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A customer focused way to improve your marketing results

by Jim Connolly

In my previous article, I shared some ideas on how to boost your sales, by making things easier for potential customers. In today’s article, I have some tips to help improve your marketing results, using a similar-themed approach.

It’s all about making your marketing clearer and easier for potential customers to understand and act on!

The marketing power of clarity

One of the oldest saying’s in marketing is this: “A confused mind always says NO!”

If you want people to see your marketing and then make a purchasing decision, they have to be clear on precisely what you’re saying.

Why?

By default, if someone asks us to make a decision, especially one involving money, before we have all the information we need, we say NO. We either say no to whatever they ask or we say no to making the decision itself. This makes perfect sense. Rather than risk making a bad or costly decision, it’s generally safer just to reject the marketing offer.

In short: Marketing that lacks clarity will lose you potential sales, every time.

Here are 3 powerful, proven tips, to help you create clear, compelling marketing!

1. Use as few words as possible

The fewer words you use, the easier it is to avoid confusion. Many marketing messages fail, purely because the retailer used 500 words to say something, which could have been said, more effectively, in 100 words. So, when you write an ad, a marketing email or the wording for a flyer, etc., look to keep it as short as possible.

A useful tip here, is to write an initial draft of your marketing message. Then, look for words, phrases or sentences, which add bulk rather than meaning, to your actual message. These are what professional copywriters call Redundant Words. The key here, is to keep everything that needs to be kept, but nothing else.

By the way, a great example of how powerful a message can be, when using just a small number of words, came from Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway once wrote a story, which contained only 6 words. Even so, the story resonated far deeper with some people, than many 500 page books.

Here it is: “For sale. Baby shoes… never worn.”

2. Speak their language

Avoid using buzzwords or industry terms, when marketing to the general public. Instead, use the same kind of language they use. This will vary from retailer to retailer, depending on the type of customers you want to attract.

Also, be mindful of regional variations, as words and phrases often have different meanings in different States. For example, an advertisement that works great for a store in Austin, Texas, may have very different results when used to advertise their store in Brooklyn. 

Pay close attention to what your customers say, and then match your messages as closely as possible, to the way they prefer to communicate.

3. Give clear, specific requests

One of the finest ways to ensure your messages are clear, is to be as specific as you can.

For example -- Think about the following 2 sentences:

  1. “Our sale starts next week, don’t miss out!”
  2. “Our sale starts on Monday, August 7th at 9:30am – be there!”

The first sentence provides quite vague information (what day and what time?) and gives a vague statement, (“don’t miss out”).

The second sentence provides very clear information (the date and time) and a direct request (“be there!”). This is easier for people to connect with and understand.

The combination of clarity and a direct request is extremely powerful. So, look for opportunities to use them whenever possible and appropriate.

What next?

Take time to go through all your marketing material, from; flyers, website content and marketing emails, to print ads and radio ads. Look for ways to clarify your marketing, by removing buzzwords, redundant words and adding clear, direct requests.

I hope you found these tips and ideas useful. More importantly, I hope you do something with them.

Remember to check out all the other free retail marketing resources we have available for you here on the CTS Wholesale website.

To find out how CTS Wholesale can help your retail business, simply click here.