Low hanging fruit is probably one of the most overused terms in marketing today, right after ecosphere and disrupter. But what is low hanging fruit and why is it important to your overall marketing strategy? The dictionary deems low hanging fruit as “the obvious or easy thing that can be most readily done or dealt with in achieving success or progress towards an objective.” In marketing speak, this is your core target audience that’s already engaged with your brand and needs little convincing to convert (i.e. the holy grail for what your business is trying to accomplish). Why spend a hundred bucks to convert someone who’s not ready, when it can take just a dollar? When establishing your marketing plan, these are the people that you should start with first. Picture your customer’s journey to purchase like a funnel. The top of the funnel is your more broad-based marketing efforts such as television and out of home, and the lower funnel is tactics for your more engaged audience, i.e. your low hanging fruit. How do you engage with this key audience segment? Below are the top five ways to capitalize on your low hanging fruit.
1. Collateral
Collateral may not be applicable to everyone, but at the very least, you should be educating your consumers on all the products and/or services you offer. Running to Starbucks for your usual, a grande soy chai? Notice how Starbucks places signage conveniently at the entrance, next to the menu, and at the cash register. Or did you catch that the pastries and other nosh happen to be directly under the place where the barista takes your order? This layout is by design.
If you have a brick and mortar store, be cognizant of where you’re placing signage and what the messaging is. This can also be applicable to ecommerce and home service organizations. What type of packaging and collateral are you providing with your customers’ orders? What type of material are you leaving behind to help educate your audience? Every customer-facing touchpoint should be taken into consideration and utilized.
2. Email
Your customer has made the effort to sign up for your email communications. Make sure you’re living up to your promise by delivering timely, relevant messaging that will resonate with this engaged audience. Did your customer sign up to receive special discounts? Make sure your emails include a coupon. Today’s consumer is constantly bombarded by marketing messages and what they choose to engage with is very quid-pro-quo. Give them what they want—don’t spam them—but make sure they don’t forget about you either. Utilize your email reporting to maximum the optimal messaging and frequency of delivery.
3. Social
In this very controversial time of social marketing, users are making a conscious effort to engage with your brand. Take advantage of these brand advocates by promoting products and/or services that you wouldn’t normally do so under your general upper funnel media tactics. Have a new special you want to roll out on Wednesday nights? Let your social channel be the first to know and gauge their responses. Social media is very much like email in that customers want to receive what they put in. Let them feel as if they’re essential to the brand and have exclusive opportunities. They will feel much more invested and be the first to recommend you to their friends and family.
4. Search
AdWeek ran an article a few years back that stated that 81% of people run Google searches prior to making their purchase decision. I’m confident that number is even higher now. Before you do anything else, you need be present when consumers are searching for your product and/or service. This can come in the form of paid search (SEM – search engine marketing) and organic search (SEO – search engine optimization).
If your company is in a very competitive space, such as home services or fast-casual dining, you should, at the very least, show up when someone searches your company’s name. If you don’t, then your competitors will. There are various tiers of commitment (in terms of time and spend), so do not get overwhelmed by the complexity that comes with search.
5. Retargeting
One of my dear clients has coined retargeting as cyber-stalking. Retargeting is simply placing a ‘cookie’ on a user’s browser and following them throughout the internet once they’ve left your website. This is especially great for ecommerce clients when a customer has browsed, maybe even started to fill up their cart, but has moved on to another website before completing their purchase. By retargeting them on other sites, you’re gently reminding them to not forget about you. You can even customize your messaging based on what they were interested in purchasing on your site. Target, Walmart, and Amazon are great examples of brands that execute this tactic well. However, brands need to know how to not to be too aggressive with their retargeting efforts. Be sure to place frequency caps and be aware of the type of sites your banners are showing up on. If you’re a family friendly brand, you don’t want your banner showing up on a controversial website.
Do you think you have your low hanging fruit covered?
Our media team has authored a guide that works for the majority of campaigns to inform media tactic decisioning. This tool is called the Hierarchy of Media Investment Efficiencies and we call it, “HoMIE” for short. This illustrates how to move up the funnel appropriately without skipping a critical stop. Details around HoMIE and when to layer in media tactics can be found in our article, How To Simplify Media Planning in a Multichannel World.
In Conclusion
Low hanging fruit is an important segment of your audience that you do not want to forget about. It’s essential to focus on this piece before moving up the funnel to broader based tactics such as broadcast and other traditional media.
Still have questions on how to get started? Get in touch with us to start a conversation. We’re happy to provide guidance and discuss how we can help you achieve your marketing goals and objectives.