We work hard to promote our businesses. There’s our signage. And our truck or car with a logo on the door, or maybe “wrapping” the entire vehicle. There’s our business cards, which we hand out regularly. There’s that brochure we put together back in the day. And our website! Oh, our website! We worked hard to get something out onto the internet…
No one notices. Yes, that’s right, no one is noticing. Put out an ad, and who calls you? Your mother, your cousin, your best friend: “Saw your ad!”
Well that’s just great; they’re already customers! What about the people who are NOT doing business with you – but who ought to be?
They’re not noticing!
And it’s not that you haven’t tried. It’s that they’re inundated with anywhere between 3,000 and 7,000 promotional messages every DAY. From the sides of buses, to TV and radio ads, to signs on the floor in the supermarket or the side of a parking meter, billboards, junk mail and junk email, we’re inundated with “messages”. And most of them are just ignored.
Think of it this way: if people didn’t ignore most all of those 3,000 to 7,000 promotional messages every day, they’d spend all their time … reading promotional messages!
So, what gets through? In an information- and advertising-saturated society, the only messages that get through are those with a short, powerful and provocative message.
What’s mine? “I help people figure out how to make more money.”
That’s usually enough for someone to say, “Huh? How do ya do that?” IF I’m at a networking event or cocktail party.
In a publication, different story. But if my email address is right there, and I’m saying that I help people figure out how to make more money, a couple of people will write “How do ya do that?”, and my follow up activity determines whether any business relationship gets established.
So what’s your short, powerful, provocative message, your Positioning? Even if it’s as powerful as mine, here’s a secret: you can’t just say it once. Just one ad, or one brochure, or one website homepage trumpeting your message is NOT enough. You have to say it, and say it, and say it … and even then you have to understand, most people are not paying attention.
The challenge for you is to a) develop a powerful, provocative and short message, your Positioning and b) to get it out there, and get it out there, and get it out there.
That’s where Coffee News comes in. An inexpensive medium where you can get your message delivered and delivered and delivered.
If it’s powerful and provocative enough, you’ll get some attention. And, over time, you’ll get more and more. Not all those people will become customers, that’s for sure. But market research is very interesting – though people often don’t remember where they got your message, they may remember your message. And when they do, and the time is right, and the stars align, they’re likely to call or email. Then your follow-up protocol – what you do when a prospect comes your way – will determine your return on that promotional investment.
I tell all my clients to calculate the ROI on every investment they make in promoting their business. I tell them not to expect a couple of mentions – even a couple of mentions of a powerful and provocative message – to be enough to stick with information-overloaded people. I tell them to invest in getting their message out there, and to make it consistent, not different all the time. I tell them these things, because I know this: repetition — of a short, powerful and provocative message — works.
Lenann McGookey Gardner, www.YouCanSell.com
We work hard to promote our businesses. There’s our signage. And our truck or car with a logo on the door, or maybe “wrapping” the entire vehicle. There’s our business cards, which we hand out regularly. There’s that brochure we put together back in the day. And our website! Oh, our website! We worked hard to get something out onto the internet…
No one notices. Yes, that’s right, no one is noticing. Put out an ad, and who calls you? Your mother, your cousin, your best friend: “Saw your ad!”
Well that’s just great; they’re already customers! What about the people who are NOT doing business with you – but who ought to be?
They’re not noticing!
And it’s not that you haven’t tried. It’s that they’re inundated with anywhere between 3,000 and 7,000 promotional messages every DAY. From the sides of buses, to TV and radio ads, to signs on the floor in the supermarket or the side of a parking meter, billboards, junk mail and junk email, we’re inundated with “messages”. And most of them are just ignored.
Think of it this way: if people didn’t ignore most all of those 3,000 to 7,000 promotional messages every day, they’d spend all their time … reading promotional messages!
So, what gets through? In an information- and advertising-saturated society, the only messages that get through are those with a short, powerful and provocative message.
What’s mine? “I help people figure out how to make more money.”
That’s usually enough for someone to say, “Huh? How do ya do that?” IF I’m at a networking event or cocktail party.
In a publication, different story. But if my email address is right there, and I’m saying that I help people figure out how to make more money, a couple of people will write “How do ya do that?”, and my follow up activity determines whether any business relationship gets established.
So what’s your short, powerful, provocative message, your Positioning? Even if it’s as powerful as mine, here’s a secret: you can’t just say it once. Just one ad, or one brochure, or one website homepage trumpeting your message is NOT enough. You have to say it, and say it, and say it … and even then you have to understand, most people are not paying attention.
The challenge for you is to a) develop a powerful, provocative and short message, your Positioning and b) to get it out there, and get it out there, and get it out there.
That’s where Coffee News comes in. An inexpensive medium where you can get your message delivered and delivered and delivered.
If it’s powerful and provocative enough, you’ll get some attention. And, over time, you’ll get more and more. Not all those people will become customers, that’s for sure. But market research is very interesting – though people often don’t remember where they got your message, they may remember your message. And when they do, and the time is right, and the stars align, they’re likely to call or email. Then your follow-up protocol – what you do when a prospect comes your way – will determine your return on that promotional investment.
I tell all my clients to calculate the ROI on every investment they make in promoting their business. I tell them not to expect a couple of mentions – even a couple of mentions of a powerful and provocative message – to be enough to stick with information-overloaded people. I tell them to invest in getting their message out there, and to make it consistent, not different all the time. I tell them these things, because I know this: repetition — of a short, powerful and provocative message — works.
Lenann McGookey Gardner, www.YouCanSell.com
