These principles are meant to help you use marketing to achieve whatever it is that you want to achieve. It might be to make more money or it might simply be to get more time in your busy life.
So lets not delay.
Achievement Principle No. 1: What’s your Value?
I’m not talking about money or bargains. I’m talking about the benefits your products or service offer. Many business owners that I have chatted to over the years have focused on selling a product and telling people about what the features are of that product.
All very well but if you changed that mindset to focusing more on providing a solution to a need, then marketing becomes easier.
Think about it. You go to the DIY shop to buy a spade. The manufacturer thinks that the customer wants a spade. But what the customer really wants is a hole. The spade is a tool to solve a customer’s need. And in fact, it’s one of a number of tools that can be used (and therefore the customer has choice of tools.)
So lets take a look at the attributes or the benefits behind your product or service.
Lets use my copywriting services as an example. I write marketing documentation. But I don’t just write marketing content. I help business owners build a rapport with their prospects and leads, which keeps them on their website longer, encourages them to read more about them and take an action.
Action: What experience does your product or service offer your customers?
Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
Grey Goose Vodka is a clear alcoholic spirit. It quenches a thirst but it is a premium vodka. It’s not everyone who ‘gets‘ it or is willing to pay that extra for it but it’s constantly listed in the Top 5 vodka brands.
Disneyworld is a holiday destination. But it’s an experience to go to this magical place and meet the characters and see the parades.
A Mercedes is a car. It gets you from A to B. It’s reliable and safe. But it implies status and image to the owner.
You know that advert ‘it sounds like a Golf, but it isn’t’ – that’s what you want your competitors to say about your product. (Incase you don’t, click here for the ad).
If you want to get smart about marketing, then you need to tell your customers about the experience they’ll get when they use the product as well as the features.
Start today and ask yourself ‘What problem am I solving?‘ with every product or service that you have, then you’ll begin to see the experience that you offer.
Take care,
Denise
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About Denise Fay
Denise Fay is an author, speaker and international marketing consultant and copywriter. She set up the marketing agency, Achieve Marketing in 2006 working with SMEs. She became an authority on copywriting when she wrote her first book, the award-winning ‘31 days to write better copy‘ in 2011.
Denise has been featured as an expert in the Irish Independent, Sunday Business Post, Evening Herald and Irish Sun, on radio with the John Murray show on RTE Radio and on TV including TV3’s IrelandAM.
Her company, Achieve Marketing, provides business, marketing, copywriting and success advice to SMEs and multi-nationals.
If you liked this principle, you’ll love Denise’s approach to marketing and copywriting to help you start, market, and grow your business. Learn more at www.denisefay.com and www.achievemarketing.ie.