So you’ve been “marketing.” But, you can’t tell if your “marketing” is making an impact on your business. Wait. If you’ve been marketing and no one is buying, you CAN tell that your marketing is NOT making an impact on your business’ bottom line. It might be tight but it is right. And in business there are a few things you must do to ensure that you get to penetrate your market. Most entrepreneurs “take a stab” at marketing instead of identifying a systematic way to share their products and services with their ideal clients. And believe me, this is where you go wrong.
While marketing is not a science; it is strategic. Well, let me say it should be strategic if you want to make an impact with it. Successful entrepreneurs are not “willy-nilly” marketers; they are clear, concise, strategic and consistent.
So what do you do if your “marketing efforts” are not penetrating your market?
Well, the quick and dirty answer is that the “marketing” that you are doing is not reaching those you want to serve and more than likely it’s because of one of the following reasons:
1. Mistake 1: You’re unclear on your ideal clients. An Audience of One™ can help you to avoid this mistake. An Audience of One™ is one type of person with one distinct problem that you offer one, complete and robust solution for your products and services. The problem with not taking the time to get crystal clear about who you can best serve with your products and services is that you miss the mark on using your marketing to speak immediately to them and their problems. Remember that people in pain are actively seeking a pain killer. If you know who they are, what they’re struggling with and what they need to stop struggling, you can position your marketing to get them to take the next step with you.
2. Mistake 2: You’re inconsistent with your marketing. Writing an article or sending an e-zine every once in a while does not a marketing strategy make. If you want to be seen as an expert, you must consistently appear in various forms to your Audience of One™. To change this problem, you must create a marketing calendar and design the various strategies you will employ to get the attention of your audience. Remember that it takes, on average, 8 impressions before a person perceives you as a credible person who will possibly be able to help them. If it takes that long to create a level of trust, by not consistently speaking to your market, you are lengthening the prospect cycle.
3. Mistake 3: You’re not using the 3E’s of Magnetic Marketing: Education, Experience and Emotion. The 3 E’s of marketing means that your marketing materials and copy will focus on ensuring three things: you create an experience; you educate your audience and you evoke an emotional response from them. It is proven that when your marketing does all three, you position a purchase from your audience. Educational means you provide tons of value and content that illustrates your expert status. Experiential means that from the very beginning you create an environment where they feel inspired and ready to solve the problem once and for all – your customer service, your communications, etc. All are designed to create a favorable experience amongst your audience. Emotional means that you pull on the pain in such a way that their response is one of emotion. You help them feel that in working with you, they will increase their happiness and fulfillment. You will reduce their stress, reduce the anxiety and stop the pain. You help them to connect to the vision of what their life will be like when the problem has been solved and how they will feel. One’s feelings create their beliefs and those beliefs either create action or excuses, but it all starts based on how they feel. If your marketing can tap into these feelings, you are positioning your products and services for purchase!
4. Mistake 4: You’re not highlighting the problem you can solve. Perhaps you’d rather focus on the solution in your marketing. While that is a possibility, it will just take you longer to make an impact. You see, pleasure is delightful and creates the warm fuzzies in the minds of your audiences but it seldom creates a sense of urgency. Pain on the other hand, moves the one in pain to search for a pain killer. They will do anything; pay anything to stop the pain. Pain-based marketing is much more attractive and leads prospects to a solution much faster. When you position your solution strategically using your marketing they will buy, and buy quickly.
5. Mistake 5: You don’t have an effective call-to-action. While it’s been said that you can lead them to the water but you can’t make them drink. I tend to believe that if you tell them how to drink, they will. And what better way to do this than through your marketing. I think of that song lyric that says “Build me up, butter cup then you let me down,” and that is exactly what you are doing if your marketing doesn’t clearly tell them what they should do next. You have to assume that common sense isn’t that common and tell your audience how to engage in your products and services. And, you may have to tell them more than once in more than one way. Be sure that your call-to-action includes all pertinent information that will help them get to the exact place (your website sales page) to purchase your solution.
Taking the time to solve these critical mistakes with your marketing will give you a significant lift in your ability to close clients, sell products and solve major problems for your ideal clients.
If you need help getting these mistakes out of your marketing plan, consider a Business Breakthrough Strategy Session. It would be my pleasure to help you create magnetic marketing that helps you to improve your penetration so that you can serve and help more people.
©2012 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, MBA, The Incredible Factor Speaker, Executive Business Coach and Marketing Mentor, is the founder of Incredible One Enterprises.com and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System® a proven step by step program for building a 6 figure business with more clients, more income and more leverage in record time. For more information and a FREE audio download “How to Use Your Incredible Factor to Attract MORE Ideal Clients” visit https://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com
