Captivating Campaigns: How to Mesmerize Your Audience with Marketing

When it comes to marketing your small business it can feel confusing knowing what tactic will work best but the truth is that the key to a successful marketing campaign isn’t down to a particular tactic, it’s actually based on 5 essential elements which once you have nailed you can reuse over and over again!

The 5 essential elements are:

·  Defining what makes your offer unique -  your Unique Selling Proposition (USP);

·  Creating an effective sales offer and putting it out there to work for you

·  Avoiding the marketing pitfalls;

·  Using a world-class marketing perspective;

·  Getting results!

Defining Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

The best way to start looking at this element is to take the time to ask yourself some questions from the perspective of your customers and/or clients. Think about yourself as a customer and ask yourself: 

• What would it take to get your attention? 

• What needs do you have that need to be met? 

• What are the promises you want fulfilled?

Next it’s time to do some competitor research and see what USP’s they are using in their campaigns. This is not a case of copying but rather looking at their promises and then defining your own promises against that - how are you different? What are your promises to your customers? What sets you apart from your competitors? Really spend some time digging deep on this because being able to differentiate yourself in the market is key - sometimes this doesn't have to be down to the product but maybe the way you deliver it or the level of customer service that you offer. 

Creating an Effective Sales Offer & Putting it  to Work

An effective sales offer should have the following elements:

• A headline that garners immediate attention;

• The benefits of your products and/or services from the customers’ perspective;

• Identify the specific needs met by your products and/or services;

• Make it easy to do business with you by offering guarantees;

• Share your USP

• Walk your customers and/or clients through the next steps to purchasing 

• Motivate your customers and/or clients with a clear call to action (is there a time limited offer? A discount? etc)

What this all means is you need to create a plan that makes your products and/or services special and will compel customers to buy. 

If they don’t feel like they NEED your product, they won’t buy your product. It is imperative that you answer a question, solve a problem or feed an obsession with your product and/or service.

Ensure you are providing your customers and/or clients with all the information required to make an informed and confident decision. Buyers’ remorse is one of the worst things that can happen to your business.

Avoiding the Marketing Pitfalls

So often businesses come up with marketing ideas and put them out to their audience and when it doesn’t work, they simply scrap the idea or keep pushing it without looking at it further. 

Here are 5 major marketing pitfalls many businesses fall into that you should avoid:

·  Ignoring market testing and soldiering on with an inaccurate plan;

·  Offering an incomplete case or reasons throughout the marketing plan;

·  Failing to notice the needs of the prospective customers and/or clients;

·  Failing to diversify marketing options, so only being on one platform and not cross-promoting

·  Failing to get market opinions on offers.

If a marketing campaign isn’t working for you then it’s so crucial that you take the time to look at why and try to come up with a solution. Keep a learner mindset at all time when it comes to marketing and you will go far!

Using a World-Class Marketing Perspective

It can be easy to get stuck in just looking around at other small businesses near you and copying the marketing tactics or strategies that they are using but it’s important to think outside of the box when it comes to marketing. This is where adopting a world-class marketing perspective is important, especially if you want to attract customers and/or clients from all over the world. 

You can do this through a number of different techniques and activities:

1. Keep a marketing journal and scribble down anything innovative that you come across;

2. Keep encouraging yourself or your marketing team to try new things and dump the ones that aren’t working;

3. Order from your own company under a different name and analyze the process of your online store, customer service, ordering and shipping, and your product line. This will reveal any areas for improvement in the overall customer experience;

4. Read every quality ad you can find and retain for future ideas to consider;

5. When out in public, watch how consumers behave in different situations and how they ponder their purchases;

6. Spend time working with your sales and customer service staff and hear what they have to say about how consumers are purchasing or the roadblocks that they are coming up against when it comes to closing sales.;

7. Continuously acknowledge your staff, vendors and customers. Everyone works and shops better when they feel appreciated;

8. Always listen to feedback from employees and customers;

9. Continuously test markets, ads, and marketing techniques. This is the only way to  determine what’s working, and more importantly what’s not, on your continued path to success;

10. Offer more information in your marketing than anyone else. The more information you offer, the more products and/or services you will sell;

11. A great marketing plan can only improve. Continue to refine and pivot your marketing plan based on testing results and feedback;

12. Be professional in your marketing. Make sure your marketing and advertising fits your company image, products and/or services, and quality;

13. Improve your best marketing areas and discontinue the ones that aren’t working;

14. Focus on what you say, not how you say it. The best marketing ideas will naturally turn into the best marketing plans;

15. Develop all your ads, campaigns and sales materials with specific attention to compelling and factual information.

Get Results!

The last area we will touch on is the most important: customer satisfaction. If your customers aren’t satisfied, your marketing resources have been wasted -  there is no point pulling in a ton of new customers if at the end of the day your product quality or customer service is lacking! After all work-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful kind of marketing. Customer satisfaction will be guaranteed by:

·  Providing quality products and/or services;

·  Providing high quality customer service;

·  Providing a low-pressure, highly informative sales experience;

·  Eliminating all risk with an excellent guarantee.

To generate more business, there are a couple of simple techniques that work every time:

·  Build your database with a contest;

·  Do regular mailings with sales, discounts, or other incentives;

·  Find other creative ways to keep your current customers coming back for more.

“As long as the reward is directly related to your product or service, you can’t lose. Why not get started today? It’s so simple, it’s so seldom done, and it’s so profitable. And that’s the bottom line.” Jay Abraham

I hope that this blog has shown you that no matter what marketing campaign you are creating that it can become simple once you follow the basic building blocks and that there is so much that you can be doing to market your business more effectively. Want help putting together a great marketing plan that will get you results? Don’t hesitate to reach out to me and I will share some more resources that have supported my business and my clients’ businesses to grow!