Two Steps to Improving Your Marketing Success
Since the human brain seems to be able to focus on only one thought at a time, it's difficult to evaluate an advertising idea from the perspective of both a marketer and a customer. That's why it's necessary to use a two-step process when developing highly effective ads, sales letters, web pages, and e-mails. The first step involves creating a rough draft of your marketing message, while emphasizing the strong points and best attributes of your product or service. Your message, especially your headline, should strive to capture your prospects' attention, focus on the many benefits they'll experience, and outline the important features and selling points. The first draft should include a call to action, as well as whatever contact information is necessary to get the prospect to follow through. Navigate Through Expected Sales Objections Possibly the most daunting obstacle to generating inquiries and making sales is human inertia, which is basically the tendancy to postpone, deliberate, and procrastinate. The best way to overcome that is to create a sense of urgency by imposing a deadline for taking action. Whether your supplies are limited -- or prices are about to go up -- or the prospect must act now "before it's too late", there needs to be a feeling of urgency conveyed if you are to be successful in overcoming the powerful forces of inaction and indecisiveness. Other obstacles in the sales process that you need to overcome early on include skepticism, mistrust, and pessimism. The ideal marketing message would remove any doubt in the customer's mind about quality, competitive prices, ongoing customer support, and the customer's ability to get a refund if they're dissatisfied. One common mindset that many prospects have is, "It sounds like a good product/service, but it probably won't work for me." A strategy you can use for overcoming that negative attitude is to include testimonials of satisfied customers -- just like them -- in your marketing materials. Bypass Your Ego to Connect With Buyers Part two of this marketing process is often ignored by small business owners and even some advertising agencies, but it can spell the difference between success and failure. It involves stepping back and looking at your message from the standpoint of your target audience. Here are two important questions to ask yourself: "Are they going to notice the ad or the sales message at all?" and "If they do notice it, why should they care?" If you're not sure, then that's a clear sign you need to strengthen your sales message and gear it more to the needs of your intended audience. In order to create a winning ad or marketing campaign, it's necessary to ask yourself these blunt questions, and have the flexibility to make changes in your headlines, ad layout, graphics, ad copy, or marketing strategy. Getting a second or third opinion from people who will give you the unvarnished truth (as they see it) can help you develop a winning, original marketing message that will generate a profitable response. If your marketing efforts fail to rise above the clutter of all the hundreds of nondescript ads, emails, and competing offers that the public is bombarded with every day, then your marketing message will be about as effective as a whisper on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Challenge yourself to produce compelling, high-impact marketing messages that will command attention and trigger a response from your target group. About The Author © 2004 Optimal Marketing Communications Joel Sussman, president of Optimal Marketing Communications and a writer/editor with 20 years experience, has developed on online resource called "Marketing Survival Kit". It features an array of hand-picked small business articles, choice marketing software, and instantly downloadable manuals. Visit http://www.marketingsurvivalkit.com, optimalbiz@yahoo.com
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Top 10 Benefits of Hiring a Marketing Writer to Write Your Marketing Materials
1. It costs less to delegate to a professional than to waste your valuable time trying to do it yourself. How many prospective clients could you call in the time it takes you to put the words together yourself?
How to Write Irresistible Promotional Pieces that Attract More and Better Clients
Whether you're creating a sales letter, a brochure, a newsletter, or any other business promotional piece, you need to write in a way that not only explains your product or service, but that also compels your prospects to contact you. A well-written promotional piece entices people to seek out more information, whether it be via a phone call, an e-mail, or an in-person visit. A good promotional piece also showcases your professionalism and your creativity.
11 Powerful Marketing Tips
Each of these 11 marketing tips is based on a marketing strategy or tactic proven to boost sales. How many are you using?
Down To The Wire
When you want to win and woo new clients with national publicity -- and don't have an enormous budget to distribute your message -- turn to the news wires. But first, be sure you're telling a story that's worth printing.
Stop Your Marketing Leaks
Thirty percent of all the drinkable water that runs between the plant and your faucet is lost to leaky pipes. In marketing, thirty percent of our business is lost to leaky follow up. Even professional sales people have leaky follow up when they stop after one or two contact points.
Is A Marketing Plan The Same Thing As A Communications Plan?
How does a marketing plan relate to an organization's communications plan? What are the differences? Is the marketing plan just one aspect of the communications plan? Should one consider combining them into a single document?
Direct Marketing: Overlooked, Underappreciated, and Unstoppable
Every business needs customers, but more importantly every business needs to maintain those customers while constantly retaining new ones. The only successful way of doing this is by learning everything about your customers, including who they are? What do they have in common? Do they share a hobby, an age range, a life stage, or a geographic community? Can you break them down into groups? The answers to these questions hold a wealth of information for you. Although direct marketing can be overlooked by many businesses, here are statistics proving the effectiveness of direct mail campaigns over the years.
Fundraising Letters Should Raise Donors, Not Donations, When Mailed to Strangers
Are you willing to spend $1.25 to raise $1? To lose money to make money? You should be. Most donor acquisition mailings never pay for themselves. They lose money. And rightly so.
Communication Breakdown - Dont Let It Happen To You
Do you have Communication breakdown?
Why Market Research Will Help Your Business
Do Crucial Market Research For Free, On Your Own
8 Ways to Fill a Workshop in a Bum Economy
Yes, you can fill a workshop when spending is down and buyers are wary. If your topic is clear, your marketing materials well-done, your product solid and your title catchy, success shouldn't be tough. The fact is that people are as hungry as ever for the inspiration and stimulus a workshop provides, even when they're nervous about money. And even though most bum economies recover over time, you may find the following tricks helpful enough to keep using even in good times!
Small Business Pricing Strategies
Think the best way to get more customers is to have the lowest prices in town? Think again. Think the best way to create a successful business is to try to appeal to everyone? Wrong again.
Incentives For Customers? Whats New?
Lost & Found for the 21st Century
No One Gives A Damn About Your Business. Unless You Give em A Reason To
The good news is that there are thousands of people looking for what you offer. The bad news is that those people are extremely tough to attract not to mention that your very livelihood depends on it. It's a scary thought when you think about it. And many don't. Some are simply ignorant to the marketing realities. For others the expense and complexity associated with any kind of formal marketing effort is simply too intimidating. They rely souly on word-of-mouth. The fact is, word-of-mouth is great, fabulous, wonderful and not enough if you're serious about growing your business.
The Real Path To Big Bucks On The Internet!
"Instead Of Wasting Time Trying To Hit The Lottery Of Internet Riches, Focus On Building Your Business One Sweet Income Stream At A Time!"
Collecting Customer Data The Easy Way
Market research is a critical component of any marketing strategy. There are many expensive sources of customer information available today. But, if you don't have a large marketing budget for market research, what can you do? There a four easy and inexpensive ways to gather marketing data by using your existing customer base.
Simple Marketing Strategies Versus an SEO Line of Attack!
Each and every day those of us on the Internet are bombarded with information about Search Engine Optimization and all that goes along with it. For the majority of folks who are promoting a business online, this can often lead to confusion especially when it comes to understanding key words, meta tags and title tags. But the real issue is not necessarily in how many people are finding your site, but in how many visitors develop into clients or customers.
50 Unbelievable Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing
What Is A Joint Venture?
Sum of Its Parts
I just spent a week at the beach with my
family and, as much as I vowed not to think
about work, stumbled onto a highly relevant
lesson for marketing professional services.
Client Attraction Technique #3: Study the Competition!
One very powerful and cost-effective marketing strategy is to study the competition. This is an important exercise, as essentially it allows you to find out as much as possible about the opposition ? how best they operate, what they lack and then how to capitalise on it!
|
