Massaging Your Message – Get Your Content Write

When it comes to your marketing message, getting it right is as important as any other area of your business. In fact, massaging your message properly may be the MOST important. (Certainly, getting it wrong will have lasting consequences.)

Since we’ve addressed the issue of messaging before, we thought it might be a good idea to also look at the how of it, not just the why. For us, it begins with content marketing, which is the process of identifying your target market’s pain points and creating content that helps your target audience address them. It’s not a sales pitch. It’s high-value information that benefits them!

Messaging and Content Marketing

It was more than a century ago – well before internet marketing (or even the use of computers) became a thing – that the concept of content marketing was developed and implemented.

That’s right. As early as 1895 John Deere published a lifestyle magazine for farmers called “The Furrow”. What was it about? The one thing it was NOT about was Deere company products. “It did, though, increase brand loyalty. Increased sales were just one happy byproduct (of many) from the valuable content John Deere provided for its customers.” (SearchEngineJournal.com)

Fast forward to 1900 when the tire company Michelin published its first “Micheline Guide”. Again, the Guide was not published to sell tires. Although, “While it included tips on changing your tires and where to refuel your car, it also featured a list of places that hungry travelers could eat. And it was a massive success. It’s a great example of a business targeting their audience with content that they would find helpful without overselling their products.” (DreamHost.com)

As a slightly more contemporary example, and one which some of us may actually remember, Betty Crocker became the “feminine” face of the food company that would eventually become General Mills. The cookbook that bears “her” name has sold more than 75 million copies since it was introduced in 1950. And, while the book known as “Big Red” frequently suggested the use of the company’s products, it has always been the recipes that most consumers have valued. (Wikipedia)

Appealing to Human Nature

Are you beginning to get a sense of how content marketing works, and how it can also benefit you? Even though it’s not all about you and your business, and it’s not solely about your products. No, it’s about helping your current or potential clients.

• This is how you build a following.

• It’s how you inspire trust and loyalty.

• It enables you to engage with prospects and build relationships.

• This generates leads and leads can become conversions.

Yes, it’s a process but that is how effective marketing is done in the internet age. For example, our blog. It’s not always about the product – or even how cool we are! It’s about helping you become the best interior designer or furnishing retailer you can be.

When it comes to massaging your message, getting it right can be challenging. That’s why getting in touch with Ted for business consulting to the trade can be so valuable. To find out more… Contact TD Fall today.

Getting People to Buy Once They’re Ready

Once you get the answer to the  question “Why do people buy?”, you still have to ask yourself, “How do I get people to buy from me once they’re ready?” To get that done, you must help your target audience learn about the products or services you have to offer in a way they can relate to as the answer to the age-old question, “What’s in it for me?”

In other words, regardless of the features (or the number of them), what they care about more than anything else is what they will gain from doing business with you; the benefits your products or services offer them. These are the only things your marketing message should be about.

Saying this is one thing but how it works in the real world takes some explaining.

Real-World Sales Tips

• Sales Example #1: Auto sales is a great real-world example because the product can be loaded (even overloaded) with features, yet most consumers will take those things for granted. The technology of the engines, transmissions, and electronics used in modern vehicles has become so reliable that buyers rarely ask about them these days.

What contemporary car buyers tend to care about most are comfort and price. They usually want every luxury item available while paying the basic price. Of course, wanting both of these things makes little sense so the question becomes, how can the sale be made when the potential buyer wants all the extras but is only willing to pay the minimum price?

The answer to that one is impossibly simple yet seemingly impossible. Building value in the features the customer wants is the only way to defeat this type of thinking because value overcomes objections about price. In fact, it’s the only thing that will. And that is the key to making a sale – when the value is greater than the price, the sale is made.

• Sales Example #2: Personal and business coaching have become incredibly popular in the age of internet marketing and virtual services. From life coaching to nutrition coaching; from personal training to health and wellness coaching; and from career coaching to business start-up coaching as well as many others, the number of online coaching services has grown exponentially over the past couple of decades.

The best online coaches can offer services packed with features yet, if the benefits of these features are not clearly defined, few prospects will be willing to buy. Again, if the value of the benefits exceeds the price, your prospect becomes a buyer.

Creating a Marketing Message

Back in the day, when pretty much all selling was done face-to-face, the message was far easier to convey (at least in theory). It was easier to build trust when looking someone directly in the eye, just as it was easier to show one’s expertise. By contrast, and with something like 2 billion websites worldwide, today’s virtual world is impersonal and detached.

This is easy to forget for those of us who work virtually on a daily basis, so it’s important to remember that such an environment requires extremely personal messaging if you hope to build trust and value. And, if you want to get people to buy, that message must be heavily benefits-based.

How can you put the ideas in these two sales examples to use for your benefit, as an interior designer or furnishings dealer?

If you're searching for help with answering that question for yourself, Ted remains available with real-world experience as a business consultant to the trade. To find out more… Contact TD Fall today.