When is a liability not a liability? When you can turn it into an asset through clever positioning! Sometimes whether something is a positive or a negative is really just a matter of perspective. To illustrate this concept, let’s look at some examples…
Lack of Experience
Perhaps you just started a business. Some might consider your inexperience to be a liability. Maybe business is still a little slow. How can you put a positive spin on things? You’re not “inexperienced,” you’re…
High Prices
Not everyone wants to be the low-price leader. But you also wouldn’t want to tout that you’ve got “the highest prices in town”! You’re not “expensive,” you’re…
“Me Too” Service
What if you’re in an industry where all of the players offer essentially the same thing – or it at least appears this way to the average consumer? How can you position yourself to stand out from the crowd? You’re not “just the same as your competitors,” you’re…
Many businesses try to hide their potential negatives completely, hoping that no one will notice them. This approach tends to back-fire. It’s often far better to confront these potential negatives head-on, by spinning them around and turning them into positives.
Are your written materials easy to read? Sometimes people get so caught up in creating a certain image – or squeezing a lot of words into a limited space – that they completely lose sight of readability. Unless yours is a completely visual message, it’s important that people be able to read your words. Make sure your finished piece is formatted for maximum readability.
People don’t want to wade through what appears to be a short novel. If the mere site of your written piece overwhelms the reader, you can bet he or she will quickly move on to something else.
Have you noticed that an increasing number of websites are composed of tiny little white letters set against a black background? Ugh! Instant eyestrain.
Sometimes it works to use special formatting to call attention to particular words, but if you’re not careful you’ll end up making those important words difficult to read.
Remember, if your letter, website, brochure, or other written piece isn’t formatted for maximum readability, there’s a good chance it won’t get read at all.
When people are deciding whether or not they should do business with you, there’s a good chance they’re also evaluating your competitors’ offerings. Have you given them a good reason to pick you?
The All-Important Unique Selling Proposition
Your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP, is what clearly answers the question, “Why should I do business with you instead of your competitors?” Often translated into a tagline, the USP should be the basis for all of your company’s marketing efforts. You’ve got to let people know why your products or services are the best choice.
Developing Your USP
How do you determine your USP? Start by finding important benefits that are unique to your product or service. Try looking at. . .
Once you have a good list of possibilities, pick one that is unique (i.e. not being touted by your competitors), believable, and a big advantage. Remember, this should be something that can be used to motivate people to make a purchase!
Using Your USP
The final step is to boil it all down to one clear and concise sentence and then integrate it into all of your marketing materials. Remember, if you can’t figure out what sets you apart from your competition, your prospective clients aren’t likely to see any reason to do business with you either.
It happens to all of us. We’re busily writing a letter or email and suddenly we doubt if a word we just typed is the right one for the situation. Personally, I always have a hard time keeping “it’s” and “its” straight. Maybe you struggle with “your” and “you’re” or “advice” and “advise.”
In fact, there are a number of words that commonly confuse lots of people. To help you out, here’s a guide to some of the ones that I see most frequently in the editing work that I do.
Its & It’s
Its means of or belonging to it.
It’s is the contraction of “it is.”
It’s just amazing the way the dog can sense when its owner is about to come home.
Their & They’re
Their means of or relating to them.
They’re is the contraction of “they are.”
They’re flying to Chicago to visit their cousins.
Whose & Who’s
Whose means of or relating to whom.
Who’s is the contraction of “who is” or “who has.”
Whose turn is it to pick up the guest who’s arriving on the 2:00 train?
Your & You’re
Your means of or relating to you or yourself.
You’re is the contraction of “you are.”
You’re doing a fabulous job sticking to your diet.
Advice & Advise
Advice is a noun that means guidance or counsel.
Advise is a verb that means to counsel or give advice to.
My advice to you is that you advise your staff to answer the telephone promptly.
Complement & Compliment
Complement (as a noun) means something that completes; complement (as a verb) means to complete.
Compliment (as a noun) means praise or a favorable remark; compliment (as a verb) means to praise.
“I would like to compliment the chef,” said Ralph, “for the way the flavors of this dish complement each other so perfectly.”
Insure, Ensure & Assure
While all 3 of these words relate to guaranteeing that something is true or that something will happen, there are subtle differences in their usages:
Assure means to say, write or confirm the guarantee.
Ensure means to do something to make certain that something happens.
Insure means to guarantee something with insurance or other financial instruments.
“Let me assure you that there’s no need to worry,” he said. “While your firewall will ensure that hackers don’t get into your system, this new policy will insure you against loss in case your system goes down.”
When was the last time you contacted your top customers? How about the 2nd & 3rd tier of your customer list, your database of potential customers and all of your other contacts? If you don’t have a formal program for keeping in touch, you should. The key is to stay top-of-mind so that when someone has a need for your products or services, you’ll be the one they call.
What are your options?
There are many different ways to stay in touch. Depending on your circumstances, your program may include telephone calls, direct mail, email, newsletters, blogs, personalized greeting cards, and other vehicles.
What’s the perfect frequency?
Unfortunately, there’s no “one size fits all” answer here, but at a minimum most companies should keep in contact with their customers on a quarterly basis. I receive emails once or twice a week from one of the major national bookstore chains, and I find this a little excessive. I also receive a handful of e-zines that arrive weekly, and I eagerly open each one. The difference? The bookstore is just trying to sell me something, while the e-zines provide information to help make my business more profitable.
In marketing, the old adage “out of sight, out of mind” is often true. Create a system that ensures you’ll keep in contact with your customers on a regular basis, and watch your sales increase.
Get out all of your company’s printed materials – your business cards, letterhead, brochures, fliers, ads, newsletters, etc., as well as a printout of your website’s home page – and spread them out on your desk. Take a good look at what you see and ask yourself: Is it visually obvious that all of these items are from the same company?
If not, why not?
A big part of branding is recognition. Having a “look” that you use across all of your marketing materials makes it easy for your customers and potential customers to recognize that a message is from your company. So what are the elements of this “look”?
Remember, it often takes multiple exposures to an advertising/marketing message before a consumer will decide to make a purchase or inquiry. If your materials are a mismatched hodge-podge of colors, designs and messages, it will be very difficult for you to build a recognizable presence in the market place.
Business owners always ask: How can I market my business? Well, depending on the nature of your business and your budget, the possibilities are endless. Here, in no particular order, are 25 options:
You’ve seen ads like it before. There’s an attention-grabbing headline, beautifully designed graphics, and well-written text that clearly communicates the benefits of the product or service offered. All that’s missing is a suggestion as to what you should do next. They forgot to ask for the sale!
A call to action is a phrase or paragraph that asks for the sale or requests that the reader do something. It’s the part of the marketing piece that tells the reader what to do next – call now to place an order, click here to get a free report, email for more information, enter a survey to win a prize, subscribe to an online newsletter, etc.
Never assume that your potential customers will know why they should act, what they should do, or when they should do it!
Each of your marketing pieces should include a call to action (which may be mentioned multiple times, not just at the end) that ties in with the piece’s overall goals. If your goal is to sell, don’t ask readers to call for more information – ask them to purchase your product today. And always keep your instructions simple and clear to make it easy for the reader to respond. Should they call, fax, or email? Do they need to click through to something, fill out a short form, or take some other action? What exactly should the reader do?
Of course, it’s not enough to tell the reader what they should do – you also need to tell them why they should do it, and why they should do it now. But the bottom line is, if you’re not asking for the sale, don’t expect to get it!
Your company’s written words “speak” for your business. Does your writing present a professional image, or are your materials filled with typos, misspellings, grammatical mistakes or other errors? No matter how good you are at what you do, documents containing obvious errors will erode your credibility…whether the errors are in your “formal” marketing materials or your “informal” emails and letters.
Here are some tips for effective proofreading:
Whenever you write something that’s not just “for your eyes only,” be sure that thorough proofreading and editing are integral parts of your writing process.
In real estate they say the three most important things are “location, location, location.” In marketing you could say its “benefits, benefits, benefits.” Why? Because all your potential customer really wants to know is “what’s in it for me?” You need to give a reason to buy that will make someone want to do business with you and not the competition. How will your product or service solve their problems, meet their needs or improve their life? Nothing else really matters.
Many business people make the mistake of focusing on their product’s features instead of its benefits. What’s the difference? A feature is a fact about the product, while a benefit explains or demonstrates how the product will benefit the customer. For example, “made of heavy-duty plastic” is a feature; “guaranteed unbreakable” is a benefit.
Every time I visit a website or pick up a flier whose headline reads “Welcome to XYZ Company” I cringe (well, actually, being a marketing copywriter, I see a sales opportunity). Why? Because “Welcome to XYZ Company” doesn’t tell me anything about the company, what they’re offering or why I might want to buy. Your company’s benefits (or implied benefits) should be blaring from the headlines and subheads of all your marketing materials.
So take a good look at your marketing materials. If you’re focusing on features instead of benefits, it might be time for an overhaul!
Patrick Neeman is Director of User Experience at Jobvite, a social recruiting platform and runs both the UX Drinking Game and Startup Drinking Game | More | Contact
If you're a UX Designer in San Francisco, ping me at Twitter. I want to add you to a list I have there.
