Presenting your ‘uncovered gold’ in the right way can advance your business through ads, brochures, white papers, proposals, websites, blog, videos, and social media.
In my previous article Find your 8 hidden marketing assets to attract your ideal target audience, I talked about digging for the ‘gold’ right under your nose to tap into the full potential of your engineering, technology, or manufacturing business.
This included finding ‘hot buttons’, key benefits, selling points, uniqueness, outside-the-square factors, expertise and knowledge, free offer, case studies and testimonials, credentials, sponsorship or support, and other connecting points.
Now we need to put these to use in your marketing channels to build the bridge to your target audience.
Make your ‘billboard’ count
Your main headline is critical to grab attention, after creating a good first impression with your images and design.
It should touch your target audience hot buttons with ‘empathy’, showing you understand their problem or need, and ‘resonance’ – striking a chord. You also need to convey your most valuable benefits, key selling points, and ‘outside-the-square’ factors.
Focus on potential clients who are most likely to buy, and ignore the rest. If you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll appeal to no-one.
Priorities… first things first
We need to get important information across clearly on the front pages and leave details for the deeper pages. Don’t clutter or ‘dilute’ the front pages with unimportant distractions – ‘less is more’.
Sub-headings and bullet lists are great to highlight things as they make the content ‘scannable’ to catch impatient readers. This includes touching hot buttons and conveying selling points – continuing on from the main headline – plus presenting key technical features & benefits.
Don’t bury important points in large blocks of text where they’ll be missed.
To the point – but touching all the bases
Body text needs to be concise (saying as much as possible in fewer words as possible) but not necessarily short. Complex technical products and services need plenty of information to satisfy analytical clients and build confidence.
‘The more you tell, the more you sell’ still applies, but not boring repetition or waffle.
A friendly tone to build rapport
Be personal and use ‘you’ and ‘your’ to build connection, using a natural conversational tone. People generally warm to that more than cold formal language, but it depends on your target audience. A formal professional tone may be required, but still friendly.
Build trust – a ‘biggy’ these days
In your ‘About Us’ story, note your credentials, mention any sponsorships or charity support, and use all the ‘connecting points’ that might help your target audience ‘click’ with you.
Show a few testimonials and case studies to demonstrate your performance.
Fitting with their thought sequence
As they say, ‘people want to be communicated with, not sold to’. Shoving a brand or product in a person’s face like a pushy salesman is not the way to win friends and influence people. Businesses do this perhaps out of fear that they won’t be noticed or recognised.
Sales conversion is a process. We need to engage readers by acknowledging their needs and answering their questions at the right points, and build trust before expecting a response.
The call to action
By utilising all the above marketing assets in the right places, we can use ‘indirect persuasion’ to draw people without pushy trumpet blowing or hype that puts them off.
Once you’ve acknowledged their needs, shown what you’ve got for them, and built trust, it’s time to ask for a response – requesting more information, discussing their needs, purchasing a product, or most enticingly… taking up your free offer.
When you’re asking them to take a big plunge to sign up for something risky or unknown, give them reassurance at that point by a guarantee or testimonial. For specifics on making websites effective, see 7 points to get your website delivering better business results