Join SMASH Founding Partner Sage Age Strategiesat the2017 SMASH Conferenceat Loews Chicago O'Hare October 2-4 and make your conference experience a SMASHing success!
You’ve just created the perfect ad or you’ve written a wonderfully informative blog. So, you’re done, right? All you have to do now is sit back and wait for the phone to start ringing or the emails to come pouring in.
Well, not quite. If you’re not adding a carefully crafted Call to Action (CTA) at the end of your marketing masterpiece – one that’s as compelling as your key messaging and useful content – you’re very likely hurting your response!
If you’ve ever worked on the events-specific side of marketing and sales, you know that hosting, attending or even sponsoring major events and conferences – and minor ones – can be both extremely effective and also extremely expensive.
On our blog, we’ve talked often about the importance of knowing your audience. If you’ve followed any of our advice, you hopefully understand why it’s critically important to know your audience if you’re hoping to create effective messaging and marketing that resonates with them.
At the same time, that doesn’t mean just honing in on the things you think your audience wants, or even speaking solely to that hyper-specific subset of customers you think will convert into paying residents.
There’s a reason why many organizations and businesses rely on marketing plans that lean heavily on more “traditional” tactics, such as print, radio, television and word of mouth, to generate results. These methods, while traditional, are still very effective! Today’s seniors may be more tech savvy than any seniors before them, but they are still some of the top consumers of traditional media, and move into new technologies slower than other demographics.
A well-conceived marketing plan takes into consideration a whole slew of angles, from the hyperlocal to the World Wide Web. Each has the power to greatly influence your potential customer’s path to your door, and the easier and more positive you make that journey, the more likely you are to hear them knocking!
You’ve got a strong marketing program running, your sales team is hitting their stride, and it looks to be a great season. Unfortunately, if you aren’t paying attention to what folks find when they Google search you or look you up in a directory – specifically, what your local and online listings say about you – you’re missing a foundational part of your strategy.
The word “nurture” probably conjures up a few different images, depending on your own personal experience. For some, images of a gardener’s loving hand might crop up as he or she tenderly nurtures budding plants to bloom. Others – parents, most likely! – probably think about nurturing their own children, guiding them thoughtfully through the various challenges they encounter. If you’re a marketer, though, your mind probably goes straight to sales – and for good reason.
With all the buzz around online, digital marketing, it’s easy to lose sight of more traditional – but still very viable – offline marketing avenues. Some large organizations have entire departments separately devoted to running independent campaigns and programs that, to a consumer, bear no resemblance to one another.
