Feb

2020

How Case Studies Create Connection with Prospects

Case studies help your prospects understand how your product or service solution can help them solve their problems.

Some industries regularly use case studies to help their prospects understand their complicated services or expensive products. But most organizations can benefit from success stories because they add human interest to otherwise one-sided marketing messages.

Here’s how case studies can improve your lead generation

Even though business is now global, person to person connections are still the basis of commerce
Story format engages the brain to stay safe and avoid risk
Success stories have the credibility aspect of testimonials. The added education and validation aspects show how the product or service solved the problem
Qualitative and quantitative proof can be the tipping point that spurs action
Customer’s point of view provides social proof that builds trust

Read on…

We’re All the Same – Even Though We’re Different

Whether we’re marketing to other businesses or directly to customers, we’re all doing business with other people. In business to business, the person may be an employee or a principal in the firm. Whether your first contact is with a decision maker or the person who will be using your product or service, it’s important to let them know how your remedy can solve their problem.

A case study demonstrates the experience others have had with your business. It shows the service or product and the support your company provides.

If you provide a unique solution, success stories do a great job of attracting prospects who didn’t know your answer even exists.

When you show how others benefitted is a huge leap beyond static marketing materials that tell prospects about your company.

Stories are a Universal Way to Communicate

Even before humans started talking, we communicated stories by dramatizing. We acted out where we found the game, how the bear attacked our leader. These adventures were important to our survival. As language became a part of everyday life, recounting experiences morphed into parables and lessons. That way each one of us wouldn’t have to actually face the bear – but could avoid dangers through others’ tragedies.

Because the story format is such basic part of our evolution, our brains are wired to accept stories and the truths they hold. Stories engage the basic parts of our brains that strive to keep us safe and avoid risk. When we read or hear about how others positively experienced your product or service, our first reaction is, “It worked for them. It will work for me, too!”

Case Studies are Testimonials on Steroids

You probably have reviews from your satisfied customers, and that’s great. A customer’s own words about your company are high praise, indeed.

Where a success story takes that testimonial to another level is that you can decide what information you want your customer to prove. It may be a small, but important, detail that prospects often ask about as they consider your company. Woven into the story, this fact can sway your prospect to choose your firm over another.

Your case study validates the results your customer encountered. It also provides the proof others need to get closer to making a decision to do business with you.

It can have the opposite effect as well. But that’s good, too, because when you show how your product or service works, you can weed out prospects that are not a good fit. This gives you or your sales team time to pursue those who will profit from working with you.

Customer Success Stories Provide Proof

Dramatizing your customer’s experience makes the human connection. Rational proof is presented as well.

The story of the problem creates the necessary conflict the story needs. The resolution your solution provides gives the reader the answer they may be seeking. This is done through providing qualitative and quantitative information. When using your solution, your customer saves money, time or other resources. Their success story can demonstrate the cost or employee time savings or material and waste reductions. Your customer’s experience with your team can show how your company makes the client a priority.

This evidence creates trust with your company that standalone marketing materials usually fail to hit.

“People Like Us Do Things Like This” – Seth Godin

This concept can help to target your marketing to your ideal client. You want to work with people who share your values, so you’ll both have the outcomes you desire. When you choose the customers to highlight in your case studies, be sure that they reflect the direction you want your business to go.

This may mean passing on client stories that used your most popular product. Instead, you may want to show how your company helped your target market solve a more obscure situation. When you choose the participants’ outcomes for your success story, you can highlight the benefits you want to share with your prospects.

A new product or service line may be the best subject for your case study if you want to promote it to customers and prospects. Your success story writer can help you determine your best direction. An interview about your company, products and marketing plan will provide information that will help you achieve your goals.

Customer spotlights, case studies or success stories showcase your product. And you’ll be giving your successful customer a unique opportunity for positive attention.

Ready to shine a light on your successful customers? Call me, Jan Evans, at 719-371-2270 or Contact me here

Oct

2019

Content Marketing: It’s Not Just About Selling

You’ve heard it again and again: Content is King. If you use content marketing, your brand will be recognized, your website visits will increase, your trust factor will grow and your sales will go through the roof.

All that’s easy enough to say, but with so much time, work and money involved, why should you invest in content marketing?

The Why is Why You Need Content Marketing

People do business with people — not companies. If you’re selling anything more complicated and valuable than something that can be bought anywhere, your prospects want to know why they should choose you over someone else.

You can create a short purpose or mission statement to fulfill this need. But you know it’s more complicated than one sentence. Why your company started begins with its founders, the problems they sought to solve, the obstacles they overcame along the way, and so many other variables. This is the company’s story — the Why.

People love stories. They learn from them. When you use stories in your marketing, readers easily become emotionally involved with the characters. Good stories serve several purposes: they attract, engage, and delight the reader. With so much information constantly bombarding us, it’s more important than ever to create content that resonates with the reader. When you create content that is interesting to your customer, they will read it. This acquaints them with your brand, so they achieve the first step in the “Know — Like — Trust” route.

This is also the first stage of the buyer’s journey: awareness. In your content marketing strategy, a comprehensive resource that educates about your overall offerings is the best place to start. This can be a ‘Guide to Natural Supplements’ or an ebook about the nutrition deficits of modern food.

Creating Content for Your Buyer

While it’s important to have a consistent company voice, which you can accomplish with a style guide, it’s even more crucial to communicate with your buyer. Who are they? Why do they need your solution?

The easiest way to consistently do this is to create buyer personas. There may be more than one if you your product or service fills the needs of disparate demographics and psychographics such as: male and female millennials to baby boomers. Often the same content will appeal to different generations or genders, but there may be instances when you want to specifically address their concerns that your product will solve.

This is definitely a case of, “It’s not about me — it’s about you.” Putting yourself in their shoes, their lives and creating content that is relevant for their situations will make you a friendly voice who has their best interests at heart. This attitude helps get you to the second phase of the “Know — Like — Trust” progress which is also known as the consideration stage.

What information will help your buyer to understand the value of your products? Blog posts about specific nutrients and how they affect overall health or specific deficiencies will continue to hold interest and keep them considering your solutions.

So How Does All this Content Lead to a Sale?

Now that your prospect knows your company, is beginning to like you, it’s time to start developing trust. This is the decision stage where they’re getting ready to make a purchase.

This stage requires the proof. Throughout your content, you’ve been offering information based on research. Now is the time to prove your case with those great testimonials you’ve been collecting. Case studies are invaluable as proof because customers want to believe your solution will work as well for them as it has for others. These success stories also give your prospect clear expectations for using your solution.

If you’re creating useful content, does it mean that you never sell? Definitely not! You can, and should, have some kind of call to action in all of your content. It shouldn’t be a big red Buy Now button or other hard sell, but a soft sell suggestion with a link to your specific product page will seem logical and even helpful to your readers.

When you use your blog content as information in your email marketing, remember the 80/20 Rule and give your readers four useful messages for every one sales message. If all you do is sell to your list when they believed you would be providing helpful content, they will ignore or delete your messages — eventually hitting that black hole Unsubscribe button.

Would You Like to Talk About Your Content Marketing?

Whether you have tons of content that could use some organization to increase your SEO or are just starting out, please schedule a free call to discuss improving your content marketing strategy and creation.

Dec

2018

How to Create a Story in Your Content

We learn from stories. That is why from the time humans began using speech to communicate, it was done through stories. From the oldest recorded histories, like the Bible, the teaching came alive through stories. No matter what your religious beliefs, you have to admit that Jesus’ lessons through parables resonated with his followers in such a way that the world’s religions changed forever. Before Jesus, the Buddha taught his followers with stories that still resonate with us today.

Stories about people with a problem attract people with that problem. Since your product improves lives, there’s a story to be told about it. How do we go about weaving a story into your content marketing?

Here is how to make your content into a story to make it more attractive, readable and effective to your prospects and customers.

Story Elements

Include these six basic elements in every story and you’ll connect with your audience.

1) When does the story takes place? It could be a date: “In 2017,” a time of year: “Last spring,” when something happened: “When my mom died,” or anything that shows time. Everything happens in time, so your story needs a time element to show that something is going to happen.

2) Where does the story take place? We’re all somewhere all the time. Set the scene by indicating the place. “As I stood in line at the pharmacy,” “We waited for the pediatrician in the exam room.” Show where the story is unfolding.

3) Who is in the story? This could be just one person, or several. It could also be a brand, an animal or company, but there has to be at least one character to make the message a story.

4) Who is the villain? Every story has an obstacle that must be overcome. It could be the side effects of prescribed medications, the lack of a true cure, Big Pharma or anything that is preventing the main character from achieving his goal.

5) What is the main character’s goal? The protagonist must have something she is trying to achieve. Think of your audience’s reason for reading your content. Why are they spending their time learning about natural and healthy foods, supplements or lifestyle changes?

6) What happens? For a story to ring true, something must happen. There must be events that lead the main character from the problem to the solution. This can be as long – or short – as it needs to be to create the tension and resolution that your company can provide.

For more in depth look at stories in sales messages, get Sell with a Story by Paul Smith

Aug

2018

Email Marketing: How Many Content vs Sales Messages?

Email Marketing: 3 Content Messages to 1 Sales Message

Email Marketing Messages: 3 Content to 1 Sales Message

You want your emails to your customers and prospects to be opened and read. After all, that’s why you send them — right?

So, it’s important to offer them what they want. How do you know what they want? One way is to watch which emails they open. If there’s a link in the email, does it get clicked?

Another way to determine what they want is with the promise that you made when they signed up. Did you give them a special report or ebook about a topic that relates to your offerings? Did you promise coupons or special offers?

When customers or prospects give you their email addresses it’s important to deliver the value you promised. If you assured them they would get coupons or special offers, they may open your emails at first, But if your offers are not relevant things they want to buy from you, they’ll start ignoring or deleting your messages. To avoid that you can segment your list and send only relevant offers of the products they want to buy.

If your customer or prospect traded their valuable contact info for an educational piece, more than likely, they’ll want more of the same type of content. Does this mean you should never sell to them or make them an offer? Of course not, today’s consumers are not so naive as to believe you will never sell to them.

It is important, though, to give them more of what they signed up for. You can do this by sending interesting articles and blog posts that will help them make healthy decisions. You can add a ‘soft offer’ at the end of the information with a “click to see how easy getting your daily dose of herb/vitamin/mineral can be” link.

When you see that your emails are getting a good open rate and links are being followed, you’ll know you’re hitting the sweet spot for your audience. If sales are being generated with the ‘soft offers’ you don’t have to worry about sending a ‘sales’ email unless you’re having a sale or other special offer.

New product emails are definitely an occasion to combine the rollout with an educational article — or series of articles if the product warrants such.

Experts abound in the email marketing arena. Some say to send three content emails for every one sales message. Others say one to one. Let your audience decide what they want from you and your company and fulfill their wishes to create a lasting and mutually beneficial relationship.

Email comes right into your list members’ homes or is carried with them on phones 24/7, so it’s a very personal medium. Use that intimacy to create a trusting relationship, and you’ll create customers for life.

Would you like to have a no cost, no obligation, discussion about your email campaigns? We can analyze your copy and timing to see if there are possible improvements. Just schedule a meeting here.

Jul

2018

In Search of Natural Health: What It Means to Your Customer

You have products that help people feel better, live more productive and fulfilling lives. Have you thought about the affects your products have on your customers’ lives? Can you guide them to live better naturally?

Your customers seek more than just living pain free. They seek natural health — the ability to create all the things they want to accomplish in their relationships, material wealth, spirituality, skills and recreation.

When marketing your product, it’s important to know why your customers want what you offer. Sure, they want to move without joint pain. But what are they moving for? A better tennis game, to keep up with the kids, walk the dog, swim to stay lean, feel more vibrant/younger? Why do they want to do those things? To strengthen ongoing relationships or perhaps attract a new companion into their lives? Maybe playing competitive games is a stress release that they want to pursue.

Your marketing messaging should tap into several levels of reasons why your customer buys your product. They might buy from you because of your sustainable/green business practices. Perhaps you donate a percentage of your sales to charity. Maybe you have a rewards or discount program that makes buying from you attractive.

There are so many choices people have to make when buying natural health products. Why should they choose you and your product? What makes you stand out from your competition? Is it the source or processing of your raw goods? Your guarantee of potency, purity?

How can you possibly know why your customers buy from you? Well, you can ask them. You can ask them to rate your products with an easy to use format or use an open-ended question survey. Multiple choice surveys are not usually the best way to find out what people really think because the provided answers are often not accurate, so they force people to make a choice when the truth lies somewhere between the answers.

People have different natural health goals. You can start to think about some of those goals by asking like minded friends what they want to accomplish with naturally healthy living. Think of your own goals for health.

Some natural health aspirations your customers may have:

Living prescription drug free
Living pain free
Using only sustainably/green sourced products
Be emotionally balanced so life’s pitfalls don’t send you into a tailspin
Be physically fit
Be able to think clearly
Improve your physical skills such as running, swimming, hiking, climbing, or favorite recreational sport
Improve your mental skills for career advancement or competition
Stay emotionally aware of others in order to have good relationships
Stay at a healthy weight without hunger

The physical segment of natural health is the one most people focus on, but emotional and mental health are necessary for a healthy body. A healthy body is necessary for emotional and mental health.

When people focus on their physical health, they get the positive side effects of positive mood and clear thinking.

Go deep into your customer’s untold desires for natural health — that is where your marketing message hides.

If you would like to explore the deeper reaches of successful marketing messages, I would be happy to be your guide. Set up a short, free call here.

Jun

2018

Should You Create a Customer Avatar?

It can take quite a bit of time to create a customer avatar. You may have to create more than one. The project can take on a life of its own and never be complete as it can change.

Let’s quickly go through the process and see if it’s worth your time and effort.

Why Should You Create a Customer Avatar?

Since you just want sales and don’t really care who buys, why is it important to narrow your thinking to just one person? The truth in business is the same as in life: You can’t be all things to all people. Your business, your products also will not appeal to all people.

That’s why it important to create products and services that will be the answer for your perfect customer. When you create your customer avatar, your creativity and your marketing will be clear. Your choices will become simple because you are not creating for the masses, but to a specific person.

What is a Customer Avatar?

Your customer avatar is the compilation of your perfect customer’s demographics, psychographics, interests and habits. Depending on what you’re selling, you may have more than one customer avatar for your different product lines or services.

Your customer avatar focuses on your most desired customer. If as many men as women are your customers, you may want to create two customer avatars. But if you prefer to work with one gender over the other, just focus on your preference

This doesn’t mean your marketing will be sexist (genderist?) but you use colors, words and images that attract your customer.

Your customer avatar is the person you want to connect with. She is interested in your type of products and buys them regularly. You want her to know she can trust your company’s integrity to give her the highest quality and best value for her money. When you let her get to know that you will stand behind your product, she will become your customer for life — as long as you keep up your end of the relationship.

What Will You Do with Your Customer Avatar?

When you specifically define your perfect customer it can help you create consistent content and marketing materials. If a team member thinks of a great new marketing idea, you can test it against your avatar to see if it will appeal to him. If it’s close, you can tweak it to get it in line. If not, you’ll know to file it away for a different product line or service.

This audience message consistency will influence:

The stories you tell
The voice you use
The products you develop
The places where you advertise
The social platforms you target
The language you use on your website and in your emails

Is it Worth the Time and Effort?

This is one of those things that you really don’t need to do. You can market like you’re throwing spaghetti at a wall as an art form. Some will fall right off. Some slide down the wall. Some will stick creating a masterpiece.

But if you want to know which of your efforts are getting you the result you want, a good place to start is WHO you are marketing to. Business is not about you or your product. It’s about your audience — the people who want to buy from you because you solve their problem or add something fun, beautiful or tasty to their lives.

They trust you will make good on your promises and make their lives just a little bit better.

So instead of asking, “Is it worth the time and effort to create a customer avatar?” perhaps you should ask if you can afford NOT to define your customers and prospects?

Mar

2018

What’s Your Marketing Strategy Like: Dominoes Falling or Pinball Games?

We’ve all enjoyed the falling domino spirals and Rube Goldberg machines — things crashing into one another to create complicated effects until the end when a cup of tea is poured, the dog food is served or some other simple task is met.

Same is true for pinball games where we carefully launch the ball so we can paddle it into the points target. It’s fun to try to maneuver and control gravity with the force and timing we apply to the paddles to get the most play and most points.

The first is done with planning and precision: testing the distance the object or domino will fall, so it hits the next object at the right speed, weight and spot to get the next thing moving.

Although, “that deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball” most pinball playing is done with less precise planning. We launch the ball, paddle furiously and hope for the best.

Your marketing probably resembles one of these scenarios

You construct an email sequence that takes your prospects from knowing little or nothing about your product or service, step by step, until they beg you to take their money. This strategy is created with planning and precision like the domino spiral or a Rube Goldberg device.

Or you follow the pinball strategy and launch the shiny ball into the ether — paddling at it maniacally — hoping to hit the bonus points and the jackpot. You may start with a brochure that you hand out at shows or events. Then you have a better idea and start an affiliate program that never seems to get off the ground. You have a website that give prospects the opportunity to sign up for coupons, a newsletter or more information, but rarely send them anything.

There’s just so much to do and not enough time in a day, a week, a month to get it all done.

Sometimes You Just Need a Little Extra Help

An experienced marketing copywriter, like me, can help you plan your marketing so it resembles the lovely domino spiral instead of whacking the pinball paddles until the table goes TILT.

I have a few openings for a no cost phone consultation. Don’t delay, sign up today

Dec

2017

How to Create Valuable Marketing Messages

There are times when the things we write are all about me and mine. My recent holiday greetings letter comes to mind. I wrote it to share our year with friends and relatives who are geographically distant.

This message is often the only communication we have all year. That seems silly. Why would people who don’t communicate all year even care what’s going on in our lives? I don’t know the answer, but I sure look forward to hearing about their lives once a year. Perhaps it’s just that we share a history or genealogy, and we want to know that life is going on for them just as it is for us.

Marketing messages, though, should have the opposite focus. The message should be about the people we are writing to. Now, this can seem silly, too. How can we write about people who we’ve never even met? How can we know their trials and tribulations? How can we convince them that our product will solve their pain or problems?

Beyond the technology and science of marketing comes the art of the message. The copywriter must delve into the lives of their prospects. Imagine their happiest moments and worst nightmares. Then craft a message that resonates with their desires, so they will buy your solution to their problems.

If your solution is the only one of its kind, this can be rather straightforward. If your product is one of many that can help solve the problem, you’ll have to find the difference – the shining star – that makes your solution outshine the rest. This difference can be obvious: lowest price for example. It can be more subtle: sustainably sourced and produced. The second example will appeal to a smaller audience, but this group will be a more faithful following.

The product, the audience and your marketing goals will determine whether you want to form a relationship with your customers or just sell the inventory you have.

Since selling to repeat customers has a higher ROI than acquiring new customers, it makes sense to nurture the relationship. You have a history. Is it enough to contact them once a year or only when you want to sell them something? Are they that invested in your history to hear about you or do you need to give them value to keep them interested?

Value is the key to successful marketing content messages. Whether you deliver your messages via email or social media, providing value is the key.

What can you give your prospects and customers that costs them nothing more than their time? What can that gift provide you in terms of your relationships?

Dec

2017

The Treasure at the End of the Question Mark

When you’re looking for someone to help with your marketing tasks, you have questions to ask of them. Those questions reflect what you need from the marketing professional.

As important as those answers are, consider the questions your prospective hire asks you. Do they know that every piece of the marketing puzzle must fit within the big picture? Or are they just interested in the piece that they can provide?

When discussing your wants and needs, it’s vital that your copywriter, SEM or SEO specialist, or web designer understands what you’re trying to accomplish with your marketing. If they are willing to take your money without looking at the big picture, they will probably miss the mark.

Golden Questions Reveal the True Nature of Your Prospective Marketer

There are questions your potential copywriter or marketer should ask you. The answers to these questions will define the project and the direction of your marketing.

When a copywriter asks these questions, you’ll know you have someone who truly cares about your business and has your best outcomes as their goal.

What do you want?
- What is this project?
- What are the elements of this package/project?
- What will this finished project look like?
- What do you need done right now?
- What is the most pressing marketing challenge you’re facing now?
- What other projects are facing close deadlines?
- What else do you want to achieve?

What will having that do for you?
- How does this project fit into the growth/development plan of your company?
- What are the goals of this project?
- How will the successful outcome of this project affect the company?
- What caused you to head in this direction?
- Why is this important now?

How will you know when you’ve accomplished it?
- What is a perfect outcome for this project?
- How will we know it’s a success?
- Are there key signs to determine success?
  - If so, what are they?
- What expectations do you have for this project/campaign?
- What would show this project failed?

We’re all looking for answers. Good questions open the door to answers that can make or break a marketing project.

Please feel free to take advantage of my free 20 minute consultation call here.

Nov

2017

How to Create a Marketing Position that Works

It seems like a lot of work to create a position in the marketplace. If you just start advertising, you can hit the ground running. But without a strong positioning strategy, will your marketing messages attract the right people? Can you continue to fine-tune your advertising to speak to your customers and prospects without endlessly repeating yourself?

Here are 6 questions to develop your product or service position:

What does your prospect want? People don’t want products or services. They want solutions to their problems. Just as people don’t want a drill or even a hole – they want to hang a shelf. They really don’t even want a shelf. They want to put things out of the way or to decorate their home. What problem does your product or service solve? What is different about your solution that makes you stand above the crowd?
What position can you own? If the spot at the peak is taken, how can you differentiate your product or message? Some will say that if you can’t be in first position, don’t bother. Markets are fickle, so there’s probably a place for your unique offering. What can your product do that no other does as well? Save the whales? Delicious taste and low calories? Find a hole in their position and fill it.
Who are your competitors? Don’t go head to head with the giants in your market. You can’t win. Even if you make headway into their space, they can beat you with their deep pockets. Your position needs to fill a gap that they don’t bother with.
You decide the competition is worth battling. Can you afford to compete in that space and still make a profit? You may have created a healthy cola drink. Is it wise to go against the behemoths in the soft drink industry? Instead, target the people who concentrate on what they drink to keep themselves satisfied and healthy.
Can you persevere? It’s important to own your position in the market as a strategy. Use the position when crafting every marketing message, advertisement, email or social media post. You can fine-tune the tactics when you stay true to your marketing position.
Is your position evergreen? When you claim your place on a trail less travelled, be sure to have enough room to make a comfortable camp. Can you develop messages that support your product’s position throughout its lifetime?

Determining your product, service or company position in the market can take time. Once you have a firm grasp on your position, you use it to create a strong, consistent marketing strategy. You can stay on the path to success without fear of slipping over the precipice of slow or no sales.

For a free, no obligation look at your marketing position and strategy, schedule a call here.