Sharon's Marketing Monthly      

Insightful ideas for maximizing your message

Connect with your customers

Imagine commerce if you lived three hundred years ago: You bought your iron from the local blacksmith and you knew him personally. You had your flour milled by the local miller and you knew him too. The cobbler? Same. And so on and so on. You did business with actual people, people you had relationships with. You knew the names of their kids and exchanged pleasantries while going about your business.

Life has changed, obviously, and we usually buy from people and companies we've never met. But maybe we've come full circle. We now seem to crave that personal relationship again. We're tired of conglomerates and faceless corporations and feeling like we're just being manipulated into buying. And our customers feel that way too.

So don't hide behind corporate speak or generic market-ese. Reach out to your customers and those who could be. Be willing to be human and connect. How do you go from corporate comfort zone to touchy feely? Relax. It's not hard...

Be personal

Write like they're your friends, or like you're writing to just one person. Be yourself. Don't be Joe Blow Businessman. Be Joe Blow best buddy, next door neighbor, bowling partner. Talk about personal stuff. No, not your nasty divorce, but relate a pleasant story from your personal life. Compare your daughter losing all four front teeth in three weeks to some aspect of your business. (Yes, mine did. She's now the toothless wonder!)

Be emotional

Why? Because emotions sell. No matter how many statistics or generic reasons you can drudge up about why your service or product is better than your competitors', it won't register. (Anyone else tired of hearing about excellent customer service?) Speak to what your customers really want, however, and you'll get their attention. We all pretend we're going to buy something because our mind says it's the right thing, but really, we're shopping with our hearts.

Be one with them

Write from the customer's point of view so they know you understand their problems, what keeps them awake at night. Use their language, their words. Talk about their problems outright. Demonstrate that you are only too familiar with their situation, that you feel their pain. Maybe tell them how you've felt that same pain. Relate to them.

Court your customers

OK, maybe this analogy is taking it too far, but let's see if it works...

Back when I sold advertising (my one brief yet painful foray into sales), I quickly learned sales was like dating. Now I think marketing is too. You have to make a great first impression, hope that you hit it off with the other person, and slowly build a relationship with them so they trust you and want to date/buy from you. If the chemistry isn't there, neither is the sale.

It's time to get personal again, to build a relationship with your customers so they will want to buy from you instead of your competition. You can't be there to meet with every customer face to face, so you must rely on the power of your words to convey your personality and make that connection. And you can.

Until next month!

Sharon

This month's challenge

This month choose one of your marketing means and spend just 30 minutes thinking about how it could be more personal, whether it's a home page on your Web site, a direct mail piece, a sales sheet or even a business card. What could you change about that one piece to make it a more effective way to connect with your customers?

And if you like what you read and know someone else who could use some monthly marketing insight, forward this to a friend!

Recommended read for March

Granted, this might be the anti-marketing book, but it is a fascinating read. I'm three-quarters through it, and I still vacillate between reading it as a marketer and reading it as a consumer. The Power of Persuasion : How We're Bought and Sold by Robert V. Levine will definitely get you thinking about what we fall for as consumers and what we strive for as marketers. Warning: It is a text-heavy book, but it's a pleasant read.

(Have a marketing book you love? Feel free to recommend your favorites.)

Who is Sharon?

Sharon is the president of We Know Words, a sustainable marketing communications firm helping you connect with your past, present and potential customers. Being a woman of many opinionsand wordsshe writes the Marketing Monthly as a way to have her say. Besides, she loves newsletters.

What's up with the flower?

It's just us. Fresh, flourishing, cheerfuland it ties into our job: Helping clients grow their businesses through an effective mix of off- and on-line marketing. Besides, it's fun! Have you seen it plastered all over our Web site?