A successful small business marketer is a mix of an optimist and a realist.
If you do not cultivate optimism, your efforts will be uncreative, sporadic, and half-hearted. If you only see the world through rose-colored lenses, you might develop false confidence and rush into an expensive media campaign without planning or evaluation.
While optimism is a necessary state of mind to achieve any goal, this must be balanced with a healthy dose of realism.
Self-defeating attitudes can sometimes be a business’s worst enemy. When you or one of your colleagues says, “I never thought that ad was going to work anyway,” it’s a sign that you need to regroup, reexamine your attitudes, and revise your creative process.
Does this sound familiar? You should always reevaluate and seek outside feedback on any ad or marketing campaign before you launch it.
Get a second opinion.
You can ask a few friends or family members for constructive feedback on the concept, graphics, or sales message.
Ask them to tell you their reaction and whether or not the message was persuasive. Does it seem like it would make them take action as a prospective customer, or is it just another marketing message they are exposed to every day?
A successful marketing or advertising campaign often begins with finding a way for the client to be noticed.
The more formal method would be to form a focus group. These are usually people from the public who receive a payment to watch your commercial, rate your product, or evaluate your marketing materials. It is best to hire a marketing research or advertising agency to run a focus group for you. The agency should be able to steer discussions in the right direction and ask questions that elicit honest and unbiased responses.
If you have spent a lot of time and effort creating an advertisement, a presentation, or packaging, you may find it hard to imagine yourself in the customer’s shoes.
It’s easy to lose objectivity if you get too caught up in your creative process, sales quotas, or your ego. At this point, outside feedback is really useful and needed.
Connect with your inner customer.
It is easy and natural to begin thinking like a client if you start analyzing and paying attention to your own experiences. Make a mental note whether you’re at a restaurant dry cleaner or in a repair shop.
It is the same for your response to Yellow Pages, print ads, television commercials, or other sales pitches. What do you see or hear in marketing messages that make you pick up the telephone, drive, use your credit card, make a purchase, or get into your car?
Consider why you continue to visit the same coffee shop or bank or to the same chiropractor, mechanic, hairdresser, etc. Suppose you know why you keep going back to the same coffee shop, chiropractor, mechanic, bank, or hairstylist. In that case, you might be able to improve your company’s ability to attract, acquire, and retain customers.
It is important to know your strengths before you can capitalize on them. Your entire organization should understand your unique and distinctive customer advantages and why your customers would rather do business with you than your competitors.
Write down the strongest selling points you can use in your presentations, brochures, and ads. Also, include them on business cards, letters of introduction, and website pages. Decide what improvements and changes you need to make to your Marketing Strategy and your list of benefits to make them more compelling.
Focus on benefits instead of features.
Here comes the difficult part! It seems that the biggest obstacle business owners face when it comes to creating effective ads and letters and giving sales presentations is their attitude. By changing your attitude, you can increase your advertising response and sales closing ratio.
You and everyone else in business have heard about this secret, but you may not be taking action. The secret is to focus on the “benefits” of your service or product rather than its “features.”
Customers are more likely to buy a product if they know how it will benefit them rather than its composition. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you should ignore the features of your service or product, but in most cases, the focus of your ad or presentation should be on the benefits the customer will receive.
Focus on how you can solve their problem or make their life easier. You can also help them feel happier, more confident, healthier, and more secure. You can target them with a product or service that will make them feel more confident, happier, more loved or admired, more attractive, prosperous or prestigious, more comfortable, or pain-free.
People are motivated by a variety of emotions and needs, ranging from love and greed to fear and greed. Find out what your prospects'”hot buttons” are and tailor your presentation or ad to meet those needs. You can increase the likelihood of winning their business by convincing them on an emotional level that you can satisfy their needs or solve their problems better than your competitors.