You’ve probably heard the phrase “jack of all trades, master of none.” It refers to someone who displays an impressively wide range of skills or aptitudes, but who doesn’t really seem to have one particular niche where they stand above the rest.
In some ways, your approach to marketing should reflect this idea. The rapidly growing number of viable marketing channels where you ought to have a presence seems to multiply every year, so being a “jack of all trades” rather than focusing all your efforts on one channel exclusively is a no-brainer.
But, there’s one critical way in which the metaphor doesn’t translate all that well: Doing merely a “pretty good job” of executing on your strategy — on just a few or even a high number of marketing channels — is no longer good enough.
Email marketing, direct mail, SEO, content marketing, display, remarketing, dynamic, programmatic, social media… Each of these channels, and more, demands a fine-tuned, thorough approach that takes time and effort to execute correctly — and each is an indispensable part of the mix.
To be truly competitive in such a landscape, dealers increasingly have to be not “jacks” of all marketing channels, but masters of all marketing channels. You face challenges that no previous generation in the industry has, including:
- Consumers whose expectations of speed and convenience have been molded by the Internet and the rise of mobile technology
- Shoppers who are better-informed than ever
- A flood of advertising noise polluting every channel and drowning out all but the most potent and targeted of messages
- Meeting those challenges takes a unified, overarching strategy that comes at marketing with a comprehensive, but not one-size-fits-all, mindset.
“Well, great,” you may be thinking. “How do I do that?”
The good news is, the strategy that makes you a “master of all” is not as out-of-reach as it sounds.
In fact, it’s built on a commitment to just three simple, but critical, principles:
Consistency — The importance of putting out a consistent message across all of your marketing channels cannot be overstated. Simply put, the perception this creates is what separates the pros from the amateurs in the eyes of the consumer.
If you’re pushing deals and promotions with wildly different objectives in email, pay-per-click and social media, consumers will walk away with a conflicting view of your value and appeal as a brand. Their lack of confidence in you will lead to a lack of enthusiasm in the prospect of doing business with you.
Analysis — Part of being a master of all is discerning, through experience and analysis, what works best for your brand and what doesn’t. Once those determinations have been made, your budget should be optimized accordingly to get the most actionable leads possible out of your marketing.
Yes, it’s important to have a presence everywhere. Once you’ve started to figure out what works for you in terms of profitability, however, chances are you’ll be able to afford to be a bit choosier in how those efforts are divvied up, and that fine-tuning will reinforce everything that works best about your marketing strategy.
Endurance — Like in every other aspect of life, success in your marketing strategy has a lot to do with your willingness to endure adversity. Provided you’re making the necessary adjustments as you go, being willing to stick it out for a reasonable length of time to see what strategy works best for you is critical to cementing a marketing approach that’s built to last.
There’s no question that the marketing challenges facing today’s dealers are real, varied and numerous. But, you don’t have to go it alone. Working with a proven marketing partner can help you take these principles to heart, set your sights on becoming master of all, and leave all the other “jacks” in the dust.
