Getting your message across to your audience, whether it be your friends, family, bosses, colleagues and customers is a vital step in turning them into your advocates.

Often times when we give a fuzzy message, the meaning of the message therein is sometimes lost, and no less its effectiveness. Effective messages are able to spark inspiration, create momentum and spawn movement, whereas fuzzy messages

tend to water down the value of the message leading to communication breakdown.

When you are able to transmit a clear message, you can start making sure steps to make your voice hears, able to unleash your ideaviruses and also able to effectively influence people with what you have to say and contribute.

So in this article, we will be examining a tried and tested ways on how we can work towards delivering a clear message to our audience, and this is by no means exhaustive, but it gives a starting point towards progress in this matter.

What is the Purpose?

Determining a clear purpose is a prerequisite for a clear message.

When you are thinking in terms of purpose, then what you say and what actions you take would be integrated and your message would sense to your audience.

Even if you just have a clear purpose for the message you’re delivering, how you act subconsciously would be more focused and directed towards fulfilling that purpose.

Determine the Context

Imagine that you’re in a meeting. Is it a formal meeting, or is it an informal creative meeting that you can pass ideas freely without fear of being rejected?

The message here is clear (no pun intended) but if you operate in an informal mindset in a formal meeting, you’re not going to be heard. In a situation where everyone is expecting of praise for a job well done, but if that’s when you point of flaws in your team, that’s going to rock the boat. It will make sense to deliver the right message in the right context, to reduce the surprise factor.

Tailor your message

Even in a coherent team, everyone is different. Truth is, everyone has a different set of motivating factors, strengths, skills, interests, visions and passion. This is a fact and we must learn to embrace it. The industrial age where people were treated as a long line of mass production are all gone, and people must be treated as unique individuals.

Personalize, find out what your unique audience expects from you, what are their passion, vision and skills and use them the best way that you can. Get your message clear and succinct and tailored for their circumstances.

Find an anchor point

The paradox of that previous point is this, you need to find a common ground too. The overarching purpose for your message has to be universally the same. The anchor point, as I may call it is the point where everyone meets, and the place where teamwork starts. If you could give encouragement to your audience, and then let them fan the fire, your message can be spread like wildfire.

Simple, clear, succinct language, (No Jargons Please)

Sometimes, I hear speakers but I don’t listen to them.

Why is that? Because messages get cluttered. Cluttered by unnecessary fillings, words and unnecessary stories. Overly expressive languages that could only be understood by you should be left at home, and keep the unnecessary points in your locker for another day.

What we need is a clearly delivered and laser focused message. And no jargons with that please. Simple language will suffice as you are not aiming to awe your audience with your vocabulary but you are aiming to get the message across as clear as it possibly could be.

Listen to others: It’s about Communication!

A large extend of our success in transmitting our message clearly comes from listening. Listening to what your customers want , listen to what your bosses expect of you, listen to what your colleagues need from you. If all we do is speak and not listen, then I’m afraid we would bore the person to death and we may also lose their attention.

Put away the assumption of knowing how others feel. Avoid giving judgements before listening to their explanations. Only then can miscommunication be ironed out, and cooperation be established. It’s always a two way thing. If you didn’t get anything from this article, just take this to heart.

FAQ’s? Deal with them or they won’t rest

Tying in with communications are Frequently Asked Questions, in which you should deal with them ASAP.

Human beings are like that, unless they are given a chance to address their concerns, they will go away feeling negative. They will also not be your advocates, and that makes your role as the message deliverer that much more difficult.

Don’t let this happen to you, instead use the FAQ as a tool to build your credibility and inject more clarity into your message by addressing them immediately, or sometimes even before it is asked.

Package it: Its about the wrap up and a strong ending

Finally, to bring home a clear message you need to have a close. Make it memorable, challenge your audience. Package it in a way that is action inducing. Don’t fizzle out in the ending because what you say then could have the most impact as it has the recency effect. Invite your audience to participate with you, to make the message into a reality. Think about the crux of the message, and remind your audience of it.

Take time to implement the steps one at a time, master them one by one until you become an effective communicator, always able to deliver your message clearly. Use all the key points and bring it into action. Sprinkle some enthusiasm and passion into your message, you’d have a nice cocktail for success.

Have you ever tried to make contact with your customers but failed miserably to conclude a sale, even though you thought you had done all you could? I had.

One of the main reasons why business people or sales people fail to reach their customers successfully is not because for lack of trying but there is a lack of focus, lack of direction and lack of emphasis on the whole sales and marketing strategy. This article will show you how you could reach your customers in a way that you could build your reputation, get sales and then even more sales! On top of that, it keeps you ahead of the game and make your customers your raving fans and you will also know that you really had done the right thing and succeeded.

Having worked as a salesperson and a fundraiser for a period of time, coupled with other extensive readings that I’ve been through over the course of the last few years, these are the 9 Steps To Reach Your Customers Successfully.

1. Decide on Your Ideal Customers and Stick With Them

Selling to everyone effectively means selling to no-one. Take the car manufacturer BMW for example, where would they be if instead of targeting their ideal market which are the ones who yearn to drive the ultimate driving machine and those who have deep pockets, they focused instead on those who just think that cars are a necessity and to those who don’t earn enough to pay for the far more costly BMW cars? Its like selling a $2million dollar mansion to a pensioner who just have enough to survive.

The problem is, when you don’t target your ideal market like a laser focus, then your marketing copy and ads are usually watered down to cater for all segments of your customers, and they wouldn’t be effective enough. Effectively 80 percent of your success comes from only 20 percent of your customers, according to the Pareto Principle.

2. Get Inside The Heads of Your Customers

Now that you have decided on your ideal customer, the next step would be to imagine yourself as them. Get inside their heads. Think Benefits, as this is the best way known to entice customers.

You could start by thinking about the lifestyle of your ideal customer, what are their likings, their hobbies, passion, habits, preferences and also what they dislike and hate.

Better yet, you could create a personality profile of your ideal customer and write down all the likely details about them. Picture them as a whole person that you could be of service to, instead of an object or entity that you could take advantage of. Using this perspective, you would be able to reach your customers from the heart and gain even more backend profits, rather than dissatisfied one-off customers that wouldn’t patronize your company again.

3. Ask ‘What does my ideal customer Value?’

Ask a series of Value questions:

What are the key benefits that I want, now that I am the ideal customer?

What are the most important features that I need from this product?

What level of service do I expect to get if I am the ideal customer?

What kinds of savings do I receive when I purchase this product?

How is this product or service superior to that of other competitors?

What is so remarkable and memorable about the product that sticks in my mind?

That keeps me telling my friends about this product or service?

Once you’ve done the homework and got the answers to these questions, you will have a much clearer picture to where you’re headed. It also gives you something to aim for to incorporate into your products and services for the benefit of your customers and your business.

4. Empathize with their feelings

Now its time to get emotional. Have you ever seen someone shouting for joy over their new Ipod? Or feeling over the top after test driving a Ferrari or after purchasing their new BMW?

Human are and always will be emotional beings. The route to their continued loyalty and repeat customer purchase is through their heart. If you give them what they really want, or what they really needed they will remember you. Added on to that, if you kept all your promises and underpromise but overdeliver and give excellent customer service, they will be your raving fans.

So what drives people emotionally? I can offer you some of the common factors that stimulates customers’ emotions.

• Growth: Does your product or service help others grow? Common example would be that by going to University, students will learn more about their specialty, to grow and become useful to the society.

• Contribution: Does your service or product help them contribute to their family, friends and the society? Like World Vision where you can donate a cow to a starving family in Africa, where they can use the cow as a food source.

• Significance: Does it bring significance? Products such as the Ipod Nano gave some people a measure over their friends, due to its style and sense of coolness…

• Variety: Does it give options and variety? Baskin 31 Robbins became famous due to their variety of 31 flavors of ice-cream, but since has expanded to over 1000 flavors.

• Certainty: Does your product give customers a sense of certainty? By going to McDonald’s you’re nearly certain that you’d get your foods fast. In like 3 minutes.

• Connection and Love: Does it give connection and love? Alright, that’s a hard outcome to produce, so go search for it!

• Freedom: Does it promise you some kind of freedom? The lure of network marketing and their promises of giving you passive income, so that you will eventually gain financial freedom.

5. Research and Determine What the Customers Will Pay For

At some point you would have to do some research on how much your customer will pay you for your product or service. You can do that by employing Research companies such as AC Nielsen, to figure out how much a customer wants to spend, your competitors prices and other key metrics.

This is a vital step because you may have the best product in terms of quality, functionality and all, but if the price is too steep, then they’re not gonna buy it.

Hey, I’m not paying $10 for a packet of world class gums!

6. Build a Service or Product that Ideally Suits your Customers

Now that you’ve done all these prep work, its time to put them all together to come up with the ideal product.

Things to keep in mind when for your ideal customer:

• All of the previously mentioned steps and their results
• Build a World Class product
• Market it relentlessly after designing the ideal product or service
• Marketing from Your Conscience: Would you use the product youself? Would you genuinely, from deep down, recommend this product to your customers as you would your family and friends? This is pivotal to your long term success, get this right and you’re set.

7. Focus on That Purple Cow!

What is a Purple Cow? This is a term used by Seth Godin, and it means to be remarkable.

If you’ve seen a brown cow, and many of them at once, I bet you wouldn’t be able to notice the difference between them.

But if it’s a purple cow, now that would stand out! So what about your product is it that it truly stands out among the other zillions of other similar products?

Try IKEA, they blow out their competition because of how they introduced furnitures at economies of scale but still able to produce fashionable household items, from cups to the whole concept of furniture designs.They stand out because they have a concept, which is to bring their customers on a tour through their whole fashion house, making them think of the possibilities of their home becoming what they had dreamt about. Enticing them to buy their furniture at an affordable price. And also not letting the customers going anywhere until they have finished their tour around IKEA. Best of all, it’s a total customer experience and their customers love it!

Now focus on one thing that you could do about your product or service, make it your purple cow and centre your entire marketing strategy around it!

8. Test and Measure Your Success!

You need to keep tabs with your progress all the time or else you will fall back as the competition grows stronger.

You could start testing your marketing copy effectiveness, test your headlines, advertising campaigns, Conversion rates, Lifetime Value of Customer, Lead generation efficiency, number of repeat customers.

Customer feedback must also be taken seriously. Ask for their feedback on their experience using your product or services. Ask for feedback on their satisfaction, ask them if they would buy from you again, ask them what improvements that can be made on the existing product to make it ideal for their purposes.

Obviously the priority must be on your ideal customers and if you have more resources then you can also focus on your secondary priority customers as well. Keep expanding as you conquer your market segments one by one, but never before that.

9. Revamp and Re-imagine!

The only thing that is constant is change. I’m sure you’ve heard of that phrase used before many times over.

Well I think that is true, and what can we do about it?

Things are always evolving and business landscapes also are moving from one thing to the other.

The surefire way to stay on top of this game is to constantly revamp and re-imagine! This concept was found in Tom Peters’ best selling book, Re-Imagine, and I would recommend it to anyone.

You may have had successes that were unparalleled in this industry 20 years ago, before the advent of the internet. Guess what? Things move a lot faster now, and knowledge is spreading like wildfire. Its time to re-imagine, like starting an internet business instead of a traditional one.

You may have had the world’s best product in your niche for years. Once upon a time, your company may have produced the best quality cars but neglected design and aesthetics as well as features found in the car interior, but now the world is changing where not only the best quality product is needed but also the need for stylish designs, all the perks that accompany the car has become a requirement. That was also the reason why Ford lagged behind other car companies due to their rigidity in accepting change.

Hence the message here is keep looking out for the new trends that are emerging, revamp your product and re-imagine a new product following the preceding steps and start the whole cycle again!

To sum it up, if you follow the 9 Steps To Reach Your Customers Successfully, you will get there. Not only that, you may become remarkable enough for people to notice you, applaud you and become your raving fans, and that really is the best reward for your efforts.

One Very Effective Headline That Matters

In copy marketing, where everyone just tend to skim over or glance through a copy, an ad or an offer, the foremost thing that matters to get a high click through rate is by using targeted headlines that really matter to people.

Among effective headlines that matter is definitely the 7 Reasons Why Headline.

Why is that so?

Here are the 7 Reasons Why the 7 Reasons Why Headlines Matter:

1. It gives a reason to read on: People purchase because they have a reason, and if your reason is compelling enough, they may just take your reason and purchase whatever that you are offering them.

 

2. It gives 7 Reasons: By giving 7 reasons, which is commonly noted as the perfect number, there is a sense of completion. Also, 7 reasons if written well, would be more than enough to convince someone to either purchase or to consider purchasing.

 

3. People tend to think that if you have 7 reasons, it may be something out of the ordinary.

 

4. It arouses reader curiosity. People will be dying to know what those 7 reasons are, so you better be prepared to give them what you’ve got.

 

5. Its been proven to be effective, hence its popularity. Examples such as the article 7 Reasons Why Personal Blogs Rock by Problogger and 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work by CopyBlogger.

 

6. You could make a killer marketing copy or an excellent post if you also came up a “How you can do it” article after giving the reasons why.

 

7. Usable in many different styles and is still captivating, provided that you come up with the goods.

Here are some example of how you could write 7 Reasons Why Headlines:

7 Reasons Why You Should Exercise

7 Reasons Why You Should Read My Blog

7 Reasons Why We are the Best Restaurant

7 Reasons Why You Should Buy From Us

See, this headline really works.

Enticing your readers to read your article or marketing copy is one vital step to your copymarketing success, so with this one very effective headline that matters, you could be well on your way to copymarketing success.

Many people set about writing a marketing copy without any real reason to believe that their product is beneficial for their customers. That is precisely why we often see a lot of products that waffle on about the specifications and advances of their product without tying it in to the actual value or benefits that the product brings.

In fact, many marketing copies go on about how long they have been doing their businesses but does not state clearly the benefits that they can bring to their respective customers, resulting in a loss of interest.

The Best Solution: Sell Your Benefits

The marketing copy should focus on the benefit that your product provides to the reader, and keep showing why the reader has to keep reading on.

Then the next step will come, where you can show how the reader can receive the benefits by taking the appropriate actions, such as subscribing to your newsletter, rss feeds, making contact with your company, buying your products etc.

You can start looking at the most important benefit that you can provide to your target market, the key thing that they are really looking for.

After that, you can proceed with the second most important benefit and keep going down the line until you have exhausted your list of key benefits.

Important to note that the benefits may not seem important to you, but always keep in mind the benefits for your reader. This may seem common sense, but I have seen more copies that have gone against this rule.

Make it Easy For Scanning!

Many marketing copies are really long. This causes the reader to lose interest, even though the benefits may apply to them. This is because of information overload and the mass streams of media that bombards the readers and customers every single day.

By making your marketing copy easy to scan, you may present all your vital benefits and the reader may get it in a lot less time and that may persuade them to read the copy even further. Usually bullet points are good, as well as bold fonts that catches the eye.

What are the Key Benefits That You Can Offer?

Humans are for the most part emotional beings. Emotional beings seek emotional gratification. It can be in the form of key basic desires that drives them such as the need to contribute, to feel secure, the need for variation the longing for significance and acceptance.

You can also explain about how your product or service can make a significant difference into their lives by addressing one or more of these key factors. Explain how it can change their lives for the better, how it can make their lives more convenient and so on.

When you start to remove all the unnecessary words and apply benefits as a key to catching your audiences attention, then you will start to see remarkable changes and improvements in your marketing copy and hence an increase in your bottom line.