Are Your Marketing Materials Selling the Wrong Things?

A while back I was working with one of my consulting clients, and realized I was once again staring at what I’ve found to be an all too common marketing problem.

Written Jul 02, 2008, read 327 times since then.

A while back I was working with one of my consulting clients, and realized I was once again staring at what I’ve found to be an all too common marketing problem.

This problem is especially rampant in service industries. But I’ve seen it with products too.

What’s so interesting is that this one, innocent mistake causes you to immediately be guilty of multiple marketing sins (If you haven’t read my f*r*e*e report on the 7 Deadliest Small Business Marketing Sins, grab it here: http://www.success-stream.com/7sins.htm ).

Once I explain it, if you’ve been making this mistake you’re going to hit yourself on the head while howling out a big, fat “DUH!” But before I do, let me ask you a question…

What do prospects really need to know to hire you?

Well, let’s start by thinking about what you would want to know…

“If you were looking for a chiropractor, bookkeeper, massage therapist, or other service provider, what would you need to know in order to choose them over anyone else?”

Chances are it would be things like:

A bit about the types of services they offer
If there is anything unique or different about what they do
Whether or not the specialize in, or have experience with, your particular issue
Who else uses them and have they been satisfied
What you can expect and how long it will take
How they are better or different than the competition
Where they are located, their hours and how soon you can get in
If they accept credit cards or your insurance
What to do to make an appointment

What you probably don’t want—or need—to know are the basics like:

What is massage or chiropractic or bookkeeping
The history of massage (or chiropractic, or bookkeeping)
Why you need a massage therapist, chiropractor or bookkeeper

Yet time and again this is exactly the type of info service providers focus on in their marketing.

The result is that they end up spending all their time and money trying to convince people they need a particular service. What they should be doing is trying to convince prospects them to hire them in particular.

Let’s go back to the client I mentioned earlier…The one that got me started on this train of thought.

When I first started working with her many months ago, she sent me her brochure to critique. As part of that process, I asked her to describe her ideal client.

She’s a massage therapist, and her answer was “Active people who enjoy regular massages and understand that massage is a preventative measure. So they come in regularly for maintenance instead of just showing up when they are injured and in pain, then stopping when they feel better.”

This is smart. Because it’s going to be much easier to convince someone who already believes in massage to come to her. As opposed to having to convince someone who has never had a massage to try it for the first time.

Yet, except for a few testimonials, her entire brochure was devoted to explaining the basics of massage and why it is good for you.

Of course this makes no sense. If the people she wants to attract already understand the benefits of getting regular massages, and are just looking for the best provider, she’s wasting space (and money) with this brochure.

Because here’s the thing…

If someone is looking for a massage therapist, chances are good they’ve already decided massage is for them. Maybe they’ve had massage before. Or their doctor or someone else in their sphere of influence recommended it.

When they pick up her brochure, or go to her Website, they don’t want to learn more about the wonders of massage. They’re already sold on it. Instead they want to know why they should choose her as their new massage therapist.

In other words, they want to understand the benefits of getting massages from her, not the benefits of getting massage.

Unfortunately, far too many entrepreneurs are guilty of the same thing with their marketing. They just explain why you need their type of service, but they never explain why you should choose them instead of the guy down the street.

Are you selling the right thing?

You need to decide whether to spend time and money convincing people they need the type of services you offer…Or convincing them to hire you in particular to provide that service.

I highly recommend focusing on the latter. It’s cheaper and easier, and you are far more likely to get the kind of clients you want.

So worry less about explaining the basics of what you do, and focus more on the unique benefits of choosing you.

Learn more about the author, Stacy Karacostas.

Comment on this article

Posted by Kevin Henry, Bellevue, Washington | Jul 08, 2008

Good, sound advice. Making the most of our money and time is so important.
Posted by Tammy Redmon, Olympia, Washington | Jul 08, 2008

Great piece Stacy! I absolutely love the easy way you broke it all down for putting together a piece of collateral that sells what you want people to buy!

The questions you ask are excellent and I will make note of them. The same outline can be used for our website pages in a lot of ways, they are the electronic brochure.

Essentially, we solve their problems with what we put on paper vs. educate them on the format. And, we have to remember we are selling *US* not a school, training program, etc.

Great reminder! Excellent and easy strategy.

Deepen Your Learning...Forward Your Action
Posted by Guy Kurtz, Leesburs, Virginia | Jul 08, 2008

People know when they need to paint! So what I get from this essay is , I should market our Paint company as an experiance that shall be pleasant,dispite the disruption & intrusion that the prosses has ben at other times before. I'll tell them we work around their scheduals, respect their property & keep in communication. Service,is not just an end result. But a relationship established with with an understanding of both, proceedure & outcome. G.A. Kurtz CertaPro (Painters of Loudoun,VA)
Posted by Dani Nordin, Watertown, Massachusetts | Jul 08, 2008

This is a great article, Stacy. I see this type of thing all the time with designers (and the green businesses I work with, come to think about it); so much time is spent trying to convince people why they're worthwhile that you have to wonder: do they even believe they're worthwhile?
Posted by Lynn Espinoza, Bellevue, Washington | Jul 08, 2008

I enjoyed your article, Stacy, and have been taking a closer look at my materials to see if the right stuff is up-front. I think I'll spend this sunny day doing some editing. Thank you!
Posted by Stacy Karacostas, Seattle, Washington | Jul 08, 2008

Thanks for all the positive comments everyone...Seems I must have a hit a bit of a hot button with this one (Love that!).

Absolutely this same advice works equally well for all your marketing materials.

And yes Guy, you've hit the nail on the head. Your next task is likely to do a quick competitive analysis starting with a Web search to make sure that the main benefits you're going to promote are unique to your company (or at least that the competition isn't saying the exact same thing).
Posted by Kimberly LeRiche, Cornelius, Oregon | Jul 08, 2008

This is great advice! I find in my industry, a vast majority spend a fair amount of time explaining who they are and what they do rather than focusing more on why they should be the one to get hired in the first place. So many times I've seen it said that you need to show the value in what you are selling/offering. You have reinforced that once again along with some great thought provoking questions.

I'm going to check our free report right now!
Posted by Stacy Karacostas, Seattle, Washington | Jul 08, 2008

Glad I could help Kimberley! It's all too easy for folks to end up focused on what they do instead of why the way they do it is different, better or more valuable than what you'll get anywhere else.

I often say "If you don't give people a good reason to do business with you instead of your competition, they probably won't!" :-)

Hope you enjoy my free report! Stacy
Posted by Sue Holm, JD, CFRC, Kenmore, Washington | Jul 12, 2008

Thanks for the great advice. One free report, coming my way.
Posted by Stacy Karacostas, Seattle, Washington | Jul 15, 2008

My pleasure Sue. Enjoy the free report! Stacy
Posted by Kristi Smith, Seattle, Washington | Aug 14, 2008

I love everything that you write! Every article has been incredibly spot on and helpful. Perhaps it's because I'm in a service industry and I'm guilty of what you talk about! Thanks for the advice!
Posted by Stacy Karacostas, Seattle, Washington | Aug 14, 2008

Thanks for the kudos Kristi! I'm happy that my articles are really helpful to you. I hope lots of others feel the same way... :-)

Best, Stacy