The U.S.P. Marketing Sins
(29002)
2. Wasting your marketing weapons on the wrong targets
3. Taking your customer’s loyalty for granted
4. Letting a customer leave your business angry
5. Abdicating control over your marketing to someone else
Sins 1: Doing something boring
Each day, the average American consumer is exposed to at least 100 television commercials, 35 radio commercials, 202 newspaper ads and between three and ten direct-mail solicitations. And some demographic groups receive many more advertising messages daily through telemarketing or magazines.
To break through that background noise and mind clutter, a marketing message has to be interesting. If the message comes across as being dull, ordinary or mundane, the consumer won’t even take notice–there’s just too much competition. The challenge for marketers is first and foremost to present messages in truly interesting ways, including elements that will engage the consumer intellectually and emotionally.
How can a boring subject be made interesting?
Sins 2: Wasting marketing on the wrong targets
No matter how good your marketing message is, if it is delivered to people who are unable to buy, it is wasted. That’s the whole basis for demographics and niche marketing –finding people who are predisposed to buy your product or service because of other existing factors.
Thus, before making a commitment to allocate resources to marketing, stop and ask, “How can I get these messages delivered to the people who are most likely to buy?” Answer that question first and foremost and you automatically enhance your chances of marketing success.
Sins 3: Taking your customer’s loyalty for granted
A business that is considered to be “hot” has a genuine marketing window of opportunity that should be exploited quickly. If it instead makes the mistake of assuming customers will always want its products/services, it’s on slippery ground.
At one time, brand-name loyalty and even buy-American loyalty genuinely existed. In today’s markets, however, they are just distant memories. Consumers buy whatever is in fashion, regardless of the brand or the country of origin. For marketers, the implications are simple–to continue selling well, you’ve got to keep getting hot again and again.
Sins 4: Letting customers leave angry
It never makes sense to let a customer leave your business angry without first having exhausted every means at your disposal to resolve their dispute. Why? Simply because not only will you lose the business that customer would have done but you can guarantee they will also share their experience with their friends and associates. And to make matters worse, the Internet is full of places an unhappy customer can voice their displeasure.
Therefore, never treat customers leaving your business lightly. Treat each case on its individual merits, and do everything possible to turn the customer experience into a positive one. The long-term payoffs can be substantial.
Sins 5: Abdicating control of marketing
Never turn 100 percent of your marketing over to an outsider, marketing consultant or marketing agency. Why? Because an outsider:
A far better approach is to use an outsider as a collaborator. When you combine their expertise with your own intimate knowledge of the business, great things can happen. Synergy can be created, and the results generated can be amplified. That won’t happen if you leave everything up to them.
You must the commitment to market smarter by picking better targets. Nobody has an unlimited supply of dollars to play with. You need to find the way targeted marketing works for you.
–Dan Kennedy
There is a night-and-day difference between solving marketing problems in the classroom and the real world; there is a red-and-green difference between creating an ad in six weeks in the classroom and figuring out how to fix a headline in six minutes under the deadly deadlines of real life. The big-name firms who hire wet-behind-the-ears MBAs do their clients a grave disservice. I suggest you hire experts with real-world experience: Somebody with bruises and battle scars, who started out at the broom-in-hand level and clawed his way up. Determine whether or not she knows how to sell.
–Dan Kennedy
There are a lot of folks out there competing with you for your customers’ and prospects’ attention, interest and dollars. To win in this kind of tough, intensely competitive environment, you need the U.S.P. marketing plan.
–Dan Kennedy
We can invent faster than others can copy
We can invent faster than others can copy.
–Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s
The U.S.P. Marketing Secret Weapons
(19002)
1. A good U.S.P.
2. Being understood
3. Eliminating assumptions
4. Asking for the order
5. Tailoring the message
6. Anticipating skepticism
7. Good pictures
8. Image congruency
9. Constant change
10. Capturing details
11. Telephone upselling
12. Direct Mail + Telemarketing
13. Marketing asset sharing
14. Customer respect
15. Additional products
16. Excellence
17. A “Champion”
Weapons 1: A good U.S.P.
A Unique Selling Proposition (U.S.P.):
U.S.P.s come in loads of varieties and flavors. For example, a U.S.P. can be built aroud price, product ingredients, marketplace positioning, color, size, celebrity endorsement, location, hours of operation and so forth. The options are wide and essentially limitless.
Some of history’s most successful U.S.P.s have included:
Weapons 2: Being clearly understood
The advertising industry is full of clever ideas, characters and presentations that are tremendously memorable but that failed to generate any additional sales. Why is that? Most often it’s because the advertisers tried to be clever rather than clear.
Therefore, if you want marketing that generates results, strive to be clearly understood. Don’t let a few awards for creativity substitute for solid sales in the marketplace. Be simple, be direct and be clear about what you offer the customer.
Weapons 3: Eliminating assumptions
Many novice marketers make the mistake fo assuming the public already know they have a genuine and pressing need for the products or services being offered. And because of that, novice marketers usually assume people will be instantly and automatically interested.
By contrast, good marketers take nothing for granted. They walk customers through all the steps needed to make a sale every time they come into contact with them. Good marketers also take the time to test and optimize every individual element of their marketing message systematically. They never assume the entire package is performing at its optimum level until they robustly test assumptions in the marketplace.
Weapons 4: Asking for the order
Marketing lives or dies solely on the basis of the results generated. Smart marketers know this–therefore, they take every opportunity available to ask for the order. Or to put that another way, savvy marketers have the guts to ask for action in every presentation.
Why is this important? Simply because marketers who are afraid of asking for the order for whatever reason (like being afraid of offending the prospective client) never generate comparable results to those marketers who present the facts and ask for action. In marketing, presenting the message well is useful and a great preliminaty step, but it’s only in the asking for the order that the real payoff is found.
Weapons 5: Tailoring the message
Successful marketing is always developed with the target market in mind. In other words, the message is tailored and massaged to match the preferences of the consumers to whom it will be delivered. Which means that marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum but in relation to the marketplace.
Those businesses that carefully tailor and then systematically deliver the right message to the right target market will succeed. Different businesses can and do choose different target markets but the real source of success lies not in the selection of the target market but more in the ability to customize and deliver the right marketing message.
Weapons 6: Anticipating skepticism
Most consumers will doubt anything a marketer says to them. They have been conditioned through experience to be skeptical of everything they hear. The best marketers understand that and don’t try to change the consumer’s initial mind state. Instead they arm themselves with enough evidence to win people over, and then present that factual information carefully and deliberately.
Ultimately, by overwhelming the customer with demonstrations of results, credibility can be established. The more variety in those elements of proof that are presented the better, but the simple principle involved is that ultimately, the marketer has to produce so much solid evidence of results that the customer is forced to set aside his or her natural skepticism and accept the results. Precisely how much evidence will be required to achieve this will vary according to a large number of factors, but be prepared
Weapons 7: Good pictures
Pictures are instantly convincing. Why is that? Because ever since grade school, everyone has told us, “Pictures don’t lie,” and “One picture is worth a thousand words.”
From a marketing effectiveness viewpoint, before and after pictures work best. Good marketers strive to acquire and integrate into their message pictures that show the definitive results of using their products or services. In addition, suitable pictures add interest and make the message become visually appealing. All of which goes towards enhancing the results generated.
Weapons 8: Image congruency
From a marketing perspective, everything about a business counts. Every piece of the puzzle should fit together carefully and strategically to reinforce one single, central image. When that happens, all of the marketing elements contribute to the create of synergy or additional power.
For example, almost every business in existence likes to convey the image of being “successful.” Why? Mainly because customers like dealing with successful businesses and businesspeople. There is the perception that the business will be around for a long time to provide after-sale service. In addition, the inference exists that success is the result of serving other people well, and therefore the same can be expected.
Smart marketers work hard at making certain everything comes together seamlessly and consistently.
Weapons 9: Constant change
Every person on the planet loves what’s new. Smart marketers know that. They constantly come up with different answers to the consumer’s key question: “What’s new?”
Weapons 10: Capture the customer details
Every time someone calls your should have a script that allows you or your staff to capture their details. You can then send them a follow-up marketing offer, which they will be more likely to respond to positively.
To make this work well:
Weapons 11: Telephone upselling
Most businesses are aware that its easier and less expensive (from a marketing perspective) to do more business with existing customers than it is to generate new customers. That’s because customers are predisposed to trust what you say, and to be responsive to add-on offers.
Therefore, set up a system where someone from your company calls each of your clients and makes them a special offer. You’ll be surprised at how much revenue and profit that will add.
Weapons 12: Direct Mail + Telemarketing
When a direct mail campaign is supplemented by telemarketing, results increase by 500 to 1,000 percent.
The key elements of a good telemarketing script are:
1. Identify yourself
2. Give a reason why you’re calling: perhaps to arrange delivery for a gift or follow up on a letter
3. Ask to talk to the decision maker
4. Get past the screening by offering to call back at a more convenient time
5. Talk with the decision maker and again identify yourself and the reason you’re calling
6. Ask for action by being specific about what you’ll do or what you want them to do.
Weapons 13: Marketing asset sharing
If you can’t afford to spend large amounts of money on marketing, identify a noncompeting business and offer to share your customer base, store traffic or advertising with them. If you can put together a workable reciprocal arrangement, you can generate some substantial marketing payoffs for both parties.
Weapons 14: Customer respect
Smart businesses make their customers feel important, appreciated and respected. Why? It’s really very simple. Customers who feel unimportant, umappreciated or taken for granted take their business elsewhere. There is a direct link between customer retention and customer respect.
Remember, when you lose a customer, not do you lose the present but also the future business that person would have done. You also lose the added business the people that person would have referred to you would have done. That may amount to serious money, over a number of years.
Weapons 15: Offer additional products
Your existing clients are already predisposed to doing business with you. They will already like the products and services you offer, the way you do business and the people involved. Smart marketers realize this is an enormous opportunity to do more business, and they will do everything they can to expand their product range.
Weapons 16: Excellence
If there is one ’secret’ to maximum referrals, it is that satisfied customers do not refer abundantly. Enthused, inspired, awed customers refer in great abundance. If you are just good enough, that’s not good enough. If customers get only what they expect and deserve, that’s not enough.
And therefore, become a passionate advocate for excellence in everything your business does. Not only will you create some happy customers, you’ll also make it easier to run a great business referral program that will be the easiest and most productive way to market your business.
Weapons 17: A “Champion”
If you’re good enough at what you do, and if your business provides sufficient added value, your customers will become “Champions” –people who will be willing to champion you to everyone they know. In purely financial terms, a mere handful of well-connected champions can generate a large amount of added revenue.
Thus, the marketer’s challenge isn’t simply to turn prospects into customers. It’s also to customers into champions. That will only happen if you genuinely and repeatedly exceed their expectations.
Everybody knows about the pink bunny with the drum in battery commercials–but do you know the brand of battery he represents? Surveys show over half name the company’s competitor! And over the last five years, while showing off the bunny in every way imaginable, that company’s market share has declined, not improved. The confused customer either does not buy or sometimes buys the wrong product! Bottom line: bend over backwards to avoid confusing your customer.
–Dan Kennedy
Fact: the telephone lines run in both directions, in and out.
–Dan Kennedy
In every successful business, the customer is treated as the most important asset. To really get to that point and “own” that belief, you have to figure out what your customer is worth to you and can or should be whrth to you.?
–Dan Kennedy
A handful of cultivated, appreciated champions can make you rich.
–Dan Kennedy
When we recognize and reward a certain behavior, we inspire more of the same. It’s true in parenting, in managing and in ‘managing customers.’ When you get a referral from a customer or client, the smartest thing you can do is to make a big, big deal out of it. Call with thanks or send a personal thank-you note or gift.
–Dan Kennedy
Do what you do so well that…
Do what you do so well that people can’t resist telling others about you.
–Walt Disney
Don’t be in too much of a hurry to promote until…
Don’t be in too much of a hurry to promote, until you get good. Otherwise you just speed up the rate at which the world finds out you’re no good.
–Cavett Robert