Isn’t it interesting how some things stick out in your mind – and others, well, you either can’t (or don’t) remember?
This can be true with marketing. I’m talking all kinds of marketing: ad campaigns, direct mail pieces, social media marketing, outreach, events…gosh, the list goes on.
So…
How do you make your marketing “memorable?”
Here are five tips:
1. Have a point. This may seem trite, but so many people forget it with their marketing. For example, I was just on the website of a company that a friend of a friend suggested I check out. The most annoying thing about this site could have been its flash graphics (always a bad idea, IMHO). Or maybe the crappy color scheme. (They did that.) Bad design. (An overall valueless website.)
These were not the biggest failings — the biggest failing was the lack of a point. I read and re-read what it was they do and it had the feel of a website that was built by committee. With no point.
2. Distill your messages down to the WIIFM. To that end, every piece of marketing MUST be written as if you’re the target audience asking “What’s in it for me?” This gets back to benefit vs. feature. Feature: what the executives decide management should care about when launching the product.
Benefit: what the buyer will want to get FROM BUYING THE PRODUCT. How will I benefit? What’s in it for me?
3. Ask “why should I care?” Search has a mastermind person named Avinash Kaushik –Â @avinashkaushik — and he talks about the “3 layers of So What?” I love this because it takes the above “Benefit vs. Feature” question, the WIIFM concept, and ratchets it up big time.
To paraphrase Avinas: keep asking “so what?”
For example…”I’m launching a new service that delivers cufflinks to your door within 24 hours?” So What? “The cufflinks are handmade in Africa?” So What? “Every time you buy a pair for $35 we buy a cow for the villagers who made the cufflinks and they get 25% of every sale in cash.”
Editor’s note — this service, as far as I know, doesn’t exist yet.
4. Look for the niche within the niche. Fellow savvy marketer Jim Alexander and I have been working on a book whose code name is “Nichification.” This is a lot of work — interviews with people who have launched products and services and successfully sold and marketed them in various niche businesses.
One emerging theme in this book is the niche within the niche.
Put simply, take a subset of the population that would buy your niche product (if you use the above, try “cufflinks enthusiasts”). Then, take a subset of THAT population and cater your marketing to them. 75% of those who wear cufflinks are rich guys. The other 25% might be those who want to know that every cufflinks purchase helps support the global economy.
Write for those people.
5. Cut out unnecessary words and puffery. I find myself increasingly annoyed with marketing that is memorably BAD for its over-blown, long-winded, crap-o-rama.
We’ve all seen the web pages that go on and on and on, where you have to keep scrolling down to find out what they’re selling and how much it sells for.
I love Mark Twain’s line: “I am sorry I am writing a long letter, I didn’t have the time to write a short one.”
Get to the point with your words, marketers. We’ll thank you…
{ 6 comments }
Good stuff, Dave. I took your advice a long time ago and niched myself as a video college coach as opposed to just a vanilla coach you can find anywhere.
Alos tell a great story. If you tell a fantastic story you give your marketing legs to transfer from one person to the next. Great post man, totally digging it.
SB
I’m blushing…thanks so much for the comment. Stay memorable, will ya?
What’s In It For Me?
Exactly. Everyone wants to talk about themselves, but the truth is, your customers/clients don’t care. No one cares how long you’ve been in business, the experience you have, your education, or what you’ve done for others. All they want to know is, What’s In It For Me (them).
When business – especially small business – can finally nail this one down, they create the much-desired relationship with their target market.
Nice post!
Well said–agree with every point you put forth. But I do want to comment on what Kristine said: No one cares how long you’ve been in business, the experience you have, your education, or what you’ve done for others. All they want to know is, What’s In It For Me (them).
She’s right–and wrong. I think customers are starting to care more than ever, about “where you’re coming from.” I simply think they don’t want that background chatter to be the be-all and end-all of the message. Somewhere early in the selling process the seller needs to school him/herself to think, “Enough about me, what about you?”
Great post.
Thanks, EC. Great thoughts…yes, WIIFM should be top of mind. Context important, but WIIFM.