Done badly, it can be a time consuming disaster that ends up precipitating a significant loss. This article discusses a number of points that you should ensure are firmly locked in place for successful marketing.
Attract Attention. Attract attention to your advertisement. In general, people do not consciously pay attention to advertising. Rather, people pay attention to things that interest them and, on occasion, your clients find those things in advertising. So you've just got to interest them, but it is important to ensure that you interest them in your product or service, not just your advertising.
There must be an innate drama in your marketing. You should be able to entice your customers with something inherently interesting that should already exist in your product or service. People will be drawn to the unusual and exciting, so you should aim to stand out from your competitors.
You must translate that inherent drama into a tangible and meaningful benefit. When selling anything, remember that people are purchasing a solution to a problem, not features. As a practical example, customers do not buy toothpaste; people buy clean, shining white teeth! As such, the trick is to find the major benefit of your product and communicate it in a dramatic way.
State your benefits as convincingly as possible. There can be subtle difference between the realms of complete honesty and believability. Advertising has created barriers to credibility through a tendency towards exaggeration. The key is to state your product’s benefit in such a way that it will be accepted beyond doubt.
Overcome your clients’ natural purchasing inertia. To do this, compel them to visit your shop or website, or to pick up the telephone. To make marketing work for you, you really do need to lead your clients by the nose to your product and make them believe it is a must-have solution to a problem (see above).
Be understood. You may know what you're talking about, but do your readers or listeners? It is of no consequence how clever your product or service is, or how it will revolutionise people’s lives, if you can’t communicate this clearly to everyone who is in your target market. If they don’t understand the benefits, they won’t buy your product. Zero ambiguity is your goal.
Measure your marketing success. You should always be looking to improve the way your business conducts itself and your marketing should be no different. If something has not worked well, endeavour to understand why and don’t repeat the mistake.
Marketing is a hugely complex and evolving subject, and is on often neglected part of a new business venture’s early plans. However, marketing is what brings the customers, so if you market well, you have definitely taken the first few steps to success.
