A Classic Aquaculture Marketing Issue: We Sell Quality – Why Don’t They Know?

You manufacture or sell specialized products for aquaculture producers. You have ‘great people”, ‘great service”, and “the best products”.

Yet, the aquaculture world isn’t making waves to your dock. Why is that?

Well, these days being good or great isn’t enough. Those words mean very little to others and, quite frankly, everyone says the same thing about their company and products.

The first three principles in our 10 simplified marketing rules are:

1. They don’t know what you do
2. They don’t care what you do
3. Until they need what you do

When they need you, will they find or remember you?

The concept of only needing a better mousetrap (cage, compressor, dock, net…you choose) is quite frankly a fantasy.  The truth is, you have to work hard and smart to earn any attention. Then, it’s important that you convince folks (quickly) that you’re worthy of the attention you got.

And that’s just the beginning.

So what does this have to do with aquaculture marketing? Just about everything, really.

The ‘Know, Like, & Trust” Challenge

Chances are, your company either deals with long sales cycles trying to impress strangers or you’re in an RFP process with .. well…more strangers.

In both cases, your goal is to move folks closer to the ‘know, like, & trust” status.  In short, you want them to understand and value what you do.  The more someone understands what you do, who you do it for, and (most importantly) why it matters to their problems, the more likely you are to earn more of the sales opportunities you’re after.

What Do You Do Again?

Before you can expect others to understand and respect what you do, you have to figure it out yourself. This is where the outside voice and objective expertise of an experienced agency can deliver significant value to your operation.

Why’s that? Objectivity is hard.

There are three simple questions at the heart of your marketing and messaging efforts. The first two ‘What Do You Do?’ and ‘Who Do You Do It For?’.

While this may seem obvious, it’s often overlooked. Not only overlooked, but many companies answer these questions with an internal perspective rather than from a customer perspective. The customer perspective is the only perspective that matters when it comes to creating sales opportunities.

The third question is the kicker: “Why Should I Care?” or “What’s In It For Me?”.

To be effective with marketing and messaging, you have to focus on these three questions. And then be able to convey the answers with simplicity and clarity consistently.

Are You Talking To Me?

Keep in mind that in most buying decisions, there will generally be two types of information seekers: the big picture and the granular.

• The ‘big picture’: in summary – doesn’t care how the hot dog is made, just wants a tasty bite.
  characteristics include: wants executive summaries, thinks high level, desires quick answers, likes solutions, wants proof, works on instinct, wants to be desired, follows “trust but verify”, relies on the granular folks for details, thinks in shades of gray.
• The ‘granular’: in summary – won’t even look at the hot dog until they know exactly what’s in it.
  characteristics include: wants process, lives for details, asks technical questions, linear thinker, needs to know how, wants to be respected, black and white thinker.

This, of course, is an oversimplification of reality but offers two polar examples that need to be considered in your marketing messages and methods.  The ‘big picture’ person is annoyed by and becomes impatient with too many details.  They want to simply know if you can help their problem.  The ‘granular’ becomes frustrated as the lack of detail and can dismiss those who neglect to provide a deeper dive.

The perfect marketing balance is recognizing that these personalities work together, both are crucial to the sales process, and your sales team and materials should be consistent with their needs and ready to serve both at their convenience.

Have I Seen You Before?

Speaking of consistency, your potential customers are inundated with thousands of marketing messages every day. It takes more than a postcard, an email, or a banner ad to penetrate through the clutter. It takes consistency.

Remember that your pool of potential customers represents folks that are in various stages of need, budget preparedness, growth, planning stages, satisfaction with current vendors, etc.  In other words, not everyone needs everything at the same time.

And while that doesn’t help the quota your sales team is responsible for in the short term, understanding the journey is not a sprint will pay significant dividends in the longer play of your business development efforts.

Being where your customers are and being visible when they need to see you is a key component of an effective aquaculture marketing program. So where might that be? There are many places to explore, including:

This is just the beginning of all the places you can find your customers on a regular basis. Having an inventory of available outlets and planning your attack with focus will help in increase your effectiveness in using these and many more channels available to you.

Renting vs. Owning Your Audience

Speaking of using a channel, many of the places you’ll want to be in will require a fee for service – either in advertising fees, listing fees, or membership fees. Even social media channels are more effective when paid for.

However, if you pay to use a channel, you’re essentially renting access to that audience. When you stop paying, the messaging stops and the audience is no longer accessible to you. Google Ads, paid social posts, and even television advertising are examples of paying to rent the use of an audience. Another entity has an audience and you pay to get a message in front of that audience. When you stop paying, the access to the audience ends.

Owning – Capturing Information For Future Use

From an ROI point of view, the best use of a paid audience comes with a strategy to collect information from those that take interest in what you have to say. Collecting information allows you to then communicate again to that person without having to pay the fee of renting again. This audience is not only available to you a much lower cost, but they have also self-identified themselves as being interested in what you have to say.  From a sales funnel point of view, they have voluntarily moved themselves down into your funnel.

Common ways in which you can move folks into your own audience include:

Converting Rent to Own

For the sake of simplicity, using rented audience efforts to build your own lists helps you to communicate and connect with these folks in the future without having to pay again to do so.

One of the key advantages to growing your own list of existing and potential customers is the ability to nurture deeper relationships. This helps them better understand and see the value of what you provide for a product or service. So if you’re going to pay to use someone else’s list, build in ways of capturing their information so you can build and nurture your own list.

How To Get Their Attention

We’ve already said that your prospects are hit with thousands of marketing messages every day. So outside of spending more money and making more noise, what else can you do to gain the attention of your aquaculture prospects? You can show how smart you really are by using your expertise and experience to build connections to their everyday questions.

Think back to the many conversations you’ve had with prospective customers. All the questions that have come up in the sales process, the interviewing process, and the conversations you’ve had when starting new projects. Think of the questions that have taken the most of your time. The ones that come up most frequently. The ones that help to seal the deal and set you apart from the competition.

Then, write thorough and meaningful answers with lots of details. The same answers you’d give if a prospective customer was sitting in front of you asking.  Use these answers on pages on your website. And then share these pages in all the channels you’ve created to communicate and nurture the audience you’ve built.nb

Here are the reasons this task has so much value:

• We live in a search engine world. If folks are asking people, you can bet they are also asking Google even more.  When someone asks Google a question, Google is looking for quality answers to bring back in the search results. The more specific you can be with your question and the more in-depth you can be with your answer, the greater the chance you’ll be found when the information is looked for in Google.  Being found in search means increased traffic to your website.
• If you know these questions are part of the consideration and sales process, having the answers readily available helps you build greater trust and confidence in your abilities and expertise. More importantly, it enables you to scale your value and make positive, meaningful impressions on folks when you’re not in the room.
• Once the answers are developed, you’ll no longer have to remember what you said last time when the question is asked – or will you have to take the time to write it out again. The pages of content simply become a link you can easily and quickly share. And your employees can use the content to be consistent and prompt in their replies.
• You look valuable and smart. This content helps folks solve problems. This not only shows how you think but that you are thinking and thinking of them. Demonstrating you understand their needs, have found ways to solve their problems, and can demonstrate how is key to earning trust and confidence.

Well …There Is This One Problem

This one won’t sit well with the instant gratification folks but being seen as the approachable source of experience and expertise in the industry is a good thing. Even when the information you provide is free – and you should be doing this – the ability to form connections is invaluable. Being seen as a trusted place to get information raises your profile in the industry.

So if your efforts of being clear and concise, putting problem-solving content into the world, and using various marketing channels result in questions before orders, consider that a win.

Being selfless is a key component to being trusted. And trust is what earns you the opportunity to sell effectively.

Closing Thought

Remember that your primary goal in selling is to make someone’s job easier and help them look good.  Following the basic principles outlined in this post will not only help you create an effective marketing plan but help make the job of selling easier too.