Is it Chicken Divan or Turkey Divan? Customizing Your Marketing Plan

     I recently read an article about the importance of customizing and tweaking and it encouraged readers to think about marketing like following a recipe. We follow a recipe but we also have to customize it to meet our members' needs. Let's look at a recipe for Chicken Divan which I have used for many years and  is my husband's favorite. Someone told me about the recipe and how wonderful it was. I was told I could follow the recipe exactly the way it was. But that was a false hope. I read the recipe and wanted to use turkey instead and the recipe called for broccoli but my husband hates broccoli but loves asparagus, so I customized the recipe to use asparagus. It also called for cheese but not enough cheese to our likening. I added more cheese. I cared for my husband and wanted to meet his needs.

    So how does this apply to marketing? Has someone told you they have the answer to all of your marketing needs and you follow their advice and it doesn't work? Why? Because you also have to look at the needs of your members and have to change according to their needs. If you recommend broccoli for everyone, they won't buy in, because they hate broccoli. In marketing if someone recommends Facebook only and some of your members don't use Facebook, they won't buy in. If someone tells you to find all the answers on a chapter website but you have members who don't use websites, that is not going to be successful.

    We have to first know our member's needs and we have to assess them to learn more about their preferences. We care about them and want to meet their needs. We listen to their likes and dislikes. How do they like to get information? Do they like to read online? Do they check out Facebook or a website every day? Do they prefer to read email. Do they prefer text? The key is that we have to care enough about our members and listen to their needs.  Our customization may be that we provide diverse ways of marketing. One original recipe doesn't fit all. 

What's A Missing Spoon Have to do with Marketing?

             WHAT'S A MISSING SPOON HAVE TO DO WITH MARKETING

BY BEV JOHNS 

    Every morning my husband gets up and  makes my coffee and makes us breakfast. He does this even when he is not feeling well and yes, I am spoiled. Some days it is bacon and eggs, sausage and eggs, and some days it's cereal. The other day it was time for bowls of cereal so we got to the table and Lonnie couldn't figure out what had happened to his spoon because he always puts the spoons in the bowls of cereal. We were perplexed but the spoon didn't appear. He got up and got another spoon. As we are enjoying our cereal and are almost finished with it, alas the spoon appeared at the bottom of the bowl. It had gotten lost in the cereal. 

    So what is my point in telling you this story? Sometimes we bury our important message at the bottom of the news. The spoon was critical to eating the cereal but we couldn't find it. That is what happens to us sometimes when we are trying to convey an important message. It gets lost at the bottom of the pile of news.

    Let's look at an example, we might be planning an important meeting and we are including the information in our newsletter bu we bury the particulars of the meeting several pages into the newsletter. People don't read that far and we wonder why they don't show up. Whatever information you want to stress, put it at the beginning. Don't assume people will read several pages to get to the information they need. Everyone is busy and may only skim the information and may miss the critical points. If you want to remind people of dues, put it in the beginning or send a separate notice. If you want people to come to a meeting, put that at the beginning of your news along with all the key information about where and when the meeting is. if you are sending an email, put the critical information first.

    If you have a great deal of information to share, that is fine but think about including and highlighting key takeaways at the beginning of your information. Always think about what is the most important information you want to convey and highlight it so it is easy to find and read.

    Don't allow your critical information, your spoon, to sink to the bottom of the bowl.