Here are two of the most important reasons to start your marketing message by addressing your prospect’s problem: That’s where your prospect’s mind is most of the time. And, few of your competitors are doing it.    

Most of us focus on pain. Our problems, issues, challenges, predicaments, worries, – all the stuff that isn’t right.  

Since problems are where your prospects have their attention focused, effective marketing simply becomes an exercise in demonstrating you understand their problem and likely have the solution. 

This approach allows you to create instant rapport.  A careful study of the problems your prospects have paves the way for crafting clear message. Why do they need you? What’s frustrating them? What are they struggling with? What’s missing for them? What don’t they have that they want to have? What keeps them awake at night? What is causing them grief and pain? 

This is how to get their attention. 

Often marketers fail to distinguish a problem from an aspiration.  An aspiration is what your prospect wants.   

A problem is what they have now and are tolerating. It’s more emotional. And it’s more present in their lives. Because it’s top of mind, it’s easier to relate to and it communicates more powerfully. 

Here is an example of both: 

Aspiration: "We work with successful business owners who want higher profits. 

Problem: "We work with successful business owners who have plateaued and haven’t been able to grow to their business to the next level of success."  

See the difference? The aspiration message almost invites a "so what?" response. The problem message is something the prospect can relate to. 

Many business owners struggle with the concept of opening their marketing message with a problem first, before a solution or outcome is presented. They feel talking about the problem is negative. 

But is it? 

What this approach communicates is "I work with these kinds of people who have this kind of pain." 

What this does is clearly identify the kind of clients you work with. It helps your prospects know they have come to the right place. After all, if they don’t have some problem, pain or predicament, why do they need you in the first place? 

If you talk about the solution first – which is what many marketers do – then, the prospect has to think. 

You: "I work with these kinds of people who want this solution or outcome." 

Your Prospect:  "How do I even know I want that outcome? That’s out there somewhere. I’m not sure I need that right now." 

But when we talk about the pain or problem, we’re not talking about us. We’re lasering in to what’s on your prospect’s mind – NOW. That’s much easier to relate to. 

If you start by focusing on the situation and needs of the prospect, you’ll be giving your prospect’s what they want.

I was listening to the radio the other day and a report came across that sales of some consumer electronic product sales were down 6%. 

Nope. It wasn’t the Gazillion-inch Big Screen TVs that were hardest hit.     

The casualties?  DVD and MP3 players and GPS devices were the ones left sitting on store shelves.  Much of this accelerated rate of decline in these older technology categories can be traced to the flood of cell phones on the market today that seem limitless in what they are able to do for users. 

The Garmin GPS I got my daughter for Christmas two years ago?  Stuffed in her glove box along with a pen that doesn’t write and a collection of receipts, fast food napkins and a broken CD case.  Now she follows her iPhone wherever it goes.  Simply put, the cell phone is the better mousetrap. Sexy, shiny. It’s the electronic world’s ultimate multi-tasker and it’s making a lot of other old school products obsolete. 

The same thing can happen to our service and product offerings if we’re not careful.  I call it chasing the ‘next, bright, shiny thing.’  Our prospects want to do business with partners who are current. 

Whether it’s making over your web site so it looks (and acts) contemporary. Making sure you’re part of the social media phenomenon. Or coming up with new products and services that put a slight twist on your core offerings. 

One thing’s for sure, your prospects are going to compare you against a host of other options available.  And when they do, it’s important to make sure you’ve done everything you can to give them an “ah ha” experience. 

Surprise them. Enlighten them. Show them you’re keeping up with the times.  Whatever you do, keep evolving. Let your competitors be the ones who wind up in the glove box.

In today’s economy, it pays to make every marketing communication count.  

This simple audit is designed to help you identify your most pressing marketing communications challenges as you head into 2012 so you can start working on ways to eliminate them. 

That way, you can communicate with your target markets more effectively, and get better results from every dollar spent on advertising and promotion. STEP One: Identify Your Areas Of Need Highlight all items that are of concern to you right now:

1. Creating a marketing or advertising plan

2. How to effectively market and promote our product or service on a limited advertising budget to our target audiences

3. Identifying our market and our message and creating a compelling offer

4. Building/improving our web site.

5. Attracting/ driving more traffic to our web site

6. Converting clicks to sales

7. Implementing an e-mail marketing campaign

8. Starting and publishing an e-zine

9. Producing effective sales brochures, catalogs, and other marketing literature.

10. How to get good case histories and user stories written and published

11. Planning and implementing a direct mail campaign or program

12. Increasing direct mail response rates

13. Generating low-cost but qualified leads using postcard decks

14. How to make all our marketing communications more responsive and accountable

15. Generating more inquiries from my print advertising

16. Improving overall effectiveness and persuasiveness of print ads

17. Creating an effective company or capabilities brochure

18. Developing strategies for responding to and following up on inquiries

19. Creating effective inquiry fulfillment packages

20. Producing and using a video or audio tape to promote our product or service

21. Writing and publishing a book, booklet, white paper, or special report that can be used to promote our company or product

22. Getting articles by company personnel written and published in industry trade journals

23. Getting editors to write about our company, products, or activities

24. Getting some editors to run our press release

25. Getting reviews and critiques of existing or in-progress copy of ads, mailings, brochures, and other premiums

26. How to promote our product or service using free or paid seminars

27. Learning proven strategies for marketing our product or service in a recession or soft economy

28. Training our staff with an in-house seminar focused on selling, marketing, customer service or another area where they need some direction

STEP Two: Take Action Now If you wish, email me at gerry@marketingwriter.ca with your current web site URL, ads, brochures, mailing pieces, press releases, and any other material you’re concerned about. I will review your marketing materials and provide a cost estimate for solving your marketing problem. We can work on them all at once or on a project by project basis. Don’t wait! Email me today. Set yourself up for a successful year NOW while we have plenty of time to get a sales lead generation system in place.      

 by Gerry Black 

Success as a business owner or entrepreneur can be boiled down to one thing:

How good you are at doing the right things faster and either getting rid of the other stuff, delegating it or creating an automated system that can free you up to do things you like to do.

One of those “right things“ is marketing. Referrals are great but what about when they dry up? Then what?

Investing in your marketing today – maybe creating an email follow up campaign, or rewriting your web copy so your site will actually send qualified sales leads your way or crafting a guide you can use as a lead generation tool – will pay off down the line by minimizing those feast or famine stretches we all go through at some point.

So, if marketing can help us generate more sales with less heavy lifting, why do so many of us keep putting it off?

Here are 5 common reasons:

Reason 1: You don’t enjoy marketing. And, like most things we don’t enjoy, typically it goes to the other To Do list – the one we never seem to get to. But marketing is something that has to be done. By you or someone else or you’re business could be at risk. Sooner or later, the referral well may run dry and if you aren’t equipped with a marketing system of some sort in place to attract more business, it could be a real shocker.

Reason 2: You don’t enjoy certain aspects of marketing. Maybe it’s copywriting. Or using automation. Or creating a compelling online selling story. Figure out what it is exactly that you really don’t like to do and don’t want to do and hire someone to do just that part. You can’t move forward until you move past the missing piece to your puzzle.

Reason 3: You don’t know how to handle the task or job. Budgeting and bookkeeping are a big block for us creative types. That’s why I get help. I came to realize over time that I have to be involved to some degree but I try to stay on the outside when I can. My social media technical skills needed upgrading about 2 months ago. I didn’t know how to shorten a lengthy blog URL so that I could use it with Twitter. It was holding me back. Now that I know how to do it, I am using Twitter to get useful information out to people who may have a need for it. Do some research or get someone to help you understand whatever it is you aren’t sure about.    

Reason 4: You simply can’t find the time.  Then, you have two choices: Schedule time to do your marketing or find someone to help you. For about  six months, I kept putting off writing my new website copy. And I’m a copywriter! Finally, I realized I needed to schedule time to write the copy. I kept putting it on my list – the one with all the stuff I’d kinda like to do and need to do but never actually quite find time to do. I had to block out the time.

Reason 5: You feel stuck. Sometimes we just need a little momentum. The first thing to do is to break it down so you know what you actually need. Then, start with the easier parts.  When I start a new client website, the home page for me is the toughest part to write. So I stay away from that at the beginning. I may begin writing the FAQ page or the Contact Us page. That gets me going. The progress generates excitement and I carry on from there.     

As business owners, our job is to create an extraordinary service or product that can help people get what they want and then, tell the world about it.

If no one knows about it, what’s the point?

Start building your marketing system today and set yourself up to thrive in 2012.

Got a call last week from someone I hadn’t heard from in two years who needed some copywriting and marketing help.

As soon as I heard the voice, the flashing lights started going off, red flags were popping up everywhere and I knew that whatever happened from that minute on was probably going to end up with me wasting time and feeling totally frustrated.

So what’d I do?

Stayed on the line and ended up flushing about 4 hours right down the toilet over three days!

My mistake?

I knew this person was not part of my target market. He proved it two years ago when we tried to work together and he demonstrated almost at every turn that he had virtually no knowledge of marketing, no appreciation for professional  help, didn’t understand value and was simply interested in trying to get something for nothing.

Why did I take his call this time and proceed to knowingly throw away half a day trying to help him again?

All I can think of was that I musta been in the Gerry Happy Bubble because I broke my #1 rule of marketing:

Know your target market cold and keep all your efforts focused on showing them how you can help them get what they want.

Many business owners never take time to figure out who their ideal client or customer is. Others know but don’t leverage the power of that understanding in their web copy and other marketing messages.

They end up creating impersonal ‘stop me when you see something you like’ websites and emails instead of crafting laser like sales messages that zero in on exactly what their target prospect is looking for.

So, how can you figure out who your target market is?

Simply think about the customers and clients you worked with where you had fun, earned a profit, enjoyed the experience, developed relationships and looked forward to your next encounter. In short, both sides benefitted.

That, is your ideal client.

Here are a few characteristics of my target market:

• Most are between 35 – 45 years old.
• Close to 75% are female.
• Almost all either own/run a business or hold senior marketing positions at small or medium sized companies.
• Many have a basic or advanced understanding of marketing.
• Most are extremely busy and value their time. They know what they are good at and understand that investing in copywriting and marketing help can get them where they need to go faster.
• They are very trusting and committed to growing their businesses.

With this understanding , I am able to match my marketing with what my target prospect is looking for.  

If you haven’t taken time to reflect on your target market, give it a try. It will help you create marketing that goes right to the fundamental reason we do what we do - help people get what they want.

If you’re a web designer, today’s article might have you sitting there going ‘puhleeaasse.’

Especially when you realize you’ve just spent two minutes reading about something you learned back in rookie camp. (do they have rookie camps for web designers?)

Anyway, for some of us, this might be an eye opener.

Google has many tools to help us measure the overall effectiveness of our website marketing. And this one I’ll tell you about in a sec is a bit of a sleeper that could have you rethinking a few things today.

Business owners are always on the lookout for more effective ways to engage readers on their website and convert them into profitable clients.

Now, I don’t know about you but where I come from, conventional logic suggests that someone is more likely to do something, buy something or take action IF they are aware of it.

Maybe you offer a free report. Or you’re soliciting donations. Perhaps you offer a free trial.

Because people use various browser settings, monitor sizes and screen resolutions, it can be tough to know when a key button, like a “Donate” or “Subscribe” is visible and easily reachable by your users.

Well, Google has taken a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.

Google Browser Size overlays a transparent image on top of any website, displaying what percentage of users (on average) will see your content without scrolling.

And the operative words are ‘without scrolling.’ Most visitors to your site are going to make a snap decision in a few seconds to decide whether to stick around or click away – from the screen they can see without making the tremendous effort of actually moving the cursor and scrolling down.  

That’s why I preach an “above the fold” approach which sees as much selling horsepower as possible in the upper part of the home page.  

Here’s how this tool works:

When you enter your site URL in the box, you’ll see the overlay.

On the top and left are numbers depicting the length and width of the screen, in pixels. In the middle you’ll notice an array of colors and percentages. Based on research Google did, they were able to extrapolate at what pixel height and width Internet surfers could see the page without scrolling, from 99 percent to essentially 0 percent.

If your sales ammunition is out of view for too high a percentage of readers, you’re not going to get the conversions you could.

I see this all the time. No benefit headline which is what the reader should always see first. Hidden testimonials. Huge graphics at the top and no copy. Credentials buried down below. Newsletter offer at the bottom

A lot this stuff is out of view – and, therefore, out of mind.

See how your site stacks up.

If your most compelling sales story isn’t hitting your visitor right between the eyes, might be time for a little chess.   

Over the years, Psychology Today has done numerous studies designed to uncover the characteristics of successful sales people. The author of one of those studies found the best salespeople first establish a mood of trust and rapport by means of “hypnotic pacing’ – statements and gestures that play back a prospect’s observations, experience or behavior. The objective? Suggest to the prospect ‘I am like you. We are in snyc. You can trust me.’ Now, if you are skeptical about selling and salespeople in general, you may be tempted to interpret this as manipulation. And, in its purest terms, it is. But for the person who truly is interested in helping prospects and customers get what they want, it is absolutely vital to establish a feeling of trust. Using ethical means of course. Otherwise, the selling process is unlikely to move forward. Your website is the online version of YOU.  And if you’re successful selling one-on-one in person, there is absolutely no reason your website should not be able to play a major role in helping you achieve the same results online. Provided your website mirrors your in-person sales approach. Many business owners have trouble injecting their websites with their own passion and personality. Instead of a relaxed, interactive communication, they push their sales message at a prospect like a carnival barker in such an overt way, the prospect does what we all do when a salesperson is pushy, we go elsewhere. The prospect doesn’t feel a sense of trust. How can he? After all, he just stumbled across your website. What he does sense immediately is a gimmee gimmee message that is totally the opposite of what the business owner would do in a personal selling situation. Your prospect’s visit to your website should be an experience that says, ‘Hey, we know you’ve got many choices (geez, it grates on me when an airline pilot says that in a voice oozing insincerity) when it comes to buying whatever, thank you for considering us. Take a look around, sample the goods and we’re here to answer any questions that come up while you’re visiting.’ Sadly, the message the prospect often gets is ‘Hey, we’re the same as everyone else so you might as well  buy from us.’ My clients hear me talk a lot about the importance of establishing an online KLT factor – ‘know, like and trust.’ Without one, sales leads will be few and far between.

I’m driving past a cemetery yesterday and there’s some construction going on which has me stopped dead (sorry) right at the entrance.

I look over and there’s a sign beside the gate that says, ‘Premium sites available.’

Hmmmmmm. Let’s see. You’re the guy in charge of filling the place and that’s what you come up with?

I get it if you’re selling parcels of land on Lake Tahoe or corporate tents at the British Grand Prix or something like that.

But a burial plot.

Maybe it’s just me, but I start channeling Larry David.

Would I care if I was buried in a premium spot? Doubt it. A nice view over the river won’t mean much to me at that point.   

My family? Not likely. They love me dearly but they know I’d rather see them use the extra cash for a big send off party.

As I was sitting there in my car, I thought of what the cemetery owner could have used to get me thinking about going all in. Maybe something about “resting” close to where my loved ones lived so if they ever did visit they wouldn’t have far to go. To me, that’s kinda thoughtful. And, if they were doing the buying, they’d probably eventually think about that without the sign coming right out and saying it.

The whole thing just reminded me of how often marketers market what they sell instead of how they can make a difference.

Remember, our customers don’t want our products and services, they want us to make their lives better, grow their businesses and make them happier.

Duh….

I don’t have a crystal ball but I’d say in 90% of the cases where a website is doing little to produce interest from qualified prospects, the reason is very simple –assuming you’re getting traffic.

Your website probably has no personality, it’s uninformative, hard to look at and does virtually nothing to help the reader in her efforts to solve her problem.

Think of it this way.

Imagine, for a second, you’re a business coach. Someone tells you there’s a trade show going on 24/7 for a whole week where almost everyone in attendance is looking for help to grow their business. That’s why they’re there.

You rent a booth. A gray curtain. Some bright lights. And a megaphone. The stage is set and the doors open.

And, for the next 6 hours, you stand there behind the curtain where no one can see you with the lights flashing and, in the dullest monotone voice you can muster up, drone on about being a business coach and you help people grow their business so they can live happily ever after.

Crazy, huh?  You would never do it right? And yet so many business owners do EXACTLY this with their websites.

Talk about what they do. Overuse flash animation. Throw a few emotionless words (oh, no one wants to read longer copy…heavens no…) on a web page.

I have news for you. The people that have no interest in what you have to offer absolutely don’t want to read long copy. They don’t want to read ANY of your copy!

It’s the qualified prospects who showed some interest by visiting your website in the first place who are starving for a business owner who can tell a compelling sales story. That’s who the longer copy is for!!!

Who wants to do business with a company that forces them to fight through an iron curtain of boredom to try and figure out where the value is?

Answer: nobody.

Click. Gone.

You’ve probably heard the expression regarding working ON your business instead of IN it?

 Well, marketing is an ON activity and for many of us, finding time to make sure we do it on a consistent basis can be like pushing water uphill with your nose.  

Most days, I do a pretty good job of finding my way past the icebergs, enjoying the adventures and ensuring I make time to do things that will help me grow my business.

As a copywriter, I know how important marketing is and understand that a significant chunk of time should be directed toward this activity that represents the lifeblood of any business.

Experts say you should spend about 60 % – 70% of your time marketing your business. More if you’re just starting out.

 So I decided to conduct a little experiment to see how close I was to meeting the expectations of the “almighty experts.”

Professional Time Log Sheet

I created a time sheet broken into 15 minute intervals and tracked my daily activity between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. for two weeks. I didn’t include evening time simply because my work-related activity tends to be more sporadic at night.  

 My objective was to determine just how much time I actually WAS spending on marketing.   

The results were revealing. 29 percent of my time was spent doing marketing related stuff. Traffic building. Making my web site more spider friendly. Blogging. Writing and sending out this ezine. Calling up potential clients with ideas to help them sell more. Answering questions on LinkedIn. 

I would have guessed closer to 40 %.   

Brian Tracy says that most businesses spend 11% of their time and marketing. To me, that’s incredible. Especially when you consider most of us haul our behinds out of bed early in the morning and hope we can be horizontal before Conan comes on.

Aren’t we doing that so we can grow our businesses?

 So what’s going on? Presumably we’re trying to find new customers we can help. And most of us spend around 11% of our time on it? Really?

I think many business owners simply find marketing intimidating. They have a basic understanding but lack the chops needed to write sales copy or create marketing strategies.

So instead, they turn to activities they feel comfortable tackling.  

 The sad part is that opportunities that could easily be theirs pass them by.

Here’s a formula to help you get started so you can avoid the “feast or famine” cycle you may find yourself in: call it the 50 – 40 – 10 Rule:

-Spend 50% of your time on marketing and sales

-40% on providing your service or product

-10% on administration and management

Then, as you get used to this shift, try to ease the marketing number higher.

And, if marketing your business isn’t for you, find someone who can help you. It will pay for itself in short order and you’ll be on your way to greater success.