How to use solid information in your marketing
By Vic Michener and Jocelyn Watt
The secret to selling more of what you offer is closer than you might think. Your sound understanding of your industry, your customers and the products and services you offer is a vast resource. With a little ingenuity, you can turn it into powerful marketing.
Compare these two statements.
But the second sells. It speaks to you, the reader. It gives you a rationale for buying the X1A. It makes you comfortable with the product. It uses details and paints a picture so you can imagine actually using it.
And your use of real information shouldn't stop there. You should be prepared to give customers the details of your background -- the "human interest" story behind your company. Offer them how-to information related to the industry. And share information about your company's plans and strategies with your employees.
With concrete information as your starting point, you can build a much more solid case for your product -- and a desire to deal with you.
Seven ways information-based marketing will increase your response
Solid information presented with an understanding of what information is important to your audience is the foundation for generating response.
1. Solid information provides the details buyers need to be convinced.
2. It provides the facts they need to justify their choice and present their own case for the purchase (a major consideration if you're marketing to a business audience).
3. It helps build relationships. Telling a story about your company and your reasons for being in the business you're in makes you real to them.
4. It provides value-added services that can forge stronger ties between you and your customers. Providing how-to and other information related to the product or service establishes you as a helpful partner.
5. It builds loyalty and commitment. By sharing information with employees, you demonstrate trust and give them a greater stake in your success.
6. It generates free publicity. Real news and interesting explanations will do 10 times a much as empty fluff to push your story to the top of an editor's pile.
7. It paints a real picture of the product or service, its use, and what it will do for the reader.
Six ways to use it to market your product or service
Direct mail Know what's important to your prospects and demonstrate how you'll deliver those benefits. Don't simply list features. Explain in detail what the features mean in daily use. Translate them into benefits.
Newsletters Newsletters that simply offer information on sales and glowing description of the company publishing it aren't newsletters -- they're flyers. A real newsletter offers information of value to the prospect. How-to information. Industry news of relevance. Information about your company or product which can help them.
Websites Ditto. Offer how-to information. Trivia on your area. Helpful resources. Beef up your menu headings by actually explaining what they'll find when they click. And make it easy to find the information they want.
Media relations/press releases Wading through a pile of press releases is one of an editor's most dreaded tasks. By providing solid news -- and more importantly, putting it in a format he can readily use as is or publish with minor modifications, your release will avoid the fate of 99 percent of its ilk: the circular file.
Advertising People read newspapers and magazines for information, not for the ads. Those pretty image ads might win their creators awards, but they're not going to win you sales. Make your ads look more like the editorial copy, and kick them off with intriguing headlines promising a worthwhile read.
Advertorials Got a good story to tell? Package it in a format readers are comfortable with -- a short feature which looks like it's been torn from a magazine -- and mail it out. As with releases and newsletters, give the reader something worth reading about, and avoid describing yourself in glowing terms. Demonstrate your strengths instead.
Why don't more marketing materials use this technique?
Because it takes work. To dig for the facts, to examine a product's or service's chief strengths and weaknesses, to find the stories hiding in what seems everyday to people in the business -- these efforts are tougher than reaching for the thesaurus.
It's what we love to do. And we can help you starting now.
Use this proven way to sell more of your products or services
By Vic Michener and Jocelyn Watt
The secret to selling more of what you offer is closer than you might think. Your sound understanding of your industry, your customers and the products and services you offer is a vast resource. With a little ingenuity, you can turn it into powerful marketing.
Compare these two statements.
The X1A is a superior example of the functionality and craftsmanship we bring to every Widgetco product. The new X1A features the most innovative features yet -- in a sleek, unparalled package…
Simply place the material in front-loading X1A. A single flick of the switch and in 2.3 seconds, your widget is complete and ready to ship. The X1A is smaller than your telephone, so it takes up half the floor space of competitive products, and it costs about the same as larger, slower models.The first example is a cop-out. A quick tour of the thesaurus will yield a choice of adjectives telling how great, innovative, unmatched and supreme the X1A is.
But the second sells. It speaks to you, the reader. It gives you a rationale for buying the X1A. It makes you comfortable with the product. It uses details and paints a picture so you can imagine actually using it.
And your use of real information shouldn't stop there. You should be prepared to give customers the details of your background -- the "human interest" story behind your company. Offer them how-to information related to the industry. And share information about your company's plans and strategies with your employees.
With concrete information as your starting point, you can build a much more solid case for your product -- and a desire to deal with you.
Seven ways information-based marketing will increase your response
Solid information presented with an understanding of what information is important to your audience is the foundation for generating response.
1. Solid information provides the details buyers need to be convinced.
2. It provides the facts they need to justify their choice and present their own case for the purchase (a major consideration if you're marketing to a business audience).
3. It helps build relationships. Telling a story about your company and your reasons for being in the business you're in makes you real to them.
4. It provides value-added services that can forge stronger ties between you and your customers. Providing how-to and other information related to the product or service establishes you as a helpful partner.
5. It builds loyalty and commitment. By sharing information with employees, you demonstrate trust and give them a greater stake in your success.
6. It generates free publicity. Real news and interesting explanations will do 10 times a much as empty fluff to push your story to the top of an editor's pile.
7. It paints a real picture of the product or service, its use, and what it will do for the reader.
Six ways to use it to market your product or service
Direct mail Know what's important to your prospects and demonstrate how you'll deliver those benefits. Don't simply list features. Explain in detail what the features mean in daily use. Translate them into benefits.
Newsletters Newsletters that simply offer information on sales and glowing description of the company publishing it aren't newsletters -- they're flyers. A real newsletter offers information of value to the prospect. How-to information. Industry news of relevance. Information about your company or product which can help them.
Websites Ditto. Offer how-to information. Trivia on your area. Helpful resources. Beef up your menu headings by actually explaining what they'll find when they click. And make it easy to find the information they want.
Media relations/press releases Wading through a pile of press releases is one of an editor's most dreaded tasks. By providing solid news -- and more importantly, putting it in a format he can readily use as is or publish with minor modifications, your release will avoid the fate of 99 percent of its ilk: the circular file.
Advertising People read newspapers and magazines for information, not for the ads. Those pretty image ads might win their creators awards, but they're not going to win you sales. Make your ads look more like the editorial copy, and kick them off with intriguing headlines promising a worthwhile read.
Advertorials Got a good story to tell? Package it in a format readers are comfortable with -- a short feature which looks like it's been torn from a magazine -- and mail it out. As with releases and newsletters, give the reader something worth reading about, and avoid describing yourself in glowing terms. Demonstrate your strengths instead.
Why don't more marketing materials use this technique?
Because it takes work. To dig for the facts, to examine a product's or service's chief strengths and weaknesses, to find the stories hiding in what seems everyday to people in the business -- these efforts are tougher than reaching for the thesaurus.
It's what we love to do. And we can help you starting now.
