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Actual for You - Your Business is a Cereal Box: Attract, then Inform
Step 1 – Who is Your Target Market?If you don’t know who your clients are how do you know where to find them? This is a mistake I see many solo-professionals make.In their attempt to contact everyone you are actually targeting nobody. As the old adage goes: "when everybody's your customer, nobody's your customer". It’s what I call ‘spraying and preying’, and it inevitably results in increased marketing cost with fewer results.When you know exactly who your clients are, you will know where to find them, what the best medium for communicating with them will be and what matters to them most. Ever
What do your clients look for? Try a little role playing: Pretend you are your own prospective client and objectively evaluate your communication material.
Ask yourself: Would I buy from myself? What would keep me interested? What am I looking for? What do I really want?
Learn from how you search the web: If you were looking for administrative help, would you be searching Google for “15 years of experience”? Probably not. You would be more likely to search for terms like “database entry” or “transcription services”. If that’s what you look for, chances are most of your clients will do the same. Give them what they want and organize your information accordingly.
As you create any communication material, answer these questions:
The senior manager of a large organization called me seeking help.‘We are stiff and bureaucratic,’ he said, ‘but we want to be more open. We are formal until it hurts but we’d like more innovation. Can you help us, Mr. Kaufman? Can you share a new perspective and bring some fresh ideas?’I accepted the assignment and found that what he said was true: they had an old culture of top-down control, suffocating authority, miles of red tape and rigid ways of working.With enthusiasm, I prepared a speech that opened many eyes. Laughter rolled through the audience, self-reflection mixed with humor. I saw skept
The lesson: Ingredient lists don’t sell cereal. Look at your business features as you would the nutritional information on a cereal box: people only look at it when they are already considering buying the box. It displays important information that needs to be communicated, but it does not answer the first questions in the client’s mind.
For service providers, marketing is a challenge: you know your service is useful and has value, but because you don’t have a physical product, the benefits may be harder to define. After all, your client will only experience what you do once they actually hire you, which they won’t do if the benefits of using your services are not convincing.
How will you, as a service professional, deal with this fact? You must communicate with your clients by being focused on their needs first.
Attract, then Inform
I notice that many of my clients put too much emphasis on what they do instead of emphasizing why their audience should choose them over the competition — or choose them at all.
Note these claims:
What’s wrong with these claims? Absolutely nothing, if they are true. In fact, these are features your clients should be aware of. They are part of what you are offering (the “what” of your business), but they are independent of your clients and their personal concerns.
Benefits are effective in attracting people because they speak to what they can gain personally. Once you have their attention, then you can enhance your selling proposition with features. Features can close a sale, but they will usually not be your client’s first point of entry.
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
Be your own client
What do your clients look for? Try a little role playing: Pretend you are your own prospective client and objectively evaluate your communication material.
Ask yourself: Would I buy from myself? What would keep me interested? What am I looking for? What do I really want?
Learn from how you search the web: If you were looking for administrative help, would you be searching Google for “15 years of experience”? Probably not. You would be more likely to search for terms like “database entry” or “transcription services”. If that’s what you look for, chances are most of your clients will do the same. Give them what they want and organize your information accordingly.
As you create any communication material, answer these questions:
<Forget "bang for your buck." You can market yourself and your services for free with these easy self-promotion tips:1. Create a signature line and append it to all outgoing e-mail messages. Include your name, the name of your business or something to identify your services, your website address, and contact information. Make it very easy for potential clients to contact you and pass your name along to others.2. Participate actively in free e-mail discussion lists and online forums related to your target market or area of expertise. Asking questions makes you approachable, answering them gives you credibilit
How will you, as a service professional, deal with this fact? You must communicate with your clients by being focused on their needs first.
Attract, then Inform
I notice that many of my clients put too much emphasis on what they do instead of emphasizing why their audience should choose them over the competition — or choose them at all.
Note these claims:
What’s wrong with these claims? Absolutely nothing, if they are true. In fact, these are features your clients should be aware of. They are part of what you are offering (the “what” of your business), but they are independent of your clients and their personal concerns.
Benefits are effective in attracting people because they speak to what they can gain personally. Once you have their attention, then you can enhance your selling proposition with features. Features can close a sale, but they will usually not be your client’s first point of entry.
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
Be your own client
What do your clients look for? Try a little role playing: Pretend you are your own prospective client and objectively evaluate your communication material.
Ask yourself: Would I buy from myself? What would keep me interested? What am I looking for? What do I really want?
Learn from how you search the web: If you were looking for administrative help, would you be searching Google for “15 years of experience”? Probably not. You would be more likely to search for terms like “database entry” or “transcription services”. If that’s what you look for, chances are most of your clients will do the same. Give them what they want and organize your information accordingly.
As you create any communication material, answer these questions:
The essence of niche marketing is to create an intimate partnership with a market segment that is under-served or not served at all. The entrepreneur provides a carefully crafted solution to this customer segment, but only after intense research and testing. Through this special relationship the customer gets what want and, in return, the entrepreneur gets customer loyalty and higher profits. And little, if any, competition.But, this niche market success is dependent on the right mix of customers. So, what does the “best” customer look like? One way to determine which customer/s are best is by creating that I call
What’s wrong with these claims? Absolutely nothing, if they are true. In fact, these are features your clients should be aware of. They are part of what you are offering (the “what” of your business), but they are independent of your clients and their personal concerns.
Benefits are effective in attracting people because they speak to what they can gain personally. Once you have their attention, then you can enhance your selling proposition with features. Features can close a sale, but they will usually not be your client’s first point of entry.
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
Be your own client
What do your clients look for? Try a little role playing: Pretend you are your own prospective client and objectively evaluate your communication material.
Ask yourself: Would I buy from myself? What would keep me interested? What am I looking for? What do I really want?
Learn from how you search the web: If you were looking for administrative help, would you be searching Google for “15 years of experience”? Probably not. You would be more likely to search for terms like “database entry” or “transcription services”. If that’s what you look for, chances are most of your clients will do the same. Give them what they want and organize your information accordingly.
As you create any communication material, answer these questions:
Textile Supply Chain has been highly influenced by four important features of Information Technology; these features are: Information integration, Planning synchronisation, Workflow coordination and new business models. It is also come across that these IT applications facilitate the execution of several theories of supply chain management, like constant refilling, vendor administered refilling, planned postponement etc.Taken in order, the first three stages stand for ascending degrees of harmony and balanced interaction among supply chain members ending up into completely new techniques of organising business in
Your benefits should:
I vs. You
In the features list above, notice how many times “I”, “we”, “our”, “my”, and “me” are used. People are naturally concerned with their own needs first. By presenting them with a list of reasons why you are so great, you are sending them the wrong message: that their needs are secondary to what you think they should know. Don’t make the mistake of turning your marketing into a giant r?sum? of your accomplishments. Use words like “you” and “your” more often.
Be your own client
What do your clients look for? Try a little role playing: Pretend you are your own prospective client and objectively evaluate your communication material.
Ask yourself: Would I buy from myself? What would keep me interested? What am I looking for? What do I really want?
Learn from how you search the web: If you were looking for administrative help, would you be searching Google for “15 years of experience”? Probably not. You would be more likely to search for terms like “database entry” or “transcription services”. If that’s what you look for, chances are most of your clients will do the same. Give them what they want and organize your information accordingly.
As you create any communication material, answer these questions:
We are generally not very good about keeping others informed about the progress we’re making, especially if there isn’t much. You’re more likely to get support and understanding if you get the word out honestly about what is and isn’t happening. As you start your problem-solving project, establish a communication plan and follow it. Specify who needs what information about your effort, when they need it and how you are going to provide it. Make the plan appropriate to your problem, the culture of your company and the individuals involved.Different participants in the project will need different information. For ex
What do your clients look for? Try a little role playing: Pretend you are your own prospective client and objectively evaluate your communication material.
Ask yourself: Would I buy from myself? What would keep me interested? What am I looking for? What do I really want?
Learn from how you search the web: If you were looking for administrative help, would you be searching Google for “15 years of experience”? Probably not. You would be more likely to search for terms like “database entry” or “transcription services”. If that’s what you look for, chances are most of your clients will do the same. Give them what they want and organize your information accordingly.
As you create any communication material, answer these questions:
The answer may be different for each target market, so it is important to know who your prospective clients are before asking yourself these questions.
Being completely objective about your own business is not easy; you’ve worked hard to build it and you know it inside out. Defining your benefits from an outside perspective can enable you to better understand how other people view your business. Getting a view of your own “big picture” is something a professional business coach can help you achieve.
Whether you do it alone or get outside help, it never hurts to think about what you have to offer to potential clients. So, next time you’re at the grocery store, stop by the cereal aisle and ask yourself: “What are MY 5 essential nutrients?”
Copyright. Cristina Favreau. All rights reserved.
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