it easier for us to hit our numbers.<\/p>\n

    Our core messages will be:<\/p>\n

    1.\u00a0 we can help turn your dreams into reality (if you don’t have dreams don’t call us)<\/p>\n

    2.\u00a0 We can turn your business ideas into reality (ignore the fact that the ‘Dragons’ mash up and humiliate most of the poor saps that go to them – with our help you can’t fail)<\/p>\n

    3. It is quick – and relatively easy – (if you haven’t got the skills we can teach them to you) – you can be up and running in just weeks or months.\u00a0 10 000 hours to master a field – forget it – who is Malcolm Gladwel<\/a>l anyway? 3 half day workshops and a bit of one to one on the business plan will “see you ‘reet”. (Glad no-one is measuring survival rates on our projects!)<\/p>\n

    4.\u00a0 To get people to take action we will lure them in by hinting at the availability of money, childcare, bouncy castles and food.\u00a0 We will even pay them the bus fare (yes, it costs a lot to administer but – what are we to do…?)<\/p>\n

    5.\u00a0 We will spend a lot of money on marketing collateral, leaflets, web sites and e-mail marketing campaigns (digital exclusion! – you mean some poor people don’t have e-mail accounts – never mind they could never become proper business people anyway – they are not our target group).<\/p>\n

    6. We will attend every possible event and push our services hard – just like those guys who sell SKY TV and Credit Cards in the Merrion Centre – “You mean we shouldn’t be selling enterprise like any other commodity?\u00a0 Why not?”<\/p>\n

    We know that these approaches:<\/p>\n