Why do so many marketers focus on what THEY want in their marketing messages, rather than the needs of their marketplace?
I was looking through my inbox earlier, and found several emails from people, who have been hounding me for business. Not only have they been emailing me too frequently, but the tone of their emails is all about them, them, them. Here’s what I keep seeing, from various people marketing AT me, right now:
- THEY WANT the opportunity to show me their wonder product.
- THEY WANT just 10 minutes of my time.
- THEY WANT to add me to their mailing lists.
- THEY WANT me to call them before Friday, when THEIR sale ends.
Guess what? The marketplace does not care what THEY WANT!
It’s all about the customer
One of the golden rules of effective sales and marketing, is that it needs to be customer focused. We need to look for ways to help our prospective clients or customers, using our products or services as part of that solution. As a wise man once told me;
“To a guy with severe toothache, who is in constant pain and has not slept in 2 days, the pain of that toothache is more relevant than the news that scores of people perished in a disaster on the other side of the world.”
The more relevant something feels to us, the more inclined we are to give it our attention. This is just as true with marketing. A well targeted marketing message, which focuses on helping the reader improve their situation, is far more powerful, than a self-focused sales pitch.
Jim Connolly can help you grow your business and achieve the breakthrough marketing results your hard work deserves. To find out more, simply click here!
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Hi Jim,
I see similar things when it comes to SEO. Usually people that know the market very well tend to think that very specific keywords are what they need. When in fact people that need their product/service and are not specialists are searching in very different way. It’s a big thing to realize that you need to think like your potential customer (another big thing is to actually succeed
).
.-= Toma´s last blog ..SEO Best Practices: metatags, keywords, URLs and backlinks =-.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for your post. Absolutely agree, it’s all about what your customers want. Funnily enough, just wrote something similar on my blog today called Why Do Your Customers Buy From You?
Adrian
.-= Adrian Swinscoe´s last blog ..Why Do Your Customers Buy From You? =-.
Good points well made. Its really the classic business school error – Supply and Demand. Whoever wrote it like that deserves little credit when Demand and Supply (in that order) makes more sense. Find what your customers want – then give it to them!
[...] AboutAll Links are Not Created Equal: 10 Illustrations on Search Engines’ Valuation of LinksIT’S ALL ABOUT THEM!Related articles:Facebook, Google, Distractions, Trends and the King. It’s Saturday!It’s [...]
[...] They are wrong! [...]