Most companies are just not customer focused in their
advertising and marketing.
It's almost always about themselves, how long they have been in
the business, how many branches they have, how many awards they
have won, how organized they are... They actually think that all
these would make people into customers. The truth cannot be
further from this.
People really don't care about hearing about you. You must make
them see how you can benefit them. Remember WIIFM - What's in it
for me?
You really need to sneak your way into your customers' head and
speak to their needs, their wants, their wishes, their dreams,
their fears, their desires.
You must then offer them benefits, and show them how your
products and services can help solve their problems, achieve
results they only dreamt about, take away pain that they might
have been feeling in a particular area.
Another problem in most advertising is that people are selling
the wrong things when they should be selling benefits.
Most people simply talk about features of their products and
services, eg. Comes in an elegant box, Has 100 moving parts,
Handmade by craftsmen. All these features do very little to
sell.
You really have to show your customers how all these features is
going to benefit them.
Whenever possible, you should also sell them the benefits they
are going get from your products and services, and push them
hard repeatedly in your copy and marketing.
How much time they would save?
How is it going to make their life easier?
How much money they can save in the long run?
Most people are not very adventurous when it comes to promoting
their products and services.
They are usually constrained to a set type of sales copy or ad
that they feel is appropriate for their industry and end up just
like everyone else in that industry.
The question then becomes why would a customer even notice you
among your competition. You should really aim to interrupt and
demand attention from your customers.
Being different, brutally honest and in your face will make you
stand out from the crowd. Avoid advertising based on facts and
logic but rather promote and advertise based on emotion, your
customers' emotion.
Being enthusiastic in your copy sometimes to the point of over
the top strengthen your chances of your customers registering
your messages emotionally. People attach emotions to the
thoughts they have, so you need to grab them by their emotion.
You need to get people to focus emotionally in order to get them
to pay attention to what they have read.
People buy based on emotion, then justify it based on logic. We
buy something we want, then justify and rationalize our decision
with explanations in our mind.
When writing your sales copy for your products and services, you
should reach out to people, appeal to their emotions, make them
want what you have to offer and justify it with the rest of your
copy.
Most importantly, have the guts to make a call to action at the
end, which is the close. Remember the advertising formula AIDA:
Attention, Interest, Desire and Action.
It is also of great importance that when you get to the call to
action and the close, you take your customer by the hand and
tell them exactly what you want them to do so they do not have
any doubts on what they have to do. "Fill Up This Form And Mail
It To This Address With Payment Of $97," Call Bill At
123456789," "Click The To Checkout Button Now," "Send $97 To
This Paypal Address Now."
You have to walk them through as if they are a child, telling
them exactly step by step what they need to do. At this point,
if they are ready to buy, they will be waiting for your
direction, and it's really your responsibility to do it well.
Failing to do so will result in losing sales that you would
otherwise have gotten.
About the author:
Jo Han Mok is a frequent guest and featured speaker at Internet
Marketing bootcamps and conferences on subjects such as
copywriting and Joint Venture Marketing. Visit his website to
find out how he can help you turn mere words into cash!
http://www.MasterWordsmith.com
