Ways to Increase Your Marketing Effectiveness

Many people I work with say to me, “I need to make more money and I know I have to do more marketing”. What I find after we talk for a bit is that it is not their current campaigns that are not hitting the mark, it is the language around who they are trying to reach. Often they are doing a lot of marketing, just not effectively.

To have effective reach with your marketing you need three things to start a great sales conversation.

1. A Focused Target Market

If you niche your market it does not mean you can never sell to anyone outside this market. What it means is that you are building a marketing campaign to speak to a specific group of people. You want to really connect with them. You want to know they are listening when you speak. You want them to say, ‘that’s for me!”

If your marketing language is generalized to speak to everyone then it will not attract the people you actually want as customers.

• Darren Hardy speaks a language that attracts entrepreneurs that are growing and achieving big things (or hoping to).
• Dr. Oz attracts boomers and Gen X that are interested in a healthy, successful lifestyle.
• Apple focuses on technology dependent, youthful, and creative Gen Y

These brands all sell to many other markets outside their target, mainly because those people resonate with the language used to connect with the chosen target.

Know your target market well before you start creating the language around your marketing.

2. Know to Whom You Are Talking

Make an avatar of your best client. This avatar may represent the best things you love about all your best clients. You should know everything about this made-up person, like their demographics (age, sex, married status, children, home size, income, etc.). Other things you should know: where they hang out, what they read, where they go on vacation, what they do for hobbies, and what they do with their kids, etc.

Use this avatar as a model of whom you are talking to when you create copy for your marketing. It becomes a conversation with that person, the one you would like to attract into your business most.

3. Something to Sell

Unless your business has a catalog to sell multiple products, it is best to go into a sales conversation with a focus on one thing to sell. I’m not referring to a single item, but a focus of sales for your business. If you are a coach, it may be your coaching program. If you are a recruiter, it may be HR support. If you are in catering it may be weddings. Even if you do have a catalog business it will still have a focus of kitchenware, jewelry, or skin products, etc.

You need to have a focus for your conversation for when your potential clients are ready. If you start by rhyming off all the things and industries and areas you focus on you will make it hard for people to stay interested and stay in the conversation.

If you want to increase the effectiveness of your marketing you need to start with your language. Know exactly whom you are talking to and know why you want them to listen. It will change your sales game.