Direct marketing campaigns require seven proven elements to be successful. Omitting any of these can seriously reduce the effectiveness of your efforts.
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Inspiration, please?
Want people to read your marketing material?
First, make that material about them – not you. And make it useful. Show your target audience that you understand their challenges, and share some ways to make their lives easier.
Per John C. Maxwell, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Helpful, informational vehicles like newsletters, blogs and white papers get better results than standard brochures and websites. Done correctly, these tools build rapport, develop trust, and set you apart from all the self-centered would-be competition.
But these marketing devices do require thought. And many companies become paralyzed by the idea of having to come up with valuable content on a regular basis.
If you’re good at what you do, and you’re doing the right things, coming up with ideas should be a snap. Consider the following:
- What problems do you help clients solve? Don’t air anyone’s dirty laundry here, but it’s fairly safe to assume that other people and businesses face similar challenges. Write an article or a blog post.
- What’s going on in your industry? Or your client’s industry? As you learn about new developments that can affect your clients, share the information. Explain the significance. The connection between the news item and their daily lives may not be apparent. This is a great opportunity to show some value.
- What do you struggle with? You’re probably not alone. Share your solutions, and save others from having to repeat your mistakes. You don’t have to come across as incompetent, but this type of article or post can position you as both human (depending on how you position it) and resourceful.
There are just a few ideas to get started. If you have more, please comment below. We’re always looking for great suggestions – and guest bloggers.
Never Ever Assume
Most acquaintances know that I’m a tea drinker. Some of my friends even call me a tea snob. Those in my inner circle describe me as, well, obsessed. (I’m currently at 26 teapots and counting, but that’s another story.)
When my aunt suggested we visit a tea plantation, my heart did a little dance of joy. It wasn’t exactly like finding the fifth golden ticket, but pretty close in my book.
The next morning, my mother told me we were visiting the plantation that day. So soon? I was psyched.
When my aunt arrived, however, she had decided that I would have more fun visiting an aboriginal cultural center than the tea plantation. I wouldn’t enjoy tramping around a mountain.
Mind you, my family’s hospitality is much appreciated. Still, I couldn’t help but think, “How can you possibly tell me what I would prefer doing?”
How many times have we made similar assumptions in our marketing copy? (Yes, myself included.)
I can’t count the number of times marketing directors and business owners have told me they know exactly what their prospects want to know. Based on… ? It usually comes down to a guessing game.
As we buckle down for business development in 2009, let’s stop making assumptions and start communicating with our clients and prospects.
Why not ask them, point-blank, what they’d like to know?
Chances are, they’ll probably pay more attention once we drop the monologue and start answering their questions.
A Cold Splash of Reality
We arrived at my aunt’s house near Taichung shortly after midnight last Wednesday – roughly 28 hours after a car service picked up my mother and me in Midtown Manhattan. I slept very little on either of our two flights and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed.
Mom pointed me to the bathroom to wash up and brush my teeth. Along with my toiletries, I grabbed nightclothes. My aunt saw this and went into the bathroom to start a bath.
A warning bell went off.
Yes, I was a foreigner, but I was still a healthy, active adult. Why would bathing require assistance?
When in Rome…
I looked into the bathroom and saw a huge plastic pail in the small bathtub. My exhausted brain was putting two and two together and coming up with seven.
My mother pointed out a pink plastic scoop. “You use that to pour the water over you, remember?”
No, I definitely did not remember that from my trip in 2006. The situation was producing flashbacks of my grandmother bathing me in a steel washtub with a water hose during a visit when I was four.
The bath itself was pretty miserable. I was freezing, tired, cranky… and grateful to have the opportunity to experience my mother’s culture, enjoying the hospitality of family.
It also made me realize how many things we take for granted.
Routine reality checks
Take relationships, for instance. Once we’re out of the honeymoon stage, it’s very easy to take those closest to us for granted.
As business owners and sales people focus on developing new client relationships, we need to maintain the ones we have.
We can’t risk assuming that everything is going well. Instead, we have to reach out and make sure that clients are getting everything they expect – and then some – by asking.
One of two things will happen:
- Clients will either tell us that they love us – and why.
- Or they’ll give us an earful of where we’re falling short.
Either way, it’s a win-win situation.
In the latter case, inviting criticism can have the same effect as a cold bath when we’re craving a hot shower. But this is exactly the kind of feedback we need to make our product or service better. It could even rescue a troubled relationship.
And if things are going well? We need to take notes and highlight this – the real value we bring – in our marketing copy.
Often, what we think matters to clients differs from the things they really care about.
But we’ll never know if we don’t ask.
What might you be taking for granted in your business? Or how have you freed yourself from this complacent mindset?
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