Five Marketing Communications You Can Use Right Now To Get Fast New
Business
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
There isn't a business in the world that doesn't use some kind of
marketing communication in an attempt to get new and repeat busine ss.
These communications include brochures, letters, ads, proposals... and
everything else you use to motivate response. Problem is,
most business people -- including most people specializing in corporate
communications -- are fatuously ill-prepared to write marke ting
communications that motivate immediate action.
They understand neither the purpose of such communications, the
document formats available to them to achieve this purpose, or what
should go into each format so that the purpose is achieved as fast as
possible. As a result, most people creating the vast majority of marketing
communications are simply throwing their money away. To help solve this
ridiculously expensive and entirely avoidable p roblem, here are five
marketing communications you should use right now. When properly
created and used, you'll notice an immediate increase in the number of
leads and sales you generate.
#1 The Reason Why Communication
Approaching a prospect (whether that person has done business with you
before or not) means mounting an argument. You've got to unde rstand that
your objective is getting this person to take the fastest possible action
and providing the strongest possible reasons f or doing so. Face it: every
marketing communication demands that the prospect make a decision,
either to act... or postpone action. Most marketing communications are so
written that postponing action (or altogether declining to act) is actually
the most sensible t hing to do. That's where the "reason why"
communication comes in.
When you create this communication you must understand your job is to
provide the strongest possible reasons why it's in the prospec t's interest
to MOVE NOW! To get this response, start by:
## brainstorming all the reasons you can think of why the prospect should
take immediate action; ## then review these reasons. Are they entirely
convincing? Unless you've done this before, they're probably not. You've
probably wr itten a lot of "fluff", words without teeth or substance. Maybe
you've written that your product is "state-of-the-art". However, wit hout
the facts, there's no reason to believe you... and thus no reason for the
prospect to take fast action. ## Thus, rewrite. Provide reason that are
really convincing... that will get the prospect to sit up and salivate about
what you're o ffering. By the time you've finished with this crucial work,
your designated prospect should be unable to help himself from taking a
ction! That's how good your reasons must be!
As you create your reasons for immediate action, see yourself engaging
and connecting with a real prospect. Don't write in the abstr act. See
yourself trying to convince a real person. And remember, if what you're
writing doesn't seem so hot to you, it's a cinch it 's not going to seem very
motivational to your prospects, either. I know I'm on the right track, when
I'm excited by the reasons I'v e fashioned.
Once you've got the reasons (five or six good ones are usually quite
adequate), put them in a letter or standard three-fold brochure . Start this
communication by telling the prospect what you're going to do ("I'm
writing to provide the five reasons that will motiv ate you to acquire our
product/service right now.") Don't be sheepish. If the reasons you provide
are truly motivating, that's preci sely what the prospect will want to do!
Once you've opened this way, get right into the reasons. Lay them out in
rat-rat-rat fashion. Once you've given them, tell the prosp ect clearly
what you want him to do next ("Call right this minute!")... or what you'll be
doing next ("You'll hear from me within 72
hours!")
The "reason why" document is a powerful marketing communication
because it breathes confidence, rests upon your thoughtful considera tion
about what's meaningful to the prospect, and tells the prospect in no
uncertain terms that what you've got is really the best.
#2 The Comparison Document
Are you offering a superior product or service to your competitors? Don't
just say so, prove it... with The Comparison Document. Sta rt by writing all
the aspects of your product/service that your prospects want to know
about/have asked about. These may include:
## location ## size ## frequency ## unique aspects ## speed ##
convenience, and of course ## price.
Do an apples-to-apples comparison (no cheating please, for both ethical
and legal reasons) with your competitors, focusing on those who are most
well-known and/or industry leaders.
What you'll find will either
1) clearly establish the case for why your prospects should buy what
you're selling as opposed to what others are offering, or 2) indicate that
you've got work to do to improve and differentiate your offer.
Either way, the exercise is worth doing.
If you've established your "selling case", now lay it out in your comparison
document. Use a column format. Run the names of your co mpetitors across
the top of the page and the features you're comparing down the side. Put
yourself in the final column which you sho uld head with words like these:
"Here's why you should use (name of your product/service)." Note: don't be
afraid to use the exact n ames of your competitors in this comparison. So
long as you're reported the facts accurately, you have nothing to worry
about. Too, feel free to cite your source for the information you're quoting,
like a competitor's brochure, catalog, etc. The more authoritative
this chart looks, the better for you!
#3 Selling The Offer
One of the reasons prospects act fast is because you've provided a special
reason for faster action. This reason is called the offer
and every marketing communication needs one. There are many kinds of
offer, including:
## special price if you act before a certain date; ## more of the
product/service if you take faster action; ## two for the price of one, etc.
The important thing is that the prospect clearly understand that by acting
quickly he gets more value than if he procrastinates.
Obviously offers should be used in conjunction with other marketing
communications. An offer, for instance, will improve the respons iveness
of both the "reason why" and "comparison" communications. Less
obviously, you can create marketing communications that focus
on selling the offer.
These communications need not be long -- a standard business letter or
even fax are suitable. What you need to do is:
## create a sizzling offer, the kind of proposition that is really to the
benefit of the prospect; ## be clear about what the prospect gets, why the
prospect is better off using this offer; ## make the offer severely limited
in terms of the number who can benefit from it and also limited in time,
and ## (whenever possible) provide an accompanying testimonial about
someone who used the offer... and the kinds of valuable results he
achieved.
Now hit your designated prospect with a short, punchy communication
highlighting this offer. I do this quite a lot with my Sales & M arketing
Success Card Deck, where one of our offers is providing advertisers who
pay 60 days prior to publication with a Top 20 posi tion in the deck. These
spots not only provide a benefit to the prospect... but they are strictly
limited. As the supply dwindles, t he offer becomes more urgent,
meaningful. Note: a fax is very valuable here. When we're down to, say, a
half dozen available spaces,
I need fax out no more than about 10 brief letters focusing on the
importance of this offer -- and its diminishing availability -- and the
spaces will be promptly filled. Selling the offer -- and its attendant
benefits -- works!
#4 The Quick Follow-Up
All too often so-called marketers create a marketing communication,
disseminate it... and then sit back and await nirvana. This is r idiculous!
One of the marketing formats you must master is the Quick Follow-Up.
Take the illustration I provided above, selling the strictly limited Top 20
positions in my quarterly card-deck mailings. Dumb marke ters might
know that they have a dwindling supply of these motivating offers; a
smart marketer understands that he must keep thrusti ng home the fact
that the supply is not o only valuable... but continually diminishing. Hence,
the quick follow-up. Here, you not on ly expect to tell the prospect what
you've got... but are committed to telling him again and again and again...
until such time as y our supply is gone.
Say, for instance, that in the morning you notify a prospect you've got a
certain availability of your product/service and make him a sizzling offer.
Now, you can either wait for him to act... or you can, by the apt use of
quick follow-up, motivate his faster acti on. Thus, you could either:
## fax him in the afternoon, indicating that you had even less of the
special offer available than you had when you last wrote -- on ly hours
before, or ## send him a second letter in a day or two with the same
message.
Either way, you are using fast follow-up as a motivator. You are saying, in
effect, "This goody train is moving; lots of others are jumping on; if you
don't jump on now, too, you're going to be OUT OF LUCK!" This is a very
powerful message.
Note: some pompous business people will find this motivational element
distasteful. If this is you, GET OVER IT! Marketing is by def inition
motivational. It is about motivating a designated prospect to take the
fastest possible action in pursuit of clearly defined
benefits. Merely bringing value to a prospect's attention is not enough;
doing what it takes to let him know that that value is get ting away from
him is very much a part of what makes marketing successful. The sooner
pompous and egotistical business people unders tand this, the better --
for them and their prospects.
#5 The "We Thought You Were Dead" Communication
With the best will in the world, with the best marketing communications
in the world, all prospects, no matter how much they want yo ur source of
value, will not take fast action. There are any number of reasons, many
actually valid. As a marketer you must understa nd this, anticipate this --
and work to overcome this. Hence the "We Thought You Were Dead"
Communication.
The longer you live, the longer you work, the more mundane and entirely
forgettable marketing communications you will receive and, s adly, send. I
am unconcerned about the former and most concerned that you avoid the
latter. For marketing to work it must break thro ugh the prospect's
Boredom Barrier. It must capture his attention... make him smile, laugh
aloud, ponder, even get him angry... anyt hing so that he ACTS. This is why
this particular communication is so useful.
This rather irreverent communication starts something like this: "I've
been notifying you about all the value I have for you... incl uding (again list
benefits you've previously brought to his attention, hammering home just
how beneficial they are)."
"BUT UNBELIEVABLY YOU HAVEN'T RESPONDED. I therefore figure you must
have been
## kidnapped by aliens; ## put into a deep sleep by Morgan la Fay, or ##
died.
IF YOU ARE ABLE TO ANSWER THIS COMMUNICATION, PLEASE DO -- IF ONLY
TO SET MY MIND AT REST. The most astounding rumors are being repo rted
about it.
I know, you see, that if you were with it, you would have responded to my
offer... and that you'd be enjoying today all the benefits
I've been bringing to your attention. After all, you're noted for spotting a
good deal when you see it... and taking prompt action. "
Get the drift of this letter? Its purpose is to break through the barrier
that divides most marketers from most of their prospects. These
benighted folk are merely sending out information on their products or
services. You, on the other hand, are insistent upon bo th making the
immediate sale... and establishing a valuable long-term relationship. To
establish this relationship, you must act lik e a friend... not like a
marketer. You must presume. You must touch the prospect and make him
pay attention to your communication. O nly by doing so will you be able to
break through the many barriers he has erected to protect himself from
most marketers.
Will everybody like this communication. No! Some will find it intrusive,
even in bad taste. But I tell you this: don't let the prosp ect of any such
picayune response deter you from using such a powerful means of bringing
your message to a prospect.. and motivating
his response. Your objective, you see, is not to please all the people all the
time; it's to generate maximum response in the short est period of time.
This communication helps achieve this objective.
Conclusion
Odds are, you're not using any of these marketing formats now. Odds also
are, you complain a lot about the response to your marketin g
communications, wondering why its so low. These two facts are not
unconnected. When you start using these formats, your response w ill rise
-- often dramatically. What's more, when you start using these formats in
tandem, your response will improve still more, fo r you see there is
absolutely no reason why you should one of these formats in isolation
from the rest. Use them together and you'll
get better results. It's as simple as that.
Don't fall into the trap of so many would-be "marketers" simply using
certain marketing communications because everybody else does. This is a
mistake. The job of marketing is not to mimic others. It's to think through
who you're trying to motivate, what you've got
that will motivate them, how to motivate them as quickly as possible...
and to use -- even invent -- the marketing communication th at ensures
fastest possible meaningful action by the prospect.
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Dr. Jeffrey Lant is one of America's best known marketers. Millions of
people all over the world use his products/services to help t hem sell
more faster. You should, too. Use CASH COPY: HOW TO OFFER YOUR
PROSPECTS AND SERVICES SO YOUR PROSPECTS BUY THEM... NOW! (4 80
pages, $38.50 postpaid); MONEY MAKING MARKETING: FINDING THE PEOPLE
WHO NEED WHAT YOU'RE SELLING AND MAKING SURE THEY BUY IT (285
pages, $39.50 postpaid), and his newest book NO MORE COLD CALLS: THE
COMPLETE GUIDE TO GENERATING -- AND CLOSING -- ALL THE PROSPEC TS
YOU NEED TO BECOME A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE BY SELLING YOUR SERVICE (600
pages, $39.50 postpaid). Get all -- and a free year's subscri ption to his
quarterly Sure-Fire Business Success Catalog featuring over 350 ways to
make your business more profitable now -- by co ntacting JLA
Publications, 50 Follen St., suite 507, Cambridge, MA 02138 or calling
(617) 547-6372 with MC/VISA.