I get incredibly irritated by terrible marketing and am impressed with those businesses who know how to do it well. When it’s done well, it comes across as funny, impressive, informative, helpful, and other positive descriptors. It makes me interested in what is offered and possibly leads me to buy what they sell. What I find most difficult as a business owner and marketer is not wanting my marketing to be cringe-worthy, annoying, or useless – presenting something poorly so that others aren’t interested. Business owners out there, do you feel me? Who is tired of feeling paralyzed that your own marketing efforts may not be up to snuff and you worry that you look like an idiot or are simply spinning your wheels?
So, what do you do? The answer is to remove yourself from communicating to your audience based on how great and helpful you know your product(s)/service(s) are and step into the mind of your target audience and translate it into something they find valuable.
Here are a few keys:
- Target your audience. While what you offer may be something everyone needs, you won’t attract as many customers while you cast the net out to anyone. It’s too blah, too generic, no one feels like you’re talking specifically to them. Think about who your best customers are and what similarities they have.
- Learn more about your target audience. Do more of them tend to be male or female? How old are they? What is most important to them? What do they enjoy or what gives them the most satisfaction? What is their biggest fear? Understand that most people are extremely careful about how they spend their money – no matter how much they have. Why is what you offer vital to them?
- Set yourself apart. Don’t sound the exact same as everyone who offers what you do. Think about how you are different than others in your industry. Also, are there ways that your competitors do a poor job of conveying what all of you offer? What aren’t they saying or what do they say that rarely results in a buying decision from customers?
- Know the reason why you devote your work life to this profession. Write out what made you decide to forego every other profession for this one. Is it a funny story, a heartfelt story, is it the source of your passion? Your customers want to know you and what makes you tick.
- Connect on an emotional level. People make buying decisions based on emotion. They back it up with facts but humans are typically drawn to something based on emotion. They believe it will improve their lives in some way. The emotional level doesn’t have to be heartfelt and weepy. While it might be, it also might be something fun to add adventure. It might be serious. It might be a status builder. It could be something completely different. Find the way to connect emotionally with your audience and brainstorm a bunch of scenarios to communicate that emotion, tying it back to your product or service.
