Are You Creating Compelling Marketing Messages?

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Do you wish your marketing materials were "pulling" clients towards you? Do you wish you could turn more prospects into clients? Do you wonder if your website copy is speaking to your ideal clients? If you answered "yes" to these questions, then you are going to want to spend some time focusing on your marketing message. Having a compelling marketing message is the entire foundation for your ability to attract new clients.

What's a compelling marketing message? It is a way of describing your business in your website copy, in your marketing materials, or on your business card, that when an ideal client sees, hears or reads about you, they will say, "Oh my gosh, I need to work with this person". Or, "Wow, you are exactly what I need, can I get a card?"

Have you ever come across a person's website where it felt like they were talking directly to you? That it described your pain, struggles and challenges to a "t"-and was so on target-it almost made you cry? I certainly have and then I said to myself, "I must work with that person, because they understand me EXACTLY and can solve my problems".

When you can get your clients to self-select and self recognize that you are the person, the ONLY person who can help them solve their problems then you have created a compelling marketing message! People must be able to recognize themselves in your message so they will say, "Oh my gosh, I've GOT to work with her/him".

What are the mistakes your clients are making? Can you describe the mistakes your clients are making? These may be the ones they aren't even aware they are making. Write down the top 20 mistakes your clients are making. This is where you can start to develop messages from this list. I'll guarantee most of your competitor's marketing messages are about themselves and the features they offer to their clients. By creating messages that incorporate the mistakes your ideal clients are making, you are talking about them-your clients rather than about yourself.

Next, you need to get clear on what results they receive when they work with you. Write these down-because it's all about RESULTS. You want to get really specific about what results you get for people. Look back at clients you worked with in the past and identify what results they got from working with you. Or call a couple of your best current clients and let them know you are updating your marketing materials and want to get more great clients like them. Ask them what results they've gotten from working with you.

One of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they look for more clients is to tell people about what they think they do, instead of telling them about the RESULTS they will receive by working with them. Many times, business owners make the mistake of describing "what" they do rather then leading with the solution that they provide.

After you've interviewed current or past clients and come up with a list of results you've provided, you can then begin to create your marketing messages based on the results and solutions that your current clients say you provide. Be sure to write these in the language that your ideal clients used. Don't try to use jargon, or turn it into "prettier" language. If you want to attract more fabulous clients like the ones you interviewed-use their language verbatim!

I challenge you to take a look at your current marketing materials and website and ask yourself: Are your messages all about you and your services, or are they about your client or customers? Because in order to attract clients...it's got to be about them!

Mandy works with talented, bright, high energy self employed professionals and very small businesses who struggle to market their business effectively, stretch their capacity and play a bigger game. And who would like to overcome their fear of sales, change their mindset, increase their self-confidence, and create a step-by-step strategy for taking their business to the next level.

Mandy's client's receive proven, specific information on what they need to do to get more clients and grow their business. As a result, those who coach with Mandy increase their business, get more clients and make more money, faster and easier than they ever would have on their own.

Mandy offers one-on-one coaching and consulting, as well as facilitates workshops and teleclasses and speaks on a variety of topics.

Get a copy of her free CD "7 Productivity Secrets of Successful Entrepreneurs" at http://www.mandyschumaker.com/. Or contact her at 207-653-6977

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The Ultimate Power of Marketing Is in Creating 'Wants'

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The marketing power of many corporations is so potent that they can create demands for whatever goods and services they choose to provide. That was the assertion - way back in 1958 - of John Kenneth Galbraith, author of "The Affluent Society" and a Harvard economist. A shocking statement back then, his premise is even more true today, particularly when selling to consumers. However, that statement is less true in business- to-business selling because emotions are less a part of those buying decisions.

Yes, companies large and small cater daily to the needs of consumers, their need for food, clothing, shelter, transportation, information, entertainment, companionship, health care. The list of consumers' needs is virtually endless. And, while the majority of such companies may be profitable, not all can be called truly successful.

The truly successful companies - those that generate huge revenues and proportionately huge profits - are the ones whose approach to marketing is vastly different. They choose to sell the sizzle rather than the steak. Their marketing approach tends to focus on creating an almost insatiable Want in the minds of consumers, a virtually unquenchable appetite for the products or services they and only they are able to provide.

Yes, some of these companies eventually have competitors, but there is historically a tremendous sales and profit gap between the first company to create a Want and those that rank second and third in satisfying it.

My earliest recollection of a company marketing to a Want it created is Sony with its Walkman. Though now that I think of it, it may have been Philco - a brand name from the more distant past. Philco, as I recall, created one of the earliest so-called portable radios, radios about the size of small breadboxes that, because of the battery needed to provide its power, weighed well over five pounds.

For years, Sony's Walkman' owned the take-it-with-you personal music-player market. For an even longer time it was considered the Cadillac of cassette players. There's another discarded term - cassette - from the distant past. Philco also had a lock on the portable radio market for quite some time.

Who are the Kings of the Hill today? Apple in the product category is a prime example. Verizon in the service sector is another. And in the drug category, at least until recently, it was Pfizer, the developer and manufacturer of Lipitor. In luxury import cars there's BMW, "The Ultimate Driving Machine," followed by Audi. In American-made light trucks, it's Ford, with Chevy licking at its heels.

Creating a Want is definitely how to make the greatest profits...if the marketing efforts are on target. Creating a Want among people who appear not to have the money to buy what you're selling is not the smartest marketing move in the book, though Nike seems to do that well with its uber expensive line of Michael Jordan athletic shoes. Proving once again that if people are made to want something badly enough, they'll find a way to pay for it.

For companies able to create such Wants, companies that can identify potential buyers able to afford their product or service, that can identify ways to embed their well-defined marketing messages effectively and cost-efficiently into the minds of their potential buyers, selling the sizzle instead of the steak is without a doubt the most direct path to success.

© 2012 Philip A. Grisolia, CBC

An accredited Certified Business Communicator (CBC), Phil Grisolia specializes in creating results-oriented marketing programs that generate additional revenue for his clients, money they can take to the bank. An award-winning copywriter and respected marketing professor, Phil is the author of 30 Money-Making Marketing Secrets No One Ever Told You which is available from Amazon. He is also a syndicated business columnist and an executive business coach. Discover for yourself the broad range of services Phil provides for his worldwide clients by visiting http://philgrisolia.com/.

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Creating a Consistent Referral Base Through Professional Relationship Development

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There are several methods of Public Relations and Marketing and there are many firms out there offering you outstanding services, each with the intention of assisting you in achieving your goals.

In the arena of obtaining new patients, I have determined that anyone can create an "acute" inflow of new patients into their practice, and this most certainly has value.

On the other hand, how about creating a "chronic" inflow of new patients that are referred to you as a result of you having created, built and maintained a relationship with those that are (and could be) sending you patients? How valuable would that be? The value would persist day after day, year after year.

Let's focus on finances for a moment. While the "typical" forms of marketing and promotion do obtain results, these can also be acute. This is because you have to consistently fine tune them based on the market change and that causes a consistent expenditure of funds.

On the contrary; by creating, building and maintaining a professional relationship with a referral source, there is no continual cost. Two exceptions to this would be your time, which is undoubtedly valuable, and the other is obtaining the knowledge and skill to apply this successfully. And imagine if your staff was equipped with the know-how and skill too!

Some firms promote concepts like; do lunches, bring gifts, send out promo, send out testimonials, etc. All of these examples are sales components. The private practice owners and the staff that are out executing these ideas all look like another "drug rep" or "equipment rep" in the viewpoint of the referral source. Furthermore, the private practice owners I've had the pleasure of working with hate sales!

There is a specific, precise skill and know-how of how to actually see a referral source and (once physically there) how to execute your meeting without ever being perceived as a "salesman". This approach is so effective that those I have interviewed rave about the ease, comfort and results they obtain in comparison to all other forms of obtaining referrals. You would think that all private practices would be clamoring to learn it! The point is; most have been steered in other directions, obtained some acute results, have been told it really cannot be done, or have just given up. In my personal experience, those I have spoken to simply do not believe it is possible!

My overall message is this: Those that send you business, or have the potential to do so, are so highly valuable that treating them with paper" really does not grant them the importance they truly have in obtaining that "chronic" inflow.

Building a great professional relationship is the way to go, but you should realize it is a specific skill that you can learn. Learn how to do it from someone that has a track record, decide to become an expert at it, and just go for it!

You will end up creating, building and maintaining a consistent referral base. Not to mention, according to reports, you'll have fun doing so!

Craig Ferreira, CEO
Survival Strategies, Inc.

I have personally trained and consulted 1,000s of businesses of all types in 23 countries since the 70's. In 1986 I began consulting exclusively to the physical therapy profession and in 1994 Survival Strategies was born. Taking our success with physical therapy marketing, we now coach a multitude of professions and specialize in the development of long-lasting professional relationships in all aspects of business.

Craig Ferreira
Survival Strategies, Inc.
(800) 834-0357

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