Smart Start-Up Tips: Too Buzzy Equals Bland – Why Buzzwords Should be Banned from Marketing
What’s the buzz on buzzwords?
Too many trendy words and over-hyped catch phrases makes for meaningless ‘me too’ marketing. Words like “innovative”, “authentic” and “out-of-the-box” at one time or another became so overused that their meaning got lost.
There is nothing innovative about using ‘innovative’ to describe your business. Chances are if you need to reassure your audience of your ‘authenticity’ then you need to do a morality check. And if the most ‘out-of-the-box’ thing you can say about your company is to use that catch phrase of days gone by, best to stay in the box.
The best-case scenario you come across at as corporate copycats who are unable to come up with their own creative marketing. The worst is that your buzzy buzzwords make for bland and boring marketing that confuses rather than inspires your target audience.
Does Your Marketing Pass the Buzzword Test?
#1: Does It Say Something? A sure sign of buzzwords is marketing that says nothing or what it says can be said about almost any business. Take this gem: “Innovative Solutions for Business”. It could apply to printers or consulting or almost anything that solves any of the zillions of problems, big or small, that businesses encounter.
#2: Does It Sound Like Everyone Else? The reason “Out of the Box” anything became meaningless is everyone was using it. Literally no one was spending any time in the box, according to the marketing. Everyone was running around outside the dang box doing everything BUT being original.
#3: Is It Easily Understandable? The trouble with buzzwords is they tend to rely on the meaning behind the buzzword, making it complete gibberish those not-in-the-know (which tends to be the majority of people as buzzwords tend to be industry-specific or insular).
A Final Word on Buzzwords…
The best approach to creating compelling marketing is to start by simply explaining what you do, how you do it and why it matters to your target audience in plain old boring English. No fuss. No frills. And definitely no buzzwords. From there, add a bit of flourish and flare, but never sacrifice the core message.
Think of your core message as what you would share with your target audience if they were sitting across the table from you at a local coffee shop because chances are you would never say something as vague and meaningless as “We offer innovative solutions for business”.
Business 101: The Elevator Speech – How to Tell a Compelling Business Story in 30 Seconds
Can you sum up what you do in a clever and compelling manner that creates curiosity and makes people want to learn more? No? Perfecting your 30-second Elevator Speech is an extraordinarily useful skill because that’s realistically how much time you have to get them interested in hearing more.
When people ask in polite conversation, “What do you do?”, they don’t want to hear your 25 minute sales presentation on the minutia of how your leading edge technology is revolutionizing the industry. They are simply testing the waters with a neutral icebreaker.
Plus, it’s a common practice for traditional networking groups to go around the room and ask everyone to stand and give a 30-second introduction to their company. Your goal in that situation should be to entice listeners enough to seek you out for a more in-depth discussion afterward.
Whatever the situation, you need to distill your message down to the bare essentials, only giving enough information to peak their interest.
The Anatomy of a Compelling Elevator Speech
#1: Make it Memorable – Whatever you do, don’t be dull and boring. Everyone has heard a thousand mundane, droning answers to the question “What do you do?” Make your answer stand out by putting a little showmanship into it. Make it exciting by sharing your enthusiasm.
#2: Share One Single Message – Focus on getting across one core message. Chances are your company or product does many interesting and wonderful things. Sharing every detail is not the purpose of the Elevator Speech. Too much information overloads the audience and creates confusion.
#3: Connect it to a Story – Use current news stories to anchor key concepts and make your Elevator Speech relevant. Share how your product or service would solve a current hot topic around the water cooler (even if that problem is the break-up of a yet another celebrity marriage).
#4: Use Visual Props – Add a visual element by using a prop. How you approach this depends entirely on the situation. Bring a visual prop to your networking event. If it’s at a dinner party, improvise and use whatever is around you to engage your listeners on a visual level.
#5: Keep It Simple – Don’t get highly technical or use a bunch of industry jargon. Keep it simple, keep it plain and keep it understandable by a third grader or your 84-year-old grandmother who has never used the Internet.
#6: Make It about Them – Engage your audience by talking about your company or product in terms of how it benefits them. Answer the question, “Why is this interesting to me (the listener)?”
Remember, you only get 30-seconds to make an impression. Leave out the extra details and background information and focus on your core message. Think of it as an advertisement that you are acting out live and in-person. The main purpose is to get your listeners to take the next step and ask questions.
Smart Start-Up Tips: Addressing Objections – Successful Marketing Speaks to the Elephant in the Room
Is there an elephant in the sales room with you? A big hairy one that your customers cannot resist looking at? A gigantic elephant of an objection that you are failing to address in your marketing?
That elephant is the reason your potential customers are not buying your product or service. It’s the sum of all their worries and concerns about buying from your company. It’s the reason they hum and haw instead of making a firm decision.
Every sales process reaches that dreaded point where you need to address all the objections your potential customers have to buying your product or service. It’s where sales are won or lost depending on the skill of the sales professional.
What if your marketing did all that heavy lifting for you? What if it answered those looming questions before they were even asked? What if your customers came into the sales process feeling confident about buying?
That’s what your marketing should do.
How Successful Marketing Speaks to the Elephant in the Room
I love how the Ancestry.com commercials handle potential objections: upfront. It speaks directly to all the people who may be curious about their ancestral heritage, but find the idea of starting the research process intimidating.
The ad says, “You don’t have to know what you are looking for. You just have to start looking” and then goes on to explain how EASY it is to use and how you don’t have to know exactly what you are looking for to find it because the site makes suggestions on where to look next.
Smart site. And smart marketing because it leaves the viewer with no questions about their ability to make the product work for them because the product literally does all the work!
How to Address Your Elephant Objections Upfront
#1: Get Inside their Heads – Understanding buying and objections means you need to play psychologist and get inside your potential customers’ heads. What worries them about buying? Why do they think it won’t work for them?
#2: Don’t Assume It’s about Money – Don’t always assume your potential customers are too cheap to buy your product at full price. Rarely is price the main buying objection. Dig deeper and uncover the REAL reasons they are hesitating.
#3: Mirror Your Sales Process – Design your marketing materials to mirror your sales process. Sit in on a few customer calls or pitch it to a room of prospects and ask them to share their actual concerns. Your marketing should step them through that entire process in the same logical manner.
#4: Focus on the Positive – Don’t raise new concerns by focusing on the negative. Instead bring up the objection in a positive light by pairing it with the solution. Talk about worries that it’s going to be hard by emphasizing how easy it is for anyone to use.
#5: Use Customer Testimonials – Ask your best customers to do the talking for you. The reason testimonials are so effective is because they speak to your potential customers in the same language. Use case studies to show how easy it was for an ordinary customer to use.
Momentum Monday: Want Better Results? Turn Down the Suck – Zen and the Art of Amazing
Not getting enough referrals? Repeat business? Happy customers singing your praises from the rooftops? Sharing about your business everywhere in social media? Allow me to be perfectly honest: it’s time to turn down the suck.
You know how they say, “Bad news travels fast”? With social media, ALL news travels fast – bad AND good. Anything and everything is open to sharing so if your business is not being raved about online, it’s time to step up your game and deliver something worth sharing.
How about something awesome?
Turning Down the Suck (aka Zen and the Art of Amazing)
Awesome is the universal marketing tool. It applies to your products, service and even the content you deliver via social media and your blog. The reason: awesome gets shared! If you want better results, it’s time to turn down the suck and turn up the awesome!
#1: Pay Attention to Feedback – Check the local review sites, visit your Facebook fan page, tune into Twitter. What are your customers saying about your business? Consider non-existent to be the same as negative because both mean you aren’t doing enough to impress your customers.
#2: Extraordinary is the NEW Ordinary – Whatever you do, don’t settle for ordinary! Ordinary is acceptable, but forgettable (and definitely not sharable)! Aim for extraordinary and unexpected.
#3: Hire People with Personality – Perhaps that ultra efficient, but somewhat terse woman from accounting isn’t the best choice for frontline customer service. That goes double for the teenager with attitude that you hired for cheap during the summer. If you want amazing results, hire amazing people (and get out of their way and let them amaze your customers).
#4: Deliver What People Want – Sometimes it’s just one tiny missing extra that changes your business from mediocre to exceptional. Extended business hours? Free shipping? 24/7 technical support? Special discounts for loyal customers? Whatever IT is, find out and deliver it.
#5: Change It Up – Just as ordinary won’t get you results, sticking with the same old thing won’t either. Change it up and offer something new, even if it’s only for a limited time! Surprises, unless it’s something fuzzy from the back of the refrigerator, rarely suck.
How are you going to turn down the suck and turn up the amazing in your business? Share your how-to’s in the comments below!
Smart Start-up Tips: The Headline Formula – How to Write Headlines that Create Curiosity and Get Clicks
Not everything in life is simple enough that it can be summarized in a formula. If only there was a secret formula for happiness or success in life.
Thankfully there is a simple formula for writing headlines that create curiosity and get clicks. It is simply this: Relevance + Interesting = Clicks!
The headline formula takes the two key elements needed to entice a reader to click: relevance (Does it apply to me?) and curiosity (Tell me more!). Assuming that trust and authority are already established, all you need to do is fill in the blanks.
How to Write Headlines that Create Curiosity and Get Clicks
#1: Include Keywords – Well-chosen keywords are important because they help your audience determine relevance. If they are interested in chocolate, for example, using the keyword chocolate in your headline is important.
Keywords also play an important role in your searchability. For example, using SEO keywords in your headline helps boost your search engine optimization while including common hashtag words allows for social media searches.
#2: Promise Something Deliciously Desirable – What does the reader gain by clicking? It could be a winning formula to writing headlines. It could be the latest celebrity gossip.
The important part is that whatever the reader gains is deliciously desirable. Examples of common deliciously desirable promises include how to’s, top 10 lists, solutions to common problems, and mistakes to be avoided.
#3: Create Curiosity – Imagine you are whispering your headline to a co-conspirator. What would you say to perk their interest? “Psst…you will never guess what I just found out!”
Write a headline that tells your target audience how you are giving them the keys to the kingdom or letting them in on a must-know secret or behind the scenes strategy. People love to know what they don’t know or don’t normally have access to.
#4: Confirm Clarity – The headline must let your audience know the general subject, an important detail that many headline writers miss when trying to be too artful. Read it (and re-read it) to confirm clarity.
The rule of thumb when writing copy is not only to be clear so as to be understood, but to be so crystal clear that it’s impossible to be misunderstood. If you need to, enlist someone else to review your headlines.
#5: Show Relevance – Reference any relevant current events. Connecting your headline to current events is a simple, but effective strategy to tap into topics that are already creating a buzz.
That’s why when the Amazon e-Book controversy was the most talked (and tweeted) about subject, we wrote a post entitled “What Matters, Dear Amazon, is Protecting Our Kids – Let’s Turn Controversy into Public Awareness”.
Writing headlines is definitely an art that takes a little bit of practice. Follow the basic formula, and test and measure what your target audience responds to for topics and keywords. Use their response to create your own surefire headline formula!
The BIG Idea File: The Simplicity Principle – Why We Love the I Wear Your Shirt Business Model
The most dreaded words in marketing are “I don’t get it.” It means that despite all your creative efforts, your target audience can’t even understand WHAT you are selling much less WHY they would want to buy it.
That’s what we love about I Wear Your Shirt – it’s just so simple to understand! But don’t be fooled by the apparent simplicity of their business model. There is a lot behind 365 days of wearing shirts.
The I Wear Your Shirt.com Business Model
The premise of I Wear Your Shirt is built right into the name – they wear YOUR shirt for one day. Sort of a human torso for hire business that offers brands the opportunity to fill one of the 365 ad spots available over the course of an entire year.
Intrigued? We were too!
What we love about the I Wear Your Shirt business model:
#1: Simplicity – It’s dead easy to understand. They wear your shirt for one whole day, promoting their daily shirt via Twitter, Facebook, Ustream, YouTube and the I Wear Your Shirt web site.
#2: Reward Early Commitment – How’s this for an incentive to commit early? Their pricing model is $5 for January 1st plus $5 for each day after. So August 31st is $1215 because it’s 242 days after January 1st.
#3: Self-Serve Web Site – Want to buy a day? That’s easy too! All the available dates and the pricing for that day are available on their calendar. One click adds that day to your shopping cart and you’re done! No sales team needed to book your date.
#4: Visibility Built into Model – The purpose of the business model is to increase the visibility of the shirt of the day. That means they are actively promoting what they do too!
#5: Fun Factor – What sets them apart is the fun factor. These shirt-wearing guys (and now two gals) are having fun with it. They are out there talking to people, promoting via social and just plain having fun – a fantastic strategy for attracting both clients and employees.
#6: Authenticity – I Wear Your Shirt brings back the authenticity of people connecting with people. They aren’t a bunch of corporate hacks who are expected to tow the company line. They are a group of individuals sharing their take on your brand.
Now the I Wear Your Shirt model isn’t for everyone, but there are a lot of little gems you can take and apply to your business. How can you simplify your messaging so it’s dead easy to understand? What about holding a sliding scale sale that rewards customers for buying early? How can you add a little more self-service onto your web site?
Smart Start-up Tips: Market Research – 7 Essential Things You Should Know About Your Potential Customers
The biggest mistake start-ups make is assuming that “everyone” is their target audience. Yes, it may be true for your business that practically everyone could buy your product or service and that everyone would maybe even enjoy it, but within that universal category of every single being on the planet, there is a subset of potential customers who really match what you have to offer.
Think of the subset as your sweet spot – the customers who absolutely adore you, who do repeat business with you and refer other customers just like them. What start-up wouldn’t want more of those types of customers right from the get-go? The key to achieving that is knowing a few key things about them!
7 Essential Things You Should Know About Your Potential Customers
#1: Who BEST Fits Your Business? – Sketch your ideal customer: who are they? What key attributes separate them from the broad category of “everyone”? If you are just getting started and haven’t figured out who your best customers are from historical data, decide who you would most like to work with.
#2: What Motivates Them? – Now that you know who you are targeting, you need to understand what gets them to take action and buy! What causes them the most pain on a day-to-day basis? That’s going to be their biggest motivator: escaping that pain point!
#3: Where They Hang Out? – Think about how you are going to find them. Where to they spend the most time? Where do they gather in groups? Is it online? Is it offline? What media do they consume? Television? Radio? Print? Digital applications? Social media platforms? Knowing how to find them tells you where to focus your time and your marketing.
#4: What Do They Think About Your Brand? – Do your potential customers think highly of your brand or do they even know of it? It’s important to understand their overall brand perception so you can address any misconceptions or provide essential background information.
#5: What Language They Use? – What key words and hot buttons does your target audience use to describe what they are looking for? For example, do they describe toilet training as “potty training” or “toilet training”? Knowing what key words and hot buttons will help you both speak their language and focus your search engine optimization efforts.
#6: Who They Are Influenced By? – Do your potential customers follow what celebrities endorse or are they more influenced by their peers? Meaning do they purchase because of the celebrity Wow factor or the trusted advice of a friend? Knowing who to influence to get to your potential customers gives you more clues as to where to focus your marketing efforts.
#7: What Other Businesses They Work With? – Look around the industry or related industries to see if there is a business or businesses that already have the attention of your target audience. That tells you who to approach as a potential joint venture partner.
Business 101: Newsworthy News Releases – How to Stay Out of the Infamous Circular File
An engaging press release can cause a stir and gain your company invaluable marketplace acknowledgement as well as immeasurable traction and momentum to help propel you forward. That is if your story gets the attention of the right people.
It’s challenging to find news worthy topics to release. Often companies feel that they have nothing of note to discuss, while others publicize ho-hum, generic internal tidbits that journalists and readers quickly dismiss.
So how do you find the right balance between nothing of note and overpublicizing ho-hum facts? How do you create compelling press releases guaranteed to keep your business news out of the dreaded ‘circular file’?
News Release Topics Guaranteed To Avoid The Big “So What?”
When brainstorming topics for press releases, remember this: The best way to maximize a release’s impact isn’t to say something, it’s to announce something. In short, a news release requires, well…news. Topics like landing a new client, quarterly sales numbers, new product lines and services as well as a current sales promotion all top the intuitive list of things we know and want to announce to our public immediately.
However, there are a wide range of slightly more subtle, yet still noteworthy, events that definitely constitute business news and should also be heralded out to the masses promptly. If you feel like you don’t have anything relevant to reveal, think again. The following topics can help your business quickly change a potential client’s response from, “So what?!” to, “Tell me more.”
New Hires: Bringing on new internal talent always makes for a powerful press release. What better way to let your customers know that your business has recently added a new member to your already stellar team of industry rock stars?
Website: Have you unveiled a new website? Given the old one a virtual makeover? Added features or enhancements? Announcing new site changes will encourage clients to come and check out your new look.
Partnerships: A new strategic alliance both broadens your offered services as well as increases your potential client pool. Plan on getting the word out, stat!
Awards: Has your company recently received an award, recognition or accolades? A press release offers an ideal platform for you to toot your business horn and broadcast what you already know; how great your company is!
Timely or Seasonal Products: Does your company offer products with a holiday or seasonal theme? Even if the items themselves aren’t new, timing a release to coincide with the appropriate time of year can make your wares seem even more relevant, exciting and newsworthy.
Subject Matter Expert: Have you recently published an e-book, news article, or case study? Or, perhaps you’ve been quoted or featured, either in print or online? Drawing attention to any recent press you’ve received will both build your credibility as well as help establish you as a subject matter expert in your industry.
Personal Appearances: A press release hyping your next personal appearance, speaking engagement, etc. reaps a two-fold benefit. First, you’ll entice readers to check out your website to learn more about your business. Secondly, you will also simultaneously solicit interested parties to attend your event. Win, win!
Still struggling to come up with innovative facts or events to tout? Get imaginative and create a customer contest. Publicize all the rousing details via news release. Announcing a fun contest with cool prizes is a guaranteed way to keep your business on your clients’ radar and out of the infamous circular file!
Need help getting your news out? Try Online PR News online press release distribution. Use the promo code GNTKNEZL and get 20% off your next press release!
The BIG Idea File: How to Get People to Say “I Fricking LOVE This! You HAVE to Try It” About Your Product!
Did you know that word-of-mouth recommendations hold more sway over your potential customers than any other form of advertising?
It makes sense if you think about it. Who are you going to trust when making a buying decision? A nameless, faceless advertiser or your best friend, your trustworthy neighbor or even the blogger who you read each and every week and feel a kinship with her words and her style?
The good news is as customers we love to talk about the brands that we LOVE.
We love to tell our girlfriends about where we got that “Oh-so-fabulous” pair of shoes ON SALE. We love to offer up product recommendations and detailed testimonials about how they helped us. We love letting people in on our best, most savvy shopping secrets.
If you get it right, we will talk and talk and talk and send more customers your way!
So how do you get that power of the personal recommendation working for YOU?
#1: Get the Basics Right – Deliver a quality product, and hire competent, friendly customer service staff. So often you see an amazing product marred by snippy frontline staff or a product that fails to live up to its marketing. If you don’t get this part right, don’t bother with the rest.
#2: Include a Surprise! – Maybe it’s an owner’s manual that includes a bit of humor or a free bonus that isn’t advertised, but arrives unexpectedly. The WHAT doesn’t really matter, but it has to be surprising, worthwhile and something your customers will talk about.
#3: Above and Beyond – Go above and beyond (or rather train and empower your frontline staff to get creative with how they deliver their service). Competent and friendly is the minimum standard. If you want your customers to talk, you need to do something special.
#4: Consistently Perform – Whatever you do to surprise and delight your customers, do it consistently. Don’t offer free cookies to customers on their birthday one year, and forget the next because they won’t (customers are good like that).
#5: No Strings Follow-up – Don’t you just hate it when every time a brand contacts you, it’s because they want something (that something being for you to buy more stuff)? Practice no-strings attached follow-up long after the sale – just cause.
If you aren’t sure what impresses your customers most about your brand or product, just ask. The answer will likely surprise you. Chances are good it’s something small you never considered to be all that important. Trust me, it is.
The BIG Idea File: Shoe Shopping, In-Store Demos and Sample Packs – Try-Before-You-Buy Marketing Tactics
Every girl knows that you can’t fall in love with that posh pair until you step your foot inside and give them a whirl around the store. It’s the same reason that in-store demos and sample packs are such effective marketing tools: people love to try before they buy!
How many times have you come home with a jar of what looks like a rudimentary paste that you sampled in the store and absolutely had to have on-hand for your next party? Or when you get a sample in the mail and try it only to discover your new favorite snack has been under your nose all this time.
So what do shoe shopping, in-store demos and sample packs all have in common? All three allow customers to try before they commit to buying. The reason is it such an effective marketing tactic is trying it gives prospects the confidence to buy – something the label alone could never do.
Would you really look at a jar of miscellaneous goo and think, “Yum – let’s plan on having that for dinner!”? Perhaps curious gourmets will stick it in the shopping cart for fun, but chances are you will stick with what you know. The key is removing the risk of a bad buying decision because no one wants to waste money on a dud.
5 Ways to Integrate Try-Before-You-Buy into your Marketing
#1: Samples and Giveaways – Ask your customers to ‘nominate’ new customers to receive free product, give bonus samples away with related products, or offer samples on your web site or giveaway sites. Offer potential clients a sample coaching session or a free 20-minute consultation.
#2: Trial Size – Take a cue from the beauty industry and allow your potential customers to buy a small, low cost version of your product or service. Think mini sizes, single serving portions, e-books or prerecorded webinars.
#3: Interactive Demos – Show your product or service in action via an interactive demo. Show how it would work for their situation or allow them to customize or manipulate the demo.
#4: Test Drive – If your business lends itself to making demo models or trial versions available to potential customers, get them take it for a ride, try it out and bring it back when they are done.
#5: Virtual Tours – Let your potential customers walk through your virtual door and get a guided tour. The perfect try-before-you-buy strategy for the hospitality and real estate industry!
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