Imagine the scene:
A lecture theatre at a Russell Group university (UK equivalent of Ivy League).
We had been invited to run one of our training courses inside the university to help around 60 students and alumni get their ideas started. We’d been there since 10 am sharing the content which you’re about to read. It was about 3 pm, the day was drawing to a close and Alan had asked for any closing questions or comments from the group.
As the room hushed, a bright young Chinese student raised her hand towards the end of the marketing session. Her cheeks coloured slightly as she started to talk: “I just want to say I’ve learned more about marketing in the last few hours than in the last year of studying the subject for my degree.”
Luckily we were invited back.
It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it.
These rules are powerful if you play them out; they don’t tell you what to do but how to do it.
Rule No.1:
The reason why people buy comes down to when they know, like and trust the person selling.
(Unless you’re a monopoly, in which case they don’t have a choice).
For example, if you live in the South of England there is only one train operator that will take you by rail into central London; Southern Railways.
Do customers know them? Yes – very well.
Do customers like and trust Southern Railways? Well because of some very high-profile service problems that have stretched over months and years, a large number of customers are not fans of the service. Do they have a choice? No.
So they buy tickets anyway. But for the rest of us in business, customers have to know you, like you, and trust you in order for them to consider a purchase.
If you do anything in your marketing that they don’t like or affects their trust, you’ll lose the sale. Conversely, start doing things to accelerate trust and you’ll get more sales. This is why food businesses do free tasters; Sushma’s Snacks in Bolton, UK is doing so well with her food business because she knows if customers taste her homemade Indian food, she’ll make sales.
Rule No.2:
People are lazy and busy.
So you’re the best cake maker in town, your cakes are amazing and your customers rave about your customer service., but it’s not enough to get a new customer! There are people thinking about buying, but they’ve got other stuff on their minds. They never quite get around to calling you in time so they end up picking up a cake from the supermarket instead. Shareholders from giant corporations are profiting from your marketing not being effective enough. That makes us lose our appetite.
Our customers need help to decide and to help take action. We need to make it easier and faster for people to get what they’re looking for. If it takes five clicks to reach the product or service on our websites, they’ve already gone.
Note: When you’re applying rule No.4 have this in mind.
Use the right language to accurately describe your business in the fewest number of words and the easiest language to comprehend. If it’s too woolly round the edges – they’re gone. We get sent lots of emails from people asking us to review their email marketing. If I’m still reading after 45 seconds, we send it back.
Rule No.3:
The answer to every question you’ll ever ask is “Who is my customer?”
Should I use flyers? Do I need a Facebook page? How often should I post? What pictures should I use on the homepage?
If you answer these questions with “Who is my customer?” then you will make decisions with your customer in mind. Large companies spend millions on getting to know their customers because if they shape their marketing, products and services as closely as they can to what the customer really wants, what do you think happens? Sales go UP!
Rule No. 4:
Marketing is a GIFT
For every piece of marketing you do, from going to a networking meeting, designing a flyer to building your website, you MUST apply this acronym!
G – Get Attention
We’re fans of subtle, cleverly thought-out marketing campaigns but the truth is, unless you have a giant budget, you’re wasting your time. We need to work much harder at getting attention.
Advertising legend Dave Trott (Ariston and on and on, Hello Tosh got a Toshiba) reckons that only 7% of adverts actually get ‘seen’ so if 100 people have your advert in front of them, ONLY SEVEN people will actually ‘see’ it and then you have to hope that one of those seven:
a) Are interested
b) Trust it enough
c) Aren’t so lazy or too busy enough to take some action.
GET ATTENTION.
Shout! Be controversial! Be hilarious! Be bold! Take your marketing ideas and 10x them!
I – Interest
Imagine going on your first date with someone you like the look of. You’re there in the restaurant, smiling across the table and you think to yourself “this beautiful specimen is marriage material, I’m going to go for it”. So you proceed to tell them your FULL LIFE HISTORY in EVERY detail so they can make an informed decision about whether they like what they hear! Would this entice them to go on a second date? No, they’d be looking for the exits.
We have to hook their interest – for example a picture or some words that make your customers go ‘ooh that looks interesting.’ Save the detail until the second and third date. i.e. if they’re interested, they’ll dig for more info.
F – Feel it
We have to make an emotional connection with our customers so they feel like they want to buy what you’re selling. The mistake many of us make is we try and sell the features instead of the benefits. I don’t want to buy what it is, I want to buy what it gives me.
Create a table. List the features of your business idea down the left-hand side and write the words ‘WHICH MEANS TO YOUR CUSTOMER’ in the middle. This will help you get to the benefits because that’s the message which will help your customers to feel it.
Here’s an example for a gardening services business:
|
FEATURES
|
WHICHMEANS TOYOURCUSTOMER |
BENEFITS
|
T – Take Action
A pet hate of ours are the trades vans that have a website, two mobile numbers, an email address, a landline, and a Facebook page in small writing. Get my attention, get me interested, make me want what you’re selling, and make it easy to take action.
Marketing without action is just customer distraction. A very clear call to action is your best guess as to what your customers will want to do next… where do you want to send them? Your website? Will they want to call you?
The fewest number of clicks via the fastest and easiest route will help.
Use these marketing tips and ‘GIFT’ acronym to help you market to your customers and keep them coming back for more.
Also check out these great examples of advertising mentioned during the course:
