The Secret To Marketing That Gets Results
Author: Colleen Kilpatrick

Few business owners understand this simple marketing truth: your marketing and advertising is supposed to build a case for your business, supported by evidence, that leads your prospects to this conclusion:

“I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anybody else but you…regardless of price.

If your advertising and marketing doesn’t do that, it’s not working right. It’s time to fix it.

Consider this: Your product or service is on trial. Your customer is the jury. YOU are the attorney and you must PROVE that they should buy YOUR product or service. Now remember—this is a life or death sentence. Your job is to clearly demonstrate to the jury that your product or service is the best alternative out there.

Most businesses fail to do this. They neglect to build a case for their product or service and, thus, fail to give their prospects any justifiable reason to choose them. Their ads, marketing pieces and websites are filled with the same old platitudes and generalities that all their competitors use.

Here’s an ad for a residential painter:
Licensed and Insured
Interiors and Exteriors
Free Estimates
All Work Guaranteed
12 Years Experience
References

If you were in the market for a painter and read this ad, would you be convinced that "you'd be an absolute fool to have your house painted by anyone else?" I doubt it. There is nothing of substance in that ad - no claim, no proof, no argument, no evidence - nothing that effectively demonstrates how this painting company is any different or any better than any other.

If You Want To Be The Obvious Choice In The Minds Of Your Prospects You Must Build A Case For Your Product Just Like An Attorney Would Build A Case For His Client

You see, without a case, your business appears to be just like every one of your competitors. It doesn’t stand out from the pack. Your prospects, unable to tell which business is any better or different than any other, avoid making a purchase while attempting to gather more information that will help them make a buying decision. Worse yet, they may simply go with the cheapest vendor because no company has given them any justifiable reason to pay more. Without a case, price becomes the deciding factor.

Let me give you an example: My first sales job was in a commercial photography studio. Both our photography and our customer service were top-notch, yet our advertisements read just like all our competitors. Since our ads failed to build a case for our business, people in the market for a photographer would call and ask all sorts of questions in an effort to gather the information they needed to make a buying decision.

I would share with prospects everything they needed to know about hiring a photographer and what made our company different. I educated them about the equipment and the film our photographers used, the innovative steps we took to ensure flawless shoots, the type and amount of ongoing training our staff received, and so on. In other words, I built a case for our business, supported by evidence, that caused my prospects to say, “I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with any another photographer but you, regardless of price.”

What’s more, we were just about the most expensive photography studio in town, but as soon as prospects understood the advantages of doing business with us, price was no longer the deciding factor. Looking back, I can only imagine how much more successful our business would have been if all the educational information I shared with prospects on the phone was clearly stated in our printed pieces.

Building a Powerful and Compelling Case Begins With These 4 Questions

If you want to create marketing that gets results, you’ve must distinguish your business from your competition. The way to accomplish this is by building a case for your business. These 4 questions will get you started.

1.If a close friend of yours needed to buy from or hire a company such as yours and needed your advice, what would you teach them to help them make the best decision?
What would you tell them to look for and look out for? The answer to this question will form the structure of your case.

The following three questions will determine the important details of your case. I recommend posing these questions to owners, management and employees first. Then, rework the questions into a customer survey. Compare the results. No doubt, you will be surprised.

2 What’s most important to your prospects when purchasing your product or service?

3.What are the biggest frustrations your prospects have when doing business with your type of company?

4.Why would a prospect choose your company over your competitors?

If you want to win the lion’s share of the business in your market, build a case for your business. By doing so, you will become the obvious choice in the minds of your prospects.







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Colleen is a Senior Marketing Consultant and Seminar Leader with Y2Marketing, a marketing consulting firm recently ranked #28 on Inc Magazine’s annual list of the top 500 fastest-growing companies in America.

Colleen is committed to helping business owners reach their goals and achieve bigger, bottom-line results from their marketing dollars. More cutting-edge sales, advertising and marketing strategies can be found in the FREE “Monopolize Your Marketplace” email newsletter. To subscribe, send an email to ckilpatrick@y2marketing.com with the words “Subscribe MYM” in the subject line.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------