Marketing a Considered Purchase? Social Media Can Steer You to Success

If your job is to market a considered purchase, should social media be a part of your marketing plan? In a word, “YES!”

Many of the brands we’ve worked with over the years are considered purchases — products and services that people don’t choose every day.  Often, these things are big-ticket items that people may research for weeks or even months prior to making a decision.

So, if you are a marketer of a considered purchase, you are responsible for communicating your messages to several target audiences.  In addition to end users, you also may be talking with dealers, distributors, direct sales groups, or third party “partners.”

Sound like your business?

If so, here is the advice we give our clients, “One of the most important things to do with disparate front-line channels is to talk to them. And, do it often. Let them know what’s going on with your marketing program.”

Lots of companies communicate with their front-line teams through a secure web portal to increase efficiency. But, like talking to your buying audience, one-way communication is a weak sister to participating in a dialogue. A much better solution is to introduce a social media program, if you haven’t already implemented one, or rev it up if one is already in place!

Social media tools enable you to create a conversation about your upcoming efforts. Encouraging discussion of plans makes your channel partners feel like they are participating, and in the process, there’s good chance you’ll learn something important from them. As you well know, when the field feels they’ve participated, they’re destined to feel more passionate about the program and work harder to make it a success.

Go ahead.  Do whatever you have to do to ramp up your social media program. You’ll definitely be glad you did!