When a farmer sows a seed

In your experience, how many businesses have you come across taking this kind of long term approach?

I understand why they should do it. I just don't see it happening anywhere.

Ron

This is gonna be fun ;-)

Farmer sows a seed...
Toils in the sun all day...
Prays for rain.
Works from sunrise to sunset 7 days per week.
Some years his crop is fully destroyed by random acts of nature.
His wife leaves him for his best friend that is a dentist
His kids hate the family business and are only interested in growing pot they smoke behind the barn.
His dog (the only friend he has left) dies because he cannot afford the operation to heal him .
His horse trips over the new grave where the dog was buried and goes lame.
The farmer would shoot himself but he cannot afford a bullet.

The occasional year that he has a great crop I hop the fence and load up my buggy and make off with the spoils...

This is exactly what I do online for most of my offline clients. I hit with ads at the exact moment that buyers have made the decision to buy AFTER everyone else has nurtured them.
I feel bad not sending thank you letters to them for taking the time to educate my buyers ;-)

On a serious note I get what your saying but I just had way too much fun writing all that.
I do believe in a basic re-marketing campaigns for offline real type businesses.

To your main point
I agree that "everyone is targeting these people who are ready to buy"
but
where we part ways is that "everyone" is doing such a piss poor job it's still easy to get the sale.

If you are unable to get the sale when someone wants to make the purchase it is a sign that your marketing needs help. The answer to poor marketing is not to then throw yourself into cultivating future leads so that your poor marketing can loose them after an even longer process.

Now before anyone jumps on me for being so black and white about this
I do of course realize there are grey areas here and some businesses (but very few) businesses need to be in the longer nurture business. Having said that I still have NEVER run into a business that plays the long game that does not get constantly ripped off just before the finish line if they have a smart competitor. I spend my days crafting messages and campaigns to steal away these nurtured clients from others and its like shooting fish in a barrel.

Personally, I'm a big fan of relationship building / nurturing.

I have a number of clients who have been with me for many years. I'd like to think they see me as a trusted friend, and advisor.

Even if some slick talking marketer comes around offering them the latest "bright shiny object," they'll usually call me to ask for advice before jumping on any bandwagon.

It does take a while to earn that type of trust and loyalty, and admittedly I do lose some short sales with my long game approach. But most of the clients I do end up with, stay with me for a long time, and cost me very little (monetarily) to keep them as clients.

Now, I think we all can agree that if you catch someone when they're already primed to buy, it's much easier to sell them.

But it just seems to me, if a marketer spends half their time lurking in the shadows, waiting to snatch the scraps from someone else's kill; then they must spend the other half of their time looking over their shoulder, wondering who's trying to steal their food away?

Just be there, and show some interest in who they are, and what they do.

Also, let them know what you do, and if the opportunity presents itself, offer them a little something to show them you're interested in more than just their money.

I recently read Claude's book "Selling Local Advertising" where he talks about a "grapefruit lady" who was an attorney.

She brought him a number of grapefruits, for no other reason than to be friendly. When the time came for him to need a lawyer, she was the only one he considered for the job.

You can ask Claude for the detailed story, but I imagine that as long as she's competent, he'll never even go looking for anyone to replace her.

That would depend on business type, wouldn't it? For some businesses it might not be financially feasible. For others it might.

If you sell bridal dresses, there's a long time between the engagement and the wedding. You might want to have your ads in churches, bakeries, venues. You might want to offer a "Let's text you when we have new dresses."

If you do mortgages, you might cultivate relationships with the people who sell home insurance. You have a closing on a purchase today. Odds are good that a few years down the road, they'll refinance. Sending home owners/renters stuff directly for 7 years can work. Simpler, though, you have less control, is to partner with an insurance agent and get people who've not been your clients.



If you're selling bagels? Should you partner up with a pizza place?

Yeah, I used to work in a stock broker's office who did that.

The office would call people, set up a meeting and depending on the size of the fund, they might have pursued the prospect for several years.

Did it work? Yeah. But it took forever.In the office, it was said that to make it as a broker (on 100% commission) you had to ideally have ~30 k cash just for living expenses (that or you work as a busboy on the weekend or something).

It really wasn't sophisticated. Basically they did constant follow up until the other broker screwed the pooch and the prospect felt like switching.

NOW as powerful as it may be, may not always be the best path to success. I beg to differ in terms of "branding" and its uses and abilities. A long term strategy played along with short term gains is pretty powerful stuff.

Radio ads, Newspaper Ads, Truck signage, store front signage, billboards, Mail pieces, TV ads, yard signs ( corflute signs ) are all pretty common methods of branding. Sure these can and are used in a more direct marketing sense.. BUT the actual purchase percentage in any of these endeavours is a bit lack luster.

Creating "touches" over a period of time does something for all of your efforts as a whole... They get a post card, see your vehicle, see a billboard.. over and over. and the day they go online and do a search for what ever it is, and your client is sitting at #3 in the 3 pack.. those touches kick in. Touches equates to brand recognition. The prospect thinking to themselves as they do the millisecond scan of the results... "I am familiar with #3"

Those last 3 feet... just turned into miles apart.

If you are working with regional to local clients, branding makes a difference. Being seen, methodically inducing those touches. It can very easily be what separates you from your competition.

What is so hard here... is the ability to track this stuff. The reality is to an extent you cant. How are you supposed to know if branding is effective if many of your leads come from online. But say you have a lead gen site in the #1 position, and a branded site in #3.. generally statistics say #1 should get more clicks correct... I could show you plenty of data that suggests otherwise.

As your reach geographically extends - national or international branding efforts start to diminish. There are of course anomalies to this. ( speaking to those in the States and Canada ) If I were to say "Discount wood flooring" what comes to mind? How far off would Lumber Liquidators be? THATS the effect of branding.

If I say "discount Cell Phones" what comes to mind? Not a damn thing correct? This in effect could be a niche that could be targeted at a more local level

But lets get back to real local again.. plumbers, contractors, lawyers, dentists, doctors, lawn care... a calculated effort at branding coupled with a proper online presence starts manipulating the last 3 feet.

Converting people into potential customers is a long process, you have to be in contact with them. have to follow them from a time period and mail them the product offers time to time. Just be cautious in this approach as you don;t want to lose your potential to be customers.

Example: If you target to be mom women's regarding baby products, they will sure buy your products in the future.

Hopes this helps