What you say and how you say it does make a difference!
Do you have a clear Marketing Message? Do you have it memorized? Is in printed on your business cards, “stamped” on your radio ads, visible and audible in your TV ads, included in your newspaper advertising, printed on your rack cards and brochures, and visible in the header of your website?
When you are hoping to engage a potential client, you’ve often only got a few seconds to engage the mind of your prospects with the hope of turning them into clients.
A few seconds means just a few words, so you want them to be powerful. You need to successfully arouse their interest and arrest their attention.
This is never more true than when someone lands on your website. I know that it just doesn't seem fair, but you've got about 8 seconds to captivate their attention.
Your goal is to either get them to continue to read your marketing material or start asking you questions about your products or services.
How do you do this? With your marketing message.
What is a Marketing Message?
Let us start by explaining what a marketing message is NOT.
A marketing message is NOT your company logo. Your logo is art, but your marketing message is words. Having a professionally developed logo is a part of your “corporate identity” and it is important that it is used with all of your advertising.
Your logo should be printed on all media, both in print and on line, but it is not your marketing message. The purpose of your logo is to identify your company, but your logo will not sell anything.
Often small business owners get so enamored with their logos that they give them an inordinate place in their marketing materials. Your logo should always be present, but not prominent.
A marketing message is NOT a list of your achievements, awards or memberships.
A marketing message is NOT your mission or vision statement.
A marketing message is NOT your company slogan.
This is getting closer, since your slogan is words, but it is still not your marketing message. Your slogan is just a few words that you may use to drive home a specific message about your company to help those that see or hear your ads remember you, but it falls way short of a marketing message. In some cases, you may need to dump your slogan and replace it with a marketing message.
A marketing message is NOT information about your company. Most company brochures and “about” pages on their websites simply bore their target to tears.
Sterile information about your products, services, staff, memberships, achievements, processes, procedures and more may interest you, but your target doesn’t care much about these unless you can first get their attention with a well developed marketing message.
Most small business owners have developed a marketing message, even though they may not have it formalized, and it almost always needs some refinement. Then, there are many small business owners that believe they have a marketing message when they don’t.
So, what is a marketing message?
A marketing message is a carefully and thoughtfully developed, concise, written communication that is directed at your target market with the intent to arrest their attention and convince them to do business with you.
Would you like to learn why you need a good marketing message, how to create it, and how to use it? Just complete the quick form that follows and I will email you the complete publicaton FREE.
- Doug