Years before I defected from journalism to join the glamorous world of marketing and advertising, I was one of those pain-in-the ass editors who consistently tossed aside press releases that began with “so and so company, the world leader in…” I did so because not everyone can be a leader in their industry; somebody is, for sure, and their revenue will validate that claim if it’s reported with any accuracy. The other bug-a-boo with that statement is it doesn’t give its intended reader any reason to want to agree with the author who wrote it.
So if you market your company by using that particular phrase, I offer this advice: stop saying it. It’s a waste of copy and a sure way to make prospects reluctant about taking whatever medicine you have to offer to help them resolve problems and pain points in their business.
The correct approach is the one that puts your prospects’ viewpoint ahead of all else. One of the best expressions of this came from the mind of Leo Burnett, an American advertising executive who wrote “Don’t tell me how good you make it; tell me how good it makes me feel when I use it.”
Burnett founded Leo Burnett Company, Inc., one of the most influential marketing agencies in the 20th century. He was responsible for creating some of the most well-known characters and campaigns, including Tony the Tiger, the Maytag Repairman, United Airlines’ “Fly the Friendly Skies” and All-State’s “Good Hands.” These are just a few of the many creative products originated by Burnett.
Read that quote again. This is good marketing, ladies and gentlemen. It conveys a key point often missed by people on the marketing lines who fail to learn what prospects need and want before they throw creative chum into the water. Supply-side thinking—the mindset that drives many disappointing campaigns, email blasts and website copy—is a dangerous force in any business. You get a bright idea, one with a great graphic design or concept, then have it produced and launched, anxious to see the response it generates.
In the days, weeks and months afterward, you hear nothing but silence. The phones remain quiet and your website analytics haven’t budged all that much in the wake of the campaign. This scenario plays out all of the time, and it always comes down to two fundamental issues:
- No frequency. Seriously. There are folks who still believe in the “try it once and we’ll see how it goes” method of marketing prevention. Let’s not go there right now.
- Off the mark. In an ideal situation, we survey prospects about what’s important to them before putting time and money into graphic design guessing. It doesn’t have to involve hours of expensive focus groups, beta product testing and research specialists. Those are all legitimate tactics, but for a lean operation that may not have a deep financial bucket to draw from, the case is solid for good old-fashioned interviews and conversations. I’d even suggest an email survey added on, but based on direct experience, don’t expect a great response. The data you gather from that communication will reveal the issues that people tag as problems or opportunities. They’ll even give you key terms or catchwords you may want to use in your campaign to raise your chances of success.
Here’s an example from my past: there was a medical diagnostic equipment supplier that was struggling to gain traction in the hospital marketplace. Its products were fantastic in every way necessary and superior to the competition in certain significant areas. But the customer base didn’t even know this supplier was a player worth considering. And when introduced to the idea, they had no particular reason to switch camps from their incumbent suppliers.
If you do nothing else, take a look at your own material—your website, for example. Is it written with the customer in mind, or does it sound like something your competitors have on their sites?
Time was short, and the new agency hired to fix everything had just a couple weeks before the next big industry event. An intense effort went into speaking with as many decision makers as possible to ascertain what was needed. In short, the question posed to them was along the lines of “What would it take for you to even consider another supplier? We won’t even tell you who it is. Just tell us what’s the biggest issue you’re having trouble with today.”
In baseball, when a pitcher lobs a ball toward home plate with a slow, graceful arch, it’s called a meatball. The survey responses felt just like that, and it became an easy one to hit out of the park. The customers responded that it was about time, or more specifically the scarcity of it. If someone could present a story about a product line that could save them time, they’d put a fresh pot of coffee on and give that firm’s reps a VIP pass directly to their conference room for a meet and greet.
So, do you think the marketing campaign’s theme mentioned time? Indeed it did, and off the reps went to the races with an easy-to-digest promotional program giving them proper air cover.
The ads didn’t go into details about boxes, bells and whistles. They spoke about time and how scarce it is with so many hospitals merging into delivery networks. They also focused on the impossible demands being placed on clinical services departments to get more done with fewer staff members in less time and at lower costs. Sounds familiar.
Reps were trained to ask questions about workflow, which many prospects hadn’t even been asked about before (always a good thing when you may be dealing with a prospect who needed just one reason to look for another resource).
So why were we successful? We related. We understood. We had a good reason to continue the conversations and elaborate on the campaign theme and the wonderful creativity (and frequency) behind it. With that, prospects began to see how life could be better with what we had to offer. Heck, they didn’t even ask many questions about the equipment’s capabilities, software and reliability—all of that was assumed to be genuine. They were presented with a chance to look good by using the systems under this other supplier.
Leo Burnett would have approved. He would have charged a whole lot more, but he would have approved.
If you do nothing else, take a look at your own material—your website, for example. Is it written with the customer in mind, or does it sound like something your competitors have on their sites? Have words such as “leader” or “for over 30 years…” crept into the top of your landing pages? If you read them out loud to yourself or to your neighbor, would a dullness creep over you the way it does when you doze off during the evening news?
If these symptoms are present, you need to consult with a marketing physician before operating any heavy machinery or lose another opportunity to grab visibility among potential customers. Think of it this way: normal or not, pandemic or no pandemic, visibility isn’t as easy to maintain as it used to be when reps could wander freely from door to door, lunch to lunch. Prospects are difficult to reach and even more difficult to influence across barriers that don’t allow you to explain yourself and how you can make their business better.
That’s why you need marketing now more than ever. Don’t underestimate that or let comfortable habits and time-sensitive tasks of the morning keep it from getting done. Burnett’s clients didn’t let any of that stop them and that’s a good thing, because what would the world be like without the Keebler Elves and their great cookies that make us feel so good?
