What are the most important points to stress when you are marketing?

I bring this up because I noticed some marketing recently that was bad.

It was a marketing piece about a fitness company. In the first line of the marketing it spoke about the owners of the business and how good they are.

Sadly, it appears that they have misplaced their focus. This is because every prospective buyer has a question in their mind all the time. The question they have is ‘What’s in it for me?’

When I was reading the fitness company’s marketing piece it did not answer that question. In fact it was almost as if the owners thought that good marketing was about bragging about their business. I know there is nothing wrong about being pleased about that you do, but if you can’t phrase what you are pleased about from the customer’s perspective, you’ve made a big mistake. This is because the prospect won’t be interested in continuing their assessment of what you can do for them. If they stop being interested – you lose!

Doesn’t this make sense?

Are you aware of the disease that is now impacting business?

This disease has been part of our personal lives for many years, but it appears that it is now running rampant in business.

This disease is the lack of awareness of the difference between a fact and an assumption.

When you are communicating with a client or a prospect there is a tendency to accept assumptions as being facts. Let me give you an example. The client tells you that they can’t afford whatever you are selling. You agree, put your tail between your legs and wander off.

Now give your head a shake! The only reason why they said they couldn’t afford it was because they know saying they can’t afford it works. The fact is that with the access to money today anyone can obtain or find the money if they really wanted to buy what you offered. The problem was that you did not create enough ‘tension for change’ in their mind.

So how are you going to start creating more ‘tension for change’ with the next person you are marketing to?

How would you describe a professional?

I believe a professional is a person who has mastered the fundamental truths and principles in the field they are in. They must research what the growing body of knowledge is in their field and they must work with a sense of obligation to the public.

Are ad creators professionals?

Many aren’t as they are mainly employees who are slapping ads together. I believe that ad creators should be professional and filled with purpose to integrate and use the proven principles of marketing. They must also have a deep sense of honesty and reliability in what they do.

Are you wondering what does marketing need to be effective? It must be interesting enough to get read and it must be persuasive enough to accomplish its selling object. That is because it costs no more for space to run an ad that is done professionally, than one that slapped together.

When are you going to demand more results from your marketing?

Do you wonder why so many ads do not grab your attention?

Could it be that they were business focused not client focused?

Over the years I’ve noticed that the people that are putting together marketing/advertising don’t realize the impact of their decisions. A couple of questions for you to consider;

- Are the words used helping the reader become more informed about how your business can help them with their needs?

- Has the writer of the ad forgotten that the main purpose of an ad is to serve?

Let me give you an example from my local paper;

• Why is it that at the top of the ad is the company name? Does anyone care about the company name, except the owners?
• Why don’t ad creators realize that there is a big difference in what the company does to what the client buys? For example; no one buys life insurance; they buy financial protection.
• Did you know that the size and location of the picture can take away or add to the impact of the ad or marketing piece.

So when are you going to start creating marketing that effectively grabs the attention of your prospective client’s?

How many marketing messages do we get every day?

Back in 1992 it was about 2,000 per day, you may be surprised to hear that in 2009 there were over 30,000 commercial messages per day. Due to this you have a clutter problem if you want to market your business effectively.

So what is a person to do?

First of all you need to realize that this clutter can have a great impact on the cost of promoting your business. Secondly you need to differentiate your product or service from your competition.

Differentiating what you do for the client is and has been the key to any long-term business growth. If you want to differentiate your business you have to know what your business stands for. When someone asks you what you do, you need to use verbs that describe what you do as an expert in your field. If you can find ways to use numbers this will also increase your credibility and finally you need to identify how you solve a deep need for the customer.

When are you going to take action and differentiate your business?