Is your marketing painful?
Is your marketing painful?
We live in such a Politically Correct (PC) world now don't we?
We live in an age where competitiveness at school is often discouraged and non-competitive games are the norm...'it's the taking part that counts you know!'
But you know what....I believe this fear of upsetting someone filters through to our marketing, diluting it and making it so unappealing that it becomes ineffective.
Let me explain. With our marketing we are often trying to attract new customers (prospects) to our business...agreed? Well when a prospect decides they want to use the services of a dentist, chiropractor, optometrist etc they have a problem that needs solving...it could be an ugly smile, or a tooth missing, or a bad lower back..agreed? Good we are all agreeing so far then!
Now we know our prospects have a problem that needs solving, let's define a problem.
A problem exists when there is a gap between 'what is' and 'what ought to be'
This gap may not be well defined for the prospective patient, for a dentist they may just be unhappy with their smile but not know what the exact problem is. For a Podiatrist they may not be able to walk long distances but not know exactly what the problem is. So the 'what is' is the patients current situation and it is their 'pain' that needs solving by your professional services.
Now, the role of marketing in my opinion is to work on that gap. To highlight the 'pain' (not physical pain, but emotionlal pain) and to highlight your unique solution to that pain. In other words you are making the gap between the 'what is' i.e. their 'pain' and the 'what ought to be' i.e. your unique solution to be as big as possible.
The bigger the gap, the more compelling the need to solve the problem. The more compelling the need to solve the problem, the more likley the prospect is to contact your surgery/clinic/business.
So, is your marketing painful? You need to be prepared to highlight to the prospects their pain, it kind of goes against political correctness slightly, but it IS necessary. When highlighting the pain concerntrate on the emotional attachment to the consequences of that pain.
Some examples are:
You wish to attract patients to a dental surgery for tooth whitening.
Highlight the pain = dark teeth
Highlight the emotional consequence = embarassed to go out
Now this is what you need to highlight in you marketing...
'Embarassed to go out?'
'Embarrased about the colour of your teeth?"
Next give your unique solution to this pain.
Did you answer yes to the questions above? Then come down to XYZ surgery and experience the amazing results of the 'XYZ surgery super tooth whitening system' so you can go out at night and smile with confidence
So in your maketing you have highlighted the pain, given your unique solution (the XYZ surgery super tooth whitenign system) AND made the 'what ought to be' as obvious as possible with some emotional attachement.
Now clearly the marketing needs FAR more that this, we need a compelling reason for them to contact you, it needs to be more focused, there need to be many more mechanisms for conversions etc etc
But you get my point huh? Don' be afraid of reminding your prospects of their pain, and remember to give them your unique solutions to their pain.
Speak soon,
Mark
Is your marketing painful - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Oborn's Website.
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Is your marketing painful?
We live in such a Politically Correct (PC) world now don't we?
We live in an age where competitiveness at school is often discouraged and non-competitive games are the norm...'it's the taking part that counts you know!'
But you know what....I believe this fear of upsetting someone filters through to our marketing, diluting it and making it so unappealing that it becomes ineffective.
Let me explain. With our marketing we are often trying to attract new customers (prospects) to our business...agreed? Well when a prospect decides they want to use the services of a dentist, chiropractor, optometrist etc they have a problem that needs solving...it could be an ugly smile, or a tooth missing, or a bad lower back..agreed? Good we are all agreeing so far then!
Now we know our prospects have a problem that needs solving, let's define a problem.
A problem exists when there is a gap between 'what is' and 'what ought to be'
This gap may not be well defined for the prospective patient, for a dentist they may just be unhappy with their smile but not know what the exact problem is. For a Podiatrist they may not be able to walk long distances but not know exactly what the problem is. So the 'what is' is the patients current situation and it is their 'pain' that needs solving by your professional services.
Now, the role of marketing in my opinion is to work on that gap. To highlight the 'pain' (not physical pain, but emotionlal pain) and to highlight your unique solution to that pain. In other words you are making the gap between the 'what is' i.e. their 'pain' and the 'what ought to be' i.e. your unique solution to be as big as possible.
The bigger the gap, the more compelling the need to solve the problem. The more compelling the need to solve the problem, the more likley the prospect is to contact your surgery/clinic/business.
So, is your marketing painful? You need to be prepared to highlight to the prospects their pain, it kind of goes against political correctness slightly, but it IS necessary. When highlighting the pain concerntrate on the emotional attachment to the consequences of that pain.
Some examples are:
You wish to attract patients to a dental surgery for tooth whitening.
Highlight the pain = dark teeth
Highlight the emotional consequence = embarassed to go out
Now this is what you need to highlight in you marketing...
'Embarassed to go out?'
'Embarrased about the colour of your teeth?"
Next give your unique solution to this pain.
Did you answer yes to the questions above? Then come down to XYZ surgery and experience the amazing results of the 'XYZ surgery super tooth whitening system' so you can go out at night and smile with confidence
So in your maketing you have highlighted the pain, given your unique solution (the XYZ surgery super tooth whitenign system) AND made the 'what ought to be' as obvious as possible with some emotional attachement.
Now clearly the marketing needs FAR more that this, we need a compelling reason for them to contact you, it needs to be more focused, there need to be many more mechanisms for conversions etc etc
But you get my point huh? Don' be afraid of reminding your prospects of their pain, and remember to give them your unique solutions to their pain.
Speak soon,
Mark
Is your marketing painful - To learn more about this author, visit Mark Oborn's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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