Trigger Marketing

I can’t take it anymore.

Every where I look all I see is horrible marketing.

“Look at me I won an award”, “Look at me we have a sale”, “Look at me we have nothing to say”. “We’ve been in business 35 years” or “We’re number one in service”, who cares?

When you are trying to pursued someone, do you normally try to bore them to tears, or do you try to help them understand that what you have to offer and how it will benefit them?

I was recently speaking with a small business owner and she was showing me all of the lovely print ads she had recently placed in some local newspapers. In total she had spent about $2,000 over a six week schedule.

I asked her how the campaign did. She said “I didn’t get a single call.”

I’m not at all surprised.

First of all, she’s a new business and has little to no credibility in the market yet. Second, the top third of her print ad was her company name and logo, absolutely no benefit to the reader. And third, she had nothing interesting to say.

It’s no wonder the ads were a complete flop.

Each of us is a business owner, but we’re also consumers and customers. So for a minute put on your customer hat and think about this.

1. How busy are you on an average day?
2. How many ads, posters, billboards, radio commercials, TV commercials, internet banners etc. do you think you’re exposed to in a single day? (I’ll answer that in a minute)
3. How many can you remember

Your customers are just like you. Busy, tired, stressed and focused on their own lives. They share the same pain as you do, and their proving it by ignoring marketing more and more everyday.

The good news is that marketing and advertising still work, and they can work very well if you would just stop boring people.

So to help you out, here are some simple guidelines to follow.
1. Your ad should focus on one thing. Don’t try to explain everything you do or everything you have to offer in an ad. Focus on one thing.
2. Tell the customer something they will find interesting. Here’s a hint, it’s not about you, or your awards or your longevity in business. They want to know what you can do for them that will make their day or life better
3. Ask them to do something.
4. Make it incredibly easy to contact you. Have a phone, email and web site and if you have a physical location put in your address and hours of operation.
5. This is the most important. DON’T BE BORING!!!!!

Believe it or not, but it is much more risky to play things safe than to risk offending someone, or being controversial.
You will never in a million years appeal to everyone in your market. Never. So don’t be worried about the people who don’t get you or won’t buy from you. No matter what you do they still won’t buy from you.

If people start talking about you, you win. Ideas that get talked about spread and soon you’ll find yourself making money.

(By the way, the average consumer is exposed to between 1,100 and 2,000 promotional messages a day. Think about that the next time you create an ad).

To learn more, download our free eBook "Seat of your pants marketing - The 10 biggest mistakes small businesses make and what to do about it"

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