Who Gives a S#!π?

Before you write your next marketing message, ask yourself who its all about, and why anyone should care about you and your offerings before they even know who you are...

Look at many website home pages, or sales sheets, or any other kind of marketing and you’ll likely read something like, “We’re So-and-So Company and we’ve been delighting customers with our great service for 40 years. Our products are fantastic and our services even better…”

Like that.

I see copy like that and the first question I ask myself is, “Who gives a ……” And I really mean it. When a new reader arrives at your home page or your advertisement, they have no clue who you are and when you go off about how wonderful you are and how long you’ve been that wonderful, very few if any people really care at all. You’re really not what they’re about!!!

Everybody’s Favorite Radio Station

My dear friend Richard Losciale from the great city of St. Louis loved to tell us what sales motivation legend Zig Ziglar first said, which was that everybody had the same favorite radio station!!

WII-FM, “What’s In It For Me?” Radio!!!

That’s what everyone was listening to, and if you weren’t talking that talk, they were changing stations.

There’s a lot to learn from Richard & Zig. Few people care about you at all until they’ve gotten to know you, and when it comes to purchasing something from you, they only begin caring when they see value for themselves in what you’re selling.

Value

So, there it is! That’s the big benny, the main target. The whole enchilada. It’s the thing, the one thing everyone is looking to buy; value for themselves. If you can show them the value, they’ll become glad to show you the money!

Especially if the value at least appears to be greater than the price!

It’s Not What It Is. It’s What it Does.
It’s What it Does for THEM!

If you think back to the earlier days of computer sales, everybody was all about bits and bytes. How much storage does it have? How much memory? How fast is the processor? Hey, how fast is the throughput to and from the storage? Speeds and feeds. Features and benefits.

At the end of the day, the majority of customers didn’t give a ……. They just wanted to know they could do their word processing on it, or their spreadsheets, or presentations, or whatever it was they were buying the computer to help them do. And that’s never been truer than it is today.

People buy computers to do things. Usually very specific things. They want to be able to do them easily, efficiently, and with the least amount of difficulty.

It’s not about what the computer is. It’s about what it does. You need to focus on what it does, whatever your product or service is. Market what it does. Sell what it does.

Is Your Website Upside Down?

One of my favorite magic tricks is when I take something someone has written, like a sales letter, and very quickly revise it. When I hand it back to its original author, they are usually astounded by how much better I’ve made it. They’re downright startled. They regale me with praise, but I put my hands up in protest.

“There’s no magic,” I explain. “I just turned your version upside down.”

Then, I invite them to take a look at their own website. Go through it, and count how many of the paragraphs on their site begin with I, me, my, our, we, or the name of their company.

“Readers just don’t give a ……… about those paragraphs! They scan past them. What are they looking for?

They’re looking for paragraphs that are about them.

So, I suggest they go through the entire website and flip each paragraph upside down so it begins talking about the reader/potential customer instead of being about themselves. For example, turn…

“We provide the security services you need so you can sleep better at night knowing you’re protected.”

into…

“You’ll sleep better at night knowing you’re protected by our security services.”

You can literally feel the difference. The second version is all about them, and that resonates really well with them because it speaks directly to what they’re looking for; not your services. Their peace of mind.

Why I Begin with Value

When I decided to launch techChannel.marketing, I wanted to begin with the end in mind. The reality is that everything we do in marketing and in all messaging is done to convey value. When I call myself a “Senior Resultant,” the results I’m referring to, ultimately, end up getting deposited in your bank account. It’s all about value.

As we move forward here, we’ll explore many ways to reach customers more effectively by remaining focused on what they find valuable, what they really give a …………….. about!