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Transform Mediocre Marketing into Powerful Communications

Are your precious marketing messages lost in a web with thousands of mediocre marketing messages?


You may think you are creatively captivating consumers with your marketing, but allow me to drop a mind-blowing bomb.

Did you know your current communications are falling on deaf ears; to the tune of approximately 98% of your prospects? That is a substantial number of wasted opportunities, isn’t it?

 

‘Lost in Translation’ Marketing

Before you jump to conclusions or attempt to defend marketing efforts, let’s examine the reason behind the obvious gap between the messages you want to convey and the those that are ultimately reaching your audience or being ignored.

Right now, potential consumers are looking for a remedy for their problems. So, what are you giving them? Most likely, a marketing message chock-full of information that’s all about you. In fact, the most common marketing trap that entrepreneurs fall prey to is developing ads that focus primarily on product or service features, benefits and taglines that don’t solve the problems of their audience.

If you are honest, you probably bombard potential buyers with images, words, numbers and information they, effectively, tune out because of inherent irrelevance. Essentially, you have put the cart before the horse — you jumped in and told them all of the things you can do without first establishing what they really need.

If you are making this common mistake, most of your marketing efforts are lost in translation. Failing to capture a customer’s attention in the first 30 seconds of a pitch, will cause you to lose the sale. So, the key to shortening a sales cycle and getting more people to say “yes” is to understand how your prospect makes decisions and only share information relevant to triggering one.

 

Marketing to the ‘Consumer Brain’

Did you know your brain accounts for 2%-3% of your body’s mass? In fact, it consumes around 25% of your body’s total energy. Your brain is energy-hungry and always looking for opportunities to power down and rest.

That is why your brain (and the brain of your customer) doesn’t want to exhaust itself trying to decipher a ton of information that is irrelevant to the decision-making process.

The brain is always looking for solutions to problems — the more succinct, relevant and memorable, the greater the likelihood that your target audience will grasp, remember and take action.  So, ditch fancy words, long-winded pitches, complicated stats, and images of you, your brand, and your product or service.

 

Consider, ‘What’s In it for Me?’ Marketing

Customers are permanently tuned into the WIFM (i.e. What’s in it for me?) radio station. So, leverage this to your advantage. Dedicate 80% of your marketing message to showing prospects you:

  • Relate to and understand their most pressing dilemma or problem
  • Can provide optimal solutions, with proof you can deliver

Remember, it is essential to ensure you grab your audience’s interest and attention upfront. Take time to re-evaluate images, content, and branding you use; they should speak to your customer’s pain, cultivate curiosity and draw them in. Don’t waste precious time focusing on your products and services.

Once you have piqued their interest, you can explain what you do and inspire them to contact you for more information.

The bottom line is this — consumers will listen to anything you have to say, if you have first demonstrated you understand their pain and can provide solutions. Anything else means your precious marketing messages are lost in a web with thousands of mediocre marketing messages, pitched every day.

Read the full article at the authors blog or at MYOB.

 

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