5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Marketing Overnight
You run a business. You have a great product. Your customer service skills are second to none. But chances are, your marketing falls flat. You aren’t alone; many businesses pursue marketing efforts that simply fall short. But there are a handful of steps you can take right now to get your marketing back on track and make it perform the way it is supposed to.
1. Stop Talking About Yourself
This is the single worst offense most marketers make in their advertising and sales material. It makes sense that you would want to talk about yourselfafter all, no one knows more about your business than you do. Unfortunately, most of your marketing efforts are not promotions.
The purpose of advertising and marketing is to persuade someone to do something. And you cant do that by talking about yourself. Instead, talk about your prospects problems and desires. Convince them you understand the things that matter to them, then (and only then) explain to them how you can solve their problem, fulfill their desires or otherwise meet their needs.
2. Capture the Heart
Start your piece with something that engages your prospect on an emotional level. It doesnt much matter what that emotional level is: love, humor, curiosity (be careful with fearfear can be an effective motivator, but if handled incorrectly it can backfire on you), if you tap an emotional vein you are more likely to hold their attention.
The reason you seek to engage your prospect emotionally first is because people do not make rational decisions, they make emotional decisions and rationalize them. Emotions are very potent, and if you can evoke that emotional energy it is an easy task to translate that into desire for your product or service.
3. Persuade the Mind
You do need the facts in your ad. Once you have built the desire for your product, all that remains is to provide the necessary details to help the prospect convince himself that he has made the right decision.
Again (re-read #1) these should only be the necessary details to answer any questions or dispel and arguments that the reader might have. If that doesnt require you to tell people about your 95 years in business or how exceptional your customer service is (if it is, youd better have a stunning example to share), then leave it out.
4. Only One Way Out
If youve done the previous three steps, then the reader should have a great deal of potential energy build up. Now its your job to channel that energy into the next step toward the action you want them to take.
Many marketers make the mistake of providing as many options as possible to be more accommodating. The problem is that the more options a reader has, the more of that energy dissipates in the decision-making process. In effect, that decision IS the next step you are asking the prospect to take, robbing the actual action of that much enthusiasm.
Look at your ad as a box, and your prospect is inside. The desire you created is the floor, and the information is the walls and ceiling. If there is one door, he has no choice; if he wants out, hell have to go out the door. Otherwise, hes stuck insidestuck with the desire and the conviction that its the right choice.
But if you have two doors, then he has a reason to procrastinate leaving. He has a choice to make. What if he chooses poorly? What if he makes a mistake? For that matter, what if its safer just to stay in the box altogether?
5. Stop Trying to Please Everyone
Finally, dont worry about offending anyone.
Actually, Ive found that most reluctance comes not from a fear of offending, but actually a fear of standing out. They are afraid of looking foolish, of alienating part of the general public, of someone taking advantage of any promises made.
Ultimately, you have two choices: you can try not to turn anyone off, or you can make an impact on a targeted group. The two are mutually exclusive. People are judgmental and opinionated: the only way to never upset anyone is to remain unnoticed. And you cant influence anyone to do anything if you remain unnoticed.
Put these five things into practice in your next ad, you will improve your marketing efforts many times over. Just remember, marketing is not the place for you to brag about your success, your history or your groundbreakingwhatever. That is a job for your PR program. Keep it about your customer, do what it takes to persuade them and forget about everyone else.
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