You know how to sell so marketing shouldn’t be a mystery. Think about some of the cardinal rules in selling. If you talk about you or you talk too much you aren’t selling. If the prospect doesn’t understand why you’re meeting you aren’t selling. If the prospect doesn’t understand why your solution is right for them you aren’t selling. If you don’t ask for a “yes” decision you aren’t selling. If the prospect doesn’t understand why they should act you aren’t selling “now”. If you don’t follow up with the “not nows” you aren’t selling. If you don’t engage the prospect and get their interest you aren’t selling. If you talk to your prospect in terms of theory you aren’t selling. If you lack commitment and persistence you aren’t selling. So why would you ever think marketing is different?
Your marketing message has to be all about the person you’re communicating to. If it isn’t it’ll never get through because you have about a 10 second window to get someone’s attention. If it’s a mail piece you probably have even less time before your piece goes in the garbage if it looks like yet another piece of junk mail. The best way to get someone’s attention is to make it personal.
When your receiver gets your message it has to be crystal clear. They have to clearly know your message is intended for them and why. That means you have to be very specific about who your message is for and what they want. If they don’t want it forget it they won’t listen. If you’ve struck a nerve by hitting on something they really want you have a marketing message winner that will produce desired results. If not you have just another junk message that get’s you about nothing or maybe even worse than nothing. By worse than nothing I mean you’ve taken someone from being a complete stranger with no opinion of you to a complete stranger with a negative opinion of you.
When you put together a marketing campaign you want to open and strengthen the connection with your intended prospects. If you don’t have a way to ratchet up the connection don’t bother to start the campaign. When you start a campaign you want to create awareness, you want to provide value, and you want to create and build connections so you can get appointments with the right people.
A marketing campaign is not a one shot event. If you want to use a one shot marketing approach forget it. One shot marketing campaigns are intended for direct response immediate selling. They work very well when you’re selling a product and they don’t work well when you’re providing a service. Increase your marketing effectiveness by using a multi-touch approach to make those connections.