Claim It: Be Your Industry’s Marketing To Women Thought Leader
These are interesting and lean times - and marketing is one of the first budgets to get hit for most businesses. In such an uncomfortable holding pattern, normally creative/idea rich marketing pros must face months with no more new ad campaigns, no more consultants, and no new research. Frustration abounds and time is lost.
But, what is one thing that can be done with little or no budget to keep a high profile and gain some goodwill in these downtimes? Present your brand’s knowledge and experience in a way that makes it the industry’s obvious marketing to women resource.
I recently wrote on what this might look like for eBrandMarketing:
Given the bulk of great general marketing to women information out there, all it would take is a commitment to sorting, compiling and packaging the files your marketing department may well already have on hand. The content exists, and with a little industry filter, the why and how of applying the latest knowledge becomes that much easier - and sharing that creates powerful community goodwill.
Could such an effort be the ultimate win-win? I think so.
Others may make the same products or sell the same services, but the brand that takes the steps to lay out all that they’ve compiled on marketing to women will be noticed and praised by competitors and other interested parties (future customers) alike. A willingness to risk competitive vulnerability to this extent will go a long way toward making that brand the most trusted and turned-to expert on marketing to women.
Andrew Ettinger also addresses this shared information = advertising/marketing concept in a recent MediaPost column
If a brand provides relevant information, it mitigates the need to advertise. Instead, consumers will seek it out. The product becomes less of a commodity because it serves a larger purpose. People want solutions to their problems, not sales pitches. Ultimately, they migrate to credible information sources.
Brands need to be thought leaders.
It may sound insignificant in comparison to the glam and buzz of, say, a huge Olympics campaign, or great coverage in the business press about your clever new social network initiative, but thought leadership can position your brand so uniquely that the competition won’t know what hit them.
Thought leadership simply breaks the marketing mold. By developing, curating and sharing quality information, thought-leading companies can both gain industry credibility and get the positive attention of existing and new customers.
Times are indeed trying, but what do we all have? Files upon files of marketing to women information we’ve gathered while doing our own research over the years. If those otherwise occasionally used files can be leveraged for good among our peers and our customers - for a very small compiling/editing budget - why wait another day?
