Do You Have a Strong Marketing Foundation?

The 4 components to your marketing foundation are:

1.  Your target market/niche

Who are you marketing to?  Who are you trying to sell to?  

Who is your message and marketing communications directed to?  What is the personality of your potential customers?  Who are the ideal clients for your service and products?

These are all questions where you need to be as clear as you possibly can be.  Who your target group is dictates everything in your marketing plan from your specific goals and objectives, to what marketing tactics you choose to reach that target audience.

2.  Your prospects' and clients' problems

What is the issue or concern that frustrates your prospects and clients?  What’s not working for them or could work better?   Why does your target market need your services or products?

You need to answer this question, not only for marketing purposes but for the good of your business.  If you don't know what people need, then how will you figure out what solutions your products and services can provide?  If you can't figure that out, then you're not much use to your prospective customers!

The secret to crafting compelling marketing that makes your potential clients sit up and take notice is to clearly identify the problems they are facing. People are living in, thinking about and immersed in their problems.  If you can articulate their problem clearly and demonstrate that you do understand what they're going through, you'll grab their attention immediately.

3.  Your benefits and solutions

What solution can you provide to alleviate your target market’s problem?  What will your customers experience from working with you or buying your product? What are all the ways that your product or service helps your client?  What are the actual results?

Your solution is the flip-side of their problem.  Your products and services are the solution to your potential and current clients' problem or need. 

Another way to look at it is that the solution is what you are actually selling – what you are offering in your marketing, your website, your sales literature, and so on.

Benefits are what the client experiences as a result of the solution your services and products provide and usually tie in to the emotional payoffs your solution gives. 

For example, as an image consultant, your solution is that people will project a professional image via their clothes, accessories and grooming.  The benefits of this to your clients are that they feel confident and attractive, they feel in control of their image, and they feel good about themselves. 

4.  Your marketing message

Simply put, your marketing message is what you say to get people interested in your services.  You want your marketing message to grab your prospect’s attention, show them how you can solve their problem, why they should trust you and why it’s in their best interest to do business with you.

Your marketing message forms the backbone of all your marketing strategies and communications. Everything follows from that:  your website content, your sales letters and direct mail, your article and blog content, your teleseminars, workshop format and offerings, your sales literature, emails and phone messages.

Your marketing message needs to strongly and clearly resonate with your target market.  You want them to see or hear your marketing message and get an instant reaction of “Hey, that’s for me” or “They’re talking about me!”  You want them to feel compelled to visit your website, give you a call, send you an email, ask someone about you.  In other words, you want them to feel the need to find out more about you and the solutions you offer.