Two Steps to Improving Your Marketing Success

Since the human brain seems to be able to focus on only one
thought at a time, it's difficult to evaluate an advertising
idea from the perspective of both a marketer and a customer.
That's why it's necessary to use a two-step process when
developing highly effective ads, sales letters, web pages,
and e-mails.

The first step involves creating a rough draft of your
marketing message, while emphasizing the strong points and
best attributes of your product or service. Your message,
especially your headline, should strive to capture your
prospects' attention, focus on the many benefits they'll
experience, and outline the important features and selling
points. The first draft should include a call to action, as
well as whatever contact information is necessary to get the
prospect to follow through.

Navigate Through Expected Sales Objections

Possibly the most daunting obstacle to generating inquiries
and making sales is human inertia, which is basically the
tendancy to postpone, deliberate, and procrastinate. The best
way to overcome that is to create a sense of urgency by
imposing a deadline for taking action. Whether your supplies
are limited -- or prices are about to go up -- or the prospect
must act now "before it's too late", there needs to be a
feeling of urgency conveyed if you are to be successful in
overcoming the powerful forces of inaction and indecisiveness.

Other obstacles in the sales process that you need to
overcome early on include skepticism, mistrust, and
pessimism. The ideal marketing message would remove
any doubt in the customer's mind about quality,
competitive prices, ongoing customer support, and
the customer's ability to get a refund if they're
dissatisfied. One common mindset that many prospects
have is, "It sounds like a good product/service, but
it probably won't work for me." A strategy you can
use for overcoming that negative attitude is to
include testimonials of satisfied customers -- just
like them -- in your marketing materials.

Bypass Your Ego to Connect With Buyers

Part two of this marketing process is often ignored
by small business owners and even some advertising
agencies, but it can spell the difference between
success and failure. It involves stepping back and
looking at your message from the standpoint of your
target audience. Here are two important questions
to ask yourself: "Are they going to notice the ad
or the sales message at all?" and "If they do
notice it, why should they care?" If you're not
sure, then that's a clear sign you need to strengthen
your sales message and gear it more to the needs of
your intended audience.

In order to create a winning ad or marketing
campaign, it's necessary to ask yourself these
blunt questions, and have the flexibility to
make changes in your headlines, ad layout,
graphics, ad copy, or marketing strategy. Getting a
second or third opinion from people who will give
you the unvarnished truth (as they see it) can help
you develop a winning, original marketing message
that will generate a profitable response.

If your marketing efforts fail to rise above the
clutter of all the hundreds of nondescript ads, emails,
and competing offers that the public is bombarded with
every day, then your marketing message will be about as
effective as a whisper on the trading floor of the New York
Stock Exchange. Challenge yourself to produce compelling,
high-impact marketing messages that will command attention
and trigger a response from your target group.