Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

When you’re creating your marketing materials, do you struggle to find the right balance between eye-popping promises and reality?  Sure, you can get people to pay attention with claims like:

• Lose 20 lbs in 2 weeks – no dieting.
• Double your income in half the time.

However, there are a couple of problems with making outrageous claims.  You may get people’s attention, but they won’t necessarily believe you.  People will be looking for the fine print of your offer.   They know if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

The second problem is that you have to deliver on your promise, right?  Your marketing materials should set the expectation for doing business with you.   Customer satisfaction is all about expectations.  If I tell you I’ll deliver your marketing materials in a month, and I beat that timeframe, you’re happy.  If I miss the deadline, you’ll be understandably upset.  It really is that simple.

So how can you make your marketing materials credible and incredible at the same time?

1. Use strong imagery. A picture is still worth 1,000 words – as long as it’s not a tired stock photo I’ve seen 1,000 times.
2. Evoke emotion. Yes, even business people make emotional decisions!  Get your reader to imagine how much better their life will be once they have purchased your product or service.
3. Be authentic. Copycat marketing doesn’t work.  Call out the things that make your business unique.  Two companies can do the exact same thing in entirely different ways.
4. Quantify benefits.  Use numbers and percentages. People tend to believe facts that are quantified. Also, people tend to respond to specific numbers better than rounded numbers.   “Our customers averaged an 8.64 percent return” on their investments year after year is much stronger than our customers average greater than an 8 percent return on their investments.
5. Reduce feature babble. Sell the benefits, not the features.  Think about how car manufacturers market.  They don’t say, “Our car has 4 wheels, a steering wheel and an engine.” They evoke the image of adventurous 20-year olds scaling mountains, or the safety-conscious mom nimbly swerving around danger.  They make people feel like they want to belong to that group (even if they never actually scale mountains).
6. Include testimonials. Ever wonder why the infomercial is so popular?  It’s because people believe other people more than they believe your marketing message.
7. Include a guarantee. Sometimes people just want assurance that they’re doing the right thing.  Give them a guarantee that boosts their confidence that you’ll deliver.

Remember these 7 tips and you’ll be well on your way to creating incredible credible marketing materials.