Business owners have been told that customers won’t wait for anything. Customers are impatient, and you’ve got to get to the point fast, make the pitch and close the deal. Well, that just isn’t going to work with any sophisticated product or service.
With these products your presentation needs to slow people down so that they can hear what you have to say, and you have to say something worth hearing. Print material design and delivery is not so much about wizardry and being the prettiest. You have to effectively communicate your product or service and convince people that yours is the best on the market. In order to do this there are seven words to remember:
1. Communication
People are always asking, “What is wrong with our ads?” The answer in the vast majority of cases can be summed up in a quote from the movie, “Cool Hand Luke” (1967): “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Communication is the key to success, and that doesn’t just apply to your printed ads, it applies to almost everything you do both inside and outside your business life.
If your materials aren’t communicating on both a rational and emotional level, if they don’t provide the psychological and emotional context of your marketing message, then exactly what are they doing?
2. Audience
I can’t think of too many people who actually like being sold. In fact, sometimes customers get so irritated by sales tactics that they end up not buying the thing they came specifically to purchase.
Solving the problem is merely a question of altering your perspective; the average buyer is predisposed to dismiss and ignore high-pressure tactics and meaningless sales pitches. So instead of treating customers like customers, try treating them like an audience. Audiences want to be engaged, enlightened and entertained. That is the most effective way to make a sales impact.
3. Focus
All too often brochures, etc., inundate their audiences with facts, figures, statistics and an endless list of features, benefits, options and whatever else the sales department can think of throwing in. All that stuff just confuses people. Focus your message on the most important elements of what you have to say.
4. Language
The words used, and how they are put together provides a meaning. They provide mental sound bites. They make whatever you are saying, worth remembering. Language is one of the critical elements of “voice,” the ability to convey personality; and writing without a voice is instantly forgettable.
5. Performance
Even the most articulate prose can be lost in a befuddled delivery. Communication is more than words; it’s a combination of language, style, personality and performance.
Things are rarely what they seem. Even our memories are a stylized version of what we’ve actually experienced. Creating a memorable impression is about managing the viewer experience, and providing the right verbal and non-verbal cues make what is being said memorable.
6. Personality
Every business has a personality. The first problem is, few medium-sized companies ever attempt to manage that persona. As a consequence, the buying public forms its own opinion, and that opinion is often not the way you want to be regarded.
The second problem is companies either don’t have a firm grasp of who they really are, or they know, but they are afraid to promote it. If your company’s identity isn’t worth promoting, it is time to think why that is, and change it. The bottom line is a company without a personality is a company without an image and that makes you instantly forgettable.
7. Psychology
The most important feature you can provide your audience is psychological fulfillment, not deep discounts, fast service or more bells and whistles.
The real reason people buy stuff is that it makes them feel something. Cosmetics make women feel attractive or sexy, while cars make men feel they’ve achieved some level of status. Even services make people feel important, as in “I’ve got a guy who does that for me.” Finding the psychological hot spot in your marketing, and promoting the hell out of it consistently and continually should be your primary marketing goal. All those features and benefits are merely the excuse for a purchase, not the reason.
If your marketing team can keep those seven things in mind, you should be a success. Do you take a different approach? Are there other words that you would put into this group? Let me know.
