“If your message doesn’t connect with buyers and make them want to know more, then your marketing has already failed.”
~ Debra Hilton
Once you know WHO you are marketing to (See Part 2) your next task is to determine WHAT they need to hear that will grab their attention, excite their interest and belief, and incite their desire. You already know a lot about them: their interests, fears, loves, hates etc. because you’ve done the research, now you need to use that information to attract their attention and hold it until they have taken action.
If you fail here, you will have to start at the beginning all over again and pay to get their attention, so this step really matters. If you look closely at some of the longest-running ads in The Economist, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, etc. (some of which have run profitably for years), they know exactly how to grab your attention and keep you reading to discover whether this could really work for you!
#1: Use Curiosity to Keep People Reading, Watching, and Listening
The human brain is designed to move on once we think we have the answers. This means that as soon as your audience thinks they know what you’re going to say they will stop reading or tune out… even if they are wrong.
So…
You already know what your prospect wants and you also know what he needs (often these are quite different things which is why it can be such a challenge to sell the perfect solution to a qualified prospect) and you need to use the prospect’s curiosity about your solution to move them from interest to enthusiasm.
Asking questions is a blatant way of inciting curiosity, but provoking questions in your prospect’s mind is even more powerful. You can do this by dropping ‘breadcrumbs’ throughout your message that cause them to relate your statements to things they already know and wonder about. This raises questions in their mind and keeps them reading to find the answers. If you do a great job, they’ll be picking up the phone, entering contact details on your website, purchasing your product, or taking whatever action you have commanded them to take.
#2: Create a Logical Path from Curiosity to Action
This is a pathway that you map out for your prospect, not one that they are aware of. It should run through your sales letters, videos, webinars, emails, etc. Once again, it depends heavily on your intimate knowledge of the prospect, particularly in the context of your product or service.
This means that you know what they are looking for in that specific context. For example, if you are a buyer’s advocate serving property investors who care about speed, value, and positive cashflow you’ll pique their curiosity about how you can possibly find such properties, why they can’t do as well on their own, and how (even when they count your finders’ fee) they’re getting a genuinely great deal.
If you were offering a complex business software you’d be thinking about what the person recommending it needs to see and hear to ensure that they can afford to risk sticking their neck out. This person doesn’t just need to know that it works, he needs to know how it will help the company perform better, make people’s lives easier, and justify its cost.
I like to map out this path for myself and include all the questions that might arise when the prospect encounters roadblocks that might derail the sale, decision-makers with different agendas who may be involved, comparisons and costings they might weigh up, arguments for and against the purchase, and any other considerations that my prospect will face.
In some cases, these are spread out over different collateral because there’s no point in complicating a buyer’s journey unnecessarily, but it’s always better to anticipate problems and have them covered than have to patch together items in a hurry.
#3: Connect on an Emotional Level
No matter how much people pride themselves on their rational behaviour, human beings actually make decisions based on a predictable emotional response. This is just as true in business to business transactions as it is in business to consumer transactions.
Even the most logical, rational, and considered decision can be predicted (and therefore it can also be influenced) when you know what criteria will be given the greatest weight. This is why you need to know your target market thoroughly before you craft your message because you can so that you can appeal to the emotional drivers behind their logic.
In some cases, you can safely craft a single appeal because the kind of people who buy or make decisions on your product or service share the same emotional drivers, in other cases you can segment your campaign by emotional drivers For example, a financial advisor targeting clients with a net-worth of over $3 million who has one appeal to prospects who desire value for money, and another for prospects who only want to work with providers who already have celebrity clients. It’s the same product, but the emotional appeal is different.
Getting Your Message and Marketing Right Matters!
If you fail to pique your prospects curiosity, move them steadily through a journey that makes sense, and appeal to their emotional decision-making drivers at every step, then you’ll never get them to the point of action so the time, energy, and resources you spent attracting their attention in the first place will all be wasted.
That’s why it’s so important to have a well-designed marketing system that not only avoids the 7 major causes of marketing failure, but ensures that your marketing succeeds. You can work this all out for yourself, you can hire a marketing consultant and ask them to set up a direct-response marketing system for you, or you can invest in the 25th anniversary edition of The Magnetic Marketing(™) Program developed by Dan Kennedy to short cut your learning curve.
I always advise business owners to thoroughly understand the marketing principles they want to use in their business so they don’t get distracted by bright shiny objects. Too many businesses end up spending money on marketing that does not yield a satisfactory return on investment… and that leads to a general distrust of marketing that hurts their business.
If you’d like to learn more the underlying principles of a Magnetic Marketing System you can get a copy of Dan Kennedy’s Magnetic Marketing book for just $10 (includes shipping and handling anywhere in the world. Visit https://hiltoncopywriting.mykajabi.com/offers/CXivH6fe/checkout to order your copy.
If you’re in Melbourne, why not visit our Magnetic Marketing Mastermind which meets monthly in Box Hill. To learn more and sign up for notifications visit https://memg.com.au
