If there’s one thing that’s sure about the consumer, it’s that they are selfish—and that’s a good thing because it means that all you have to do is figure out a way to make your marketing campaigns all about them! Here are a few tips to get you started:
Go beyond the features
If it’s not immediately clear to the consumer what your product can do for them, then chances are they’ll move on to something else. So, start with the benefit and focus on it.
It may seem like a good idea to instead put the spotlight on your product’s features because, after all, they’re what make it great. Unfortunately, no one else really cares that much about these things, primarily because very few people would be willing to take the time to make sense of technical specs. This means that to the average consumer, your product’s specs and features appear nothing more than an enumeration of slightly useful but meaningless information.
Remember how Apple marketed the iPod back in the day? Every other music player talked about specs like storage capacity. But just how big is 5 gigabytes, for instance, when it comes to storing music files? Obviously, you can do the math, but who has the time or patience for that? Apple took it upon itself to do the math for the consumer and came out with a marketing message that said something like “5,000 songs in your pocket”—and proceeded to dominate the market.
Speak their language
Of course, the best way to make the benefit clear to the consumer is to use language that they can understand. Are you talking to kids? Use jingles and fun, easy-to-remember words. Are you selling to guitarists? Using terms like boutique, organic and all-analog circuitry will up your chances. Are you marketing to health buffs? Gluten-free, paleo and guilt-free seem to work wonders.
The way you talk will also depend on the kind of image that you want to project. What is the consumer looking for? Credibility? Fun? Helpfulness? You need to figure it out and use language that would allow you to embody it.
Go where they are
Finally, you need to be where your consumer is. Don’t require them to search for you. Instead, put yourself in a position where they’re more likely to stumble upon you.
For instance, you can’t just put out a TV ad and hope to succeed if your target market is gamers. They don’t watch that much TV. You’d have a better chance marketing via gaming websites and forums, gaming competitions and the actual games themselves.
It’s all about the consumer
Again, the consumer is selfish, so the more convenient you make it for them to come across your marketing messages, process them and then proceed to make the purchase, the bigger your chances of making a sale.
Do you have any other techniques to add? Tell us in the comments!
