Dynamic Strategy and the Seven-Segment Marketing Wheel

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Messaging and the Media Mix

Finally, one must acknowledge that no one message will fit all and even the best message will not fit all the time.

Ideally, you would want to test different messages for each medium.

This is really easy using a two-step approach even if you know nothing about what makes your target react:

Step 1 – Create dozens of Adwords (or similar) ads.

• Using a simple Excel spreadsheet you can create dozens of Adwords ads mixing and matching headlines, body copy, offers and more.
• Run them for a week or two (depending on your budget)
• Choose the top 20% in some KPI (e.g., CTR, Cost/lead…)

This will be your baseline

Step 2 – Create your “real” messages based on the ads that have the best response

Optimize those

For example, let’s say you choose “e-mail” as a medium you want to test for upselling. You could try the following:

In this situation, the testimonial just didn’t work, not enough architects were either impressed or believed in them. The video made a huge difference, but ultimately did not bring down the cost of sales though it did bring in many more customers.

As the CPA owner you would not make a decision based on other factors:

• Your ability to handle the larger volume (60 vs 5)
• Your ability to generate referrals from the larger volume

And, keeping up with our mantra of Dynamic Strategy, you would use all three messages at different stages, so that initially you would use a simple message knowing that it would bring less clients. Then, as your ability to absorb clients grew, you would use the free 2 hour consultation to increase the number of clients and finally use the video testimonials when you can handle the volume and the referral programs.

In summary:

• Strategies can’t be permanent – they must be fluid, dynamic
• Even a small to medium-sized business has a wide range of tools and actions to generate and retain customers and grow its base
• Even a small to medium-sized business can test different creative and optimize results
• Strategic planning is the glue that holds everything together and makes sure that all of the pieces work in unison

Related articles:

Part 1: It’s Not a Toolbox, It’s a Marketing Mixer

What Does a “Free” Offer In Advertising Really Cost?

What Do Rodney Dangerfield and B2B Advertising have in common?

In Advertising, Persistence Wins the Day

Keys to Developing an Essential Small Business Marketing Plan