Change collides with resistance at most businesses. That’s why incremental marketing thinking is helpful.
When you want to move your organization from an analog/paper approach to a one that is digitally transformed, that’s a lot of heavy lifting. Managers get scared.
Or if you are shifting business models from selling through distribution to a direct-to-consumer approach, that can be earth-shaking Directors can start swaying.
Even rebranding or repositioning requires a careful hand to gain confidence that your approach makes sense. Marketing VP’s suffer from nausea.
Think Small Steps
Taking small steps is often the better course than taking giant leaps. If you can revise a process and make it less cumbersome to a part of the staff, they’ll help spread the word. When the customer service team no longer have to enter the same data four times, word gets around. Then using this approach in other areas meets less resistance when you have more advocate for the new plan. Find team members who can join your change movement.
If you are shifting business models like selling direct to consumers instead of through distribution, that too requires a lot of effort to pivot. Can you craft small, minimally viable experiments so the operations team can begin to gain confidence in the idea? Can your trial give your team the trust when they can see how the change helps the company earn higher margins? Don’t just make the change, help share with colleagues how and why the change brings more value to both customers and the organization. Close the loop with colleagues so they understand the vision and why the transition is vital.
Rebranding and repositioning are significant steps. When you decide to rebrand an old product with a new position and target, can you build confidence in the approach by getting twenty-five current customers to weigh in on the change? By changing the brand to a small audience, you can see if you missed something important before everyone sees it go live. Then, maybe take it to 250 consumers to see their reaction. The incremental approach helps you gain confidence as you scale up the marketing communication. Sure, it takes more time and can add costs, but you will always benefit from witnessing first-hand how consumers react before you communicate your change to the world.
Before you disrupt an industry or restructure an embedded process, take your concept out for a test drive. Learn from the reaction so you can adjust your message, your audience and perhaps, your expectations. Incremental marketing can help you improve your success rate.
An Example
An industrial client determined that they wanted to stop spending money on paid advertising in trade magazines and instead wanted to begin to use outbound marketing to reach their audience. We put together a step-by-step approach that gave us the chance to test the waters slowly and methodically. Instead of cutting off the advertising, we reduced it by 20% and tried to see if we could generate leads in a more cost-effective approach through email campaigns.
The test took six months, but at the end of this period, they were so confident this made sense, that they didn’t have any angst over dropping the ads and investing in the new direct approach. By taking incremental steps, they set more realistic expectations, felt like the change was less risky and started to learn a new language about reaching customers through this channel.
To Go Fast, Slow Down
When you stick a toe in the water, you gain a better understanding of the temperature in the pool. Yes, the world is changing fast, but organizations need to gather confidence slowly before making the plunge.
Want to move fast? Slow down and take one step at a time until you have the confidence to zoom.
Need advice on how to test the waters first on a marketing project? You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
Photo by Jorge Gil on Unsplash
