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Stroke Your Client's Ego, Not Yours!
In this article, Simon Tupman offers some tips on how to develop powerful, punchy promotion for your business
A few years ago, I was working with an advertising agency in London. We had a client who insisted on advertising his business on his local television station. The main reason, so I was informed, was not because his potential customers and clients were likely to view the advertising; rather, it was so that his wife could tell her friends that her husband's business was on the television every evening! I'm not sure how much truth there is to this story, however, it does illustrate the fact that, for many people in business, promotion has become an exercise in simply stroking the ego.
Egocentric marketing is everywhere in business. Let's take a typical brochure of a professional practice; typically, it will tell the reader how long the firm in question has been in business, how many people work in the business, what services it offers, and what smart premises it has. It may even feature directors and partners trying unsuccessfully to look like Hollywood movie stars. Does this sound familiar?
Brochures and other forms of promotion are really nothing more than expensive exercises in corporate vanity. The focus is nearly always on the business and not on the prospect. The result is that the majority of promotional messages are boring, self-centred and fail to differentiate the business in the minds of the prospects. Businesses need to remove their egos from their promotion and start using messages that genuinely appeal to prospects.
Here are 4 tips to follow when promoting your business to prospects whether it be by proposal, seminar, brochure, business card, newsletter or advertisement.
1. State clearly what you can do for your client.
Most buyers of your products or services couldn't care less about your businesses history, its size or smart premises. What they want to know is what your product or service will do for them. This needs to be reflected in all that you say about your products or services. For example, a client of mine who is an accountant states that she "takes the hassle out of keeping books and records up to date for people who have better things to do." A family lawyer I know simply states "I divorce people".
2. Prove your case!
Clients rarely choose professional services on the basis of promotion alone. Figures suggest that professional service firms get over 80% of their business as a result of word of mouth recommendation and referral. However, how you articulate your promotional message may make the telling difference when the prospect makes the choice. Boasting about the scope of your services, your commitment to excellent service, or your ISO accreditation won't necessarily do you any favours, especially when your competitors can all boast the same.
You need to prove you are as good as you say you are, and in so doing, remove the risk out of the prospective buyer's decision. How can you do this?
- In your newsletter, write about a customer or client's business and how using your product or service, that client was able to achieve its business objectives.
- Invite the customer or client to submit an article about its association with your business in a guest column.
- Invite your client or customer to be a speaker at a lunch or seminar hosted by you for your other clients or referrers.
- Ask the client to provide you with a glowing testimonial about your product or service. Testimonials are one of the most powerful promotional tools you can have. While confidentiality can be an issue for some businesses, I have found many clients to be quite happy to write a testimonial in the knowledge that it will be used in promotional material such as brochures, newsletters or advertisements.
3. Give the prospect 'reasons why'.
Understanding why your clients and customers choose your business over competing businesses is the guts to successful marketing. That's why your business should always ask customers or clients: "why did you choose us?". The answers will reveal reasons why they chose your business in preference to other businesses. So, if you are promoting your business in the yellow pages, don't waste your money on buying space to accommodate big logos or photographs of yourself. Instead, fill that space with real reasons why prospects should choose your business in preference to hundreds listed alongside your business name. Your message needs to stand out from the herd, so make sure the reasons are good ones. Don't go on about your experience, expertise, state of the art technology or whatever when these are qualities that your customers would expect from anyone in your industry.
Here are some possible reasons that might be appropriate for your business:
- Convenient/ FREE parking is available in our car park
- Our clients are given clear estimates of fees every time
- We guarantee our service standards -or your money back!
- Generations of happy clients have placed their trust in us
- We will offer you a FREE initial 20 minute consultation
4. Collaborate with other complimentary service providers.
As an example, why wouldn't, say, a law firm collaborate in joint promotional activities such as seminars and newsletters with a friendly accounting practice with whom it had a good relationship? They might want to jointly organise a seminar for their respective clients on a topic such as property investment and include a specialist in property investment and a financial planner. That way both the accounting practice and the legal practice get exposed to new prospects as well as offering something that is of value to existing clients. What about your business? What opportunities might there be for you to collaborate?
Why not invite a complimentary business to write an article in your newsletter and vice versa. That way, your newsletter becomes more interesting and you get to target the sort of clients and customers you want and at virtually no cost. You could even go the extra step and offer them advertising space in your newsletter for the advertising space in theirs in return.
Powerful and punchy promotion is about appealing to the prospect's senses, sometimes through flattery. So top stroking your own ego and start stroking your client's and prospect's. It won't be long before your promotion starts to deliver an attractive return on your modest investment!
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