Make it more attractive. Not more irritating!

One of the most common questions I get from small business owners, is how can they make their marketing more effective.

That’s a good question. Maybe a great question. However, it only addresses 50% of their actual need. And that’s what today’s brief post is all about.

When it comes to spreading awareness with their prospective clients, business owners have 2 options.

1. They can pester people with marketing messages, to try and get the word out about an average service [or product].
2. They can develop a remarkable service, which people talk about.

And as you can tell from the endless spam, cold calls, dull advertisements and social networking pitches you see, most opt for that first option. Instead of making their service more attractive, they make themselves more irritating. And in doing so, they make things unnecessarily difficult for themselves.

A better way

A better way forward is to stop trying to make a dull service sound interesting and create something worthy of people’s attention. Then, the service becomes its own marketing. People hear about it, talk about it and purchase it.

It looks like this: When your message is about a genuinely interesting service, the first 10 people who hear about it will tell another 10. That 10 will do the same… rinse repeat. This is how every successful product or service spreads.

How do I know if my service isn’t interesting enough?

There are a few signs, which tell us that the marketplace isn’t interested in what we’re offering. These include the following.

• If we need to ask people to spread the word about us.
• If our clients are not recommending us.
• If we attend a networking group or think we need to attend one.
• If we need to “chase up”people we connect with, because once they learn about what we do, they go cold.
• If we attract fee sensitive or cost conscious enquiries.
• If we find it hard to get noticed amongst the others in our industry.

Assuming you have reached an initial 10, highly targeted prospective clients with your message, none of the above points should be happening. Your marketing should be creating a wave of interest in you and your business, because it’s sharing something interesting. It’s sharing what you do. And if what you do is interesting or remarkable enough, you win and you keep on winning.

How to win and keep on winning

With most small business owners, I start by looking at the service they provide. In just about every case, my first task with them is to make their service more interesting, compelling and remarkable. Not with snazzy words or marketing tricks, but by working with clients to actually pump more value into what they do. THEN, we work on crafting an attractive marketing strategy.

In short: When you’re finding it hard to attract the clients or customers you need, make your service more attractive. It’s far more rewarding than irritating your marketplace, with something they’re not interested in.