One thing I continually monitor is what works when it comes to getting people to say “yes” to online advertising.
As we become more and more inundated with messages, new types of social media and advertising, it becomes increasingly difficult to move people to action.
Which is why you must constantly be looking for ways to improve your marketing delivery and message.
You should think of your prospect as a GIANT bolder. To get that bolder moving, you need a pretty big crowbar to get it started. But once you get the bolder moving, if you keep tapping it, you can keep it moving along much more easily.
Here are three of my BEST tips to “get the bolder moving:”
1) Use multiple types of media to reach your audience. “One” is a dangerous number. If you are relying on only one type of media to reach your ideal target audience, you are not only leaving money on the table, but you are living dangerously. Different types of media serve different purposes. By using more than one type, you will not only reach more of your audience, but you will help protect the flow of income should one media have changes in algorithms or response.
To give you an example of how different medias work together, here is an example of a multi-media campaign:
A PPC ad is used to draw your audience in. SEO helps them find you (instead of your competitor) when they do extra research before buying. A website and landing page provides specific information, a sales message, and a call to action. An autoresponder email series provides the much needed follow up to overcome objections, put your prospect in the right frame to buy, and send them back to your sales page.
2) Learn more about how to create messages that sell or hire someone who does. (My personal recommendation is to do both so that when you hire someone you can tell for yourself if they are supplying you with good or bad copy.)
Too many businesses focus too much on the type of media they are using. Then if they don’t get the results they are looking for, they blame the media. (i.e. “I placed an ad in XYZ Magazine and no one called. Advertising there doesn’t work.”)
Truth is the message you create matters a great deal. The words you choose make a difference. The order you present your ideas matters. The elements in your sales message matter. The architecture or the way your sales message is put together matters.
As an example, the majority of small business websites use copy that is company or product-centric when your copy should be customer-centric. Product-centric copy focuses on the features. Here’s an example from an e-learning website about one of their courses:
“In concise fashion, the series explains essential 401(k) rules and covers the important features and benefits of a 401(k) plan.”
Notice how this tells the reader nothing about why they should take this course.
Customer-centric copy focuses on the customers and gives them “a reason why.”
The same course above could be presented in a more customer-centric way by saying something like this: “Worried about whether you’ll have enough to retire on? Discover the retirement tool that has helped more than 30 million people become disciplined savers (without noticing a difference in income), reduce their income taxes and save more than they could have with an individual retirement account (IRA) in our 401(k) training series.”
3) Seek advice, mentoring, coaching about marketing. No doubt you are an expert in your field. And you continually seek to improve your position. What many businesses don’t do is consult experts on marketing. Why? One of the most common reasons I hear is that people are taught that if they work hard at being the best and build their expertise in their field, they will succeed.
But the truth is day in and day out some of the best products and services are beaten by inferior products and companies. Being the best at what you do just isn’t enough.
Sure, you can go it alone and try to figure things out. And you might be successful at that. But if you want to get results exponentially faster…if you want to speed up the process and spend less time (and less money) figuring it out, then seek out help from a marketing expert.
Think of it this way.
Using myself as an example, I have over 20 years’ of experience in marketing…Plus I have been mentored and coached by marketing experts that have at least that much experience. The experts I learned from also have had mentors and coaches that had mentors and coaches…and so on. So what took them 10 years’ to figure out, only took me a year—because they shared what they knew.
In other words when you consult an expert, it’s like receiving 100 years’ of experience!
Remember, your marketing messages are competing with thousands of messages EVERY day. To get a leg up on your competition, you need to be more prominent and stand out. When you use these three tips, you’ll move to the top of the pile faster, stand out more, and get chosen more often. And when that happens, you’ll end up with more money in your bank account.