Although the different forms of marketing that may have evolved over the years- be it from push to pull, print to digital etc. there are fundamental principles that you must address to make sure that your message does not go to waste. So before you sign anything off make sure that you answer the following five basic questions with your marketing. These five questions are the `what’, `why’, `when’, `where’ & `how’ of your message.
`What’?
`What’ is the offer that you are trying to advertise? This is the crux of `what’ you want your message to portray in the marketplace. It may be a specially reduced joining fee, a free membership, or a certain discount on the monthly dues.
`Why’?
`Why’ are you offering `what’ you are? This naturally follows on from the `what’ as you are looking at a justifiable reason for your message. In a campaign, this builds the urgency of the offer and answers the scepticism that people may think as to `why’ you are offering `what’ you are. This might be the fact that it is a New Year Celebration, or that the gym is under New Ownership.
`Where’?
This needs to answer `where’ the club is located or `where’ you want people to meet for a pre-sale etc. It sounds simple, but many times, clubs get excited about the catchy phrase of their marketing and accidentally leave off the clubs address.
`When’?
`When’ also covers the time frame of `what’ you are offering. You may want to tell the public that you have limited memberships available or simply that they need to call `when’ you are open (hence including your opening hours). This also allows you the ability to apply some form of urgency to your campaign to entice people to respond within a set time.
`How’?
Once people understand the `what’ and `why’ of your marketing, they know `where’ and `when’ to obtain it, they would need to know `how’ they can obtain it. This may be a leaflet that encourages the prospect to bring in to the club on a particular day, a discount code, or the clubs phone number for them to call.
As you can see, it all is very simple, but prior to putting any advertising to the market, if you quickly check the `What’, `Why’, `Where’, `When’ & `How’, it will remind you to get back to the basics of your marketing and advertising objective.
