Recession Marketing

The age-old debate: to pull back or not to pull back. The PullBack advocates say why further hurt the bottom line with marketing expenses when no one is buying? The KeepGoing group argues that when sales go down, marketing has to go up, and besides, if you're in the game when the PullBackers are bailing out, you can steal market share.

I agree with Pat Strothers, who argues that this is a false question: the real question when faced with a recession is not how to change your marketing budget, but how to change your marketing focus, and the answer is contained in the title of his fine blog post: For now, focus on those ready to buy. I recommend it.

Changing your marketing focus means, of course, also changing your language focus. Even "ready to buy" customers are going to be feeling some resistance to pulling the trigger with a recession of unknown length and depth staring them in the face. Use your communications to help them get past the last hurdle: waiting until times get better.

1. Get specific about the benefits. Stressing the benefits, especially benefits they'll see right away, will help your buyers get past procrastination. Describe benefits in specific and practical terms - recessions, as Pat says, are not the time to do general brand-building.

2. Help with the pain. If you have ways of helping your buyers with the costs, announce them front and center in your communications. In normal times, free shipping is a nice benefit. In a recession, it might close the deal.

3. Make buying easy. In every communication, have a very clear and very easy-to-find call to action, and make that action as easy as possible. Don't send them to your "Contact" web page to find your phone number, have it right next to the words "Call now." Don't make them fill out long forms to send you an email; just one click, and pre-fill the subject line with your call to action. Let your language show that your door is wide open, and a friendly greeter is out there to meet you.

Perhaps above all, make sure your communications let your customers know that you appreciate the situation that they're in, and that you'll do whatever you can to make sure this buying experience doesn't add to their problems.

Two Tips for B2B “Green” Marketing

If you have a product or service that can help your business customers “go green” or “go greener,” here are two tips on crafting marketing messages that will get their attention:

1. Focus on the business case. Definitely put something in the headline/intro that lets your audience know you’re talking about going green, but thereafter focus on the business case. First, everyone knows the societal reasons for going green by now. Second, most people know that there are ways to go green that make good business sense, so they’re not going to look at purchases that are green for their own sake. It is definitely okay, however, to remind them (in a postscript, say) that their smart purchasing decision is helping to save the planet too.
   
   
2. Learn the lingo. This is always true in B2B marketing, but is especially important in green marketing. There are two reason for this:
   • Trust. Whenever there’s a bandwagon, everyone jumps on, including the scammers. There’s so much green hype out there that businesses have become increasingly wary of green sales pitches. A technical error in your marketing may well get your materials tossed into the circular file.
     
   • Effectiveness. Knowing what environmental categories your product or service falls into will steer you to the right target markets. Knowing that you can help your customers become more “energy efficient” will attract one set of prospects; if you help them convert entirely to “sustainable” energy, you’ll attract another.

A one-two punch for small business prospect communications

If you’re a sole proprietor or run a small business, there are two important things that are especially important to highlight in first-contact prospect communications such as your introductory brochure and web site.

First and uppermost (literally), benefits. What are the important or unique benefits a prospect will enjoy by contracting with you? What’s your Unique Selling Proposition? I know this is MarCom 101, but it’s amazing how often I have to dig through a brochure, flyer or web site to find this information. In this attention-deficit-disorder world, you have to get their attention right away, and nothing gets attention like benefits.

Second, follow up with assurances. Probably the number one obstacle to someone buying a product or service from a small business is fear: fear of losing money, fear of feeling “taken,” and/or fear of wasting time. So task number two is to remove the fear. Ways to reassure prospects that their buying experience with you will be a safe one include: offering a guarantee, presenting credentials, being liberal with your contact information (lack of same is a dead fly-by-night giveaway), providing a list of past customers, presenting robust customer testimonials, and offering to provide references.

Where to do it

In a printed piece, you can put both the benefit and the assurance in the top two headlines:

“Free your home of mice in two days!”
“Results guaranteed!”

Another approach is to have the benefits in the headline(s) and have the fear-removal language at the bottom of the page in prominent type. I like this approach better for B2B communications, because the audience tends to be a little more leery of businesses that feel the need to reassure right away.

For web sites, the place to highlight the benefits is on the home page, of course. The assurances can be alluded to in a side bar or low bar, and expanded upon on the About page. Again, for B2B communications, being indirect is better.

Attracting with benefits, and closing with assurances: a great one-two punch for all your small business prospect communications.

It's Alive!

"You cannot bore someone into buying your product." - David Ogilvy

That quote is how copywriting guru Steve Slaunwhite, author of The Everything Guide to Writing Copy, introduces the core copywriting task of making your product/services' benefits come to life for the prospect. Benefits sell better than features, and tangible, fleshed-out benefits sell best of all.

Consider those TV ads for the OnStar system. They don’t just talk about the benefit of having a system that can detect when you’ve been in an accident and call for help. They bring it to life with a dramatic picture of a person sitting stunned in a car after an accident hearing a reassuring voice addressing her by name and saying, “don’t worry, help is on the way, and I’ll stay with you.”

That’s how to bring the benefit to life: create a scenario or tell a story with the benefit in the starring role. You can do it in the third person, as above, or in the first person, by using customer testimonials that highlight in a practical way how the benefit improved their lives. Similarly, you can use poignant before-and-after scenes to show the benefit in action.

These techniques are especially effective, of course, if they evoke an appropriately strong emotional chord in the prospect - fear, pride, embarrassment. These emotions can be elicited on the flip side, too, as consequences of NOT buying the product or service. Just be careful not to overdo it - if you evoke too much fear, for example, the emotional backlash can negate the story’s message.

Talking about benefits rather than features is something all good copywriters do. The best copywriters make those benefits come to life.

Can we talk?

Most business communications succeed best when they establish a rapport with their intended audience. Many things go into establishing that rapport, but perhaps the most fundamental is this: getting the audience to feel like they are in a conversation. Not talked "at" or "down to", not lectured, not sold, not even "hail fellow well met"-ed. Just plain talked to.

• That's why the best "style" for a communications piece is usually "conversational."
• That's why the best "content" for a communications piece is usually "information."
• That's why the best "emphasis" for a communications piece is usually "helpful."

You wouldn't go into a long-winded speech if you were trying to tell a friend about something they'd find interesting. Just talk to your audience simply (they are friends - no need for pushiness or hype) and confidently (you're telling them something you're sure they'd want to know), and you'll go a long way toward holding their attention.

Teach a prospect to fish . . .

The old saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” has applicability to the attraction and retention of customers through your marketing communications. Instead of selling a fish, education your prospect about fishing. Instead of pushing for a transaction, offer a relationship.

Communications aimed at “selling a man a fish” are often based on hype, hyperbole and focused on the fish at hand. He gets his fish, and when he wants another one, he’ll get it from the nearest pond.

Communications aimed at “teaching a man to fish” are based on solid information, offer to give something to the man first, and are focused on building a relationship.

Examples:

• Putting an unbiased “How To Shop for Widgets” section on your website
• Offering a free booklet on the Bahamas with your travel business mailing
• Offering a first-time-buyer discount

Working a communications program of attraction rather than promotion invites your prospects into a relationship rather than a drive-by purchase.

Just the facts, ma'am

Marketing guru David Ogilvy once said, "The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be." This applies to pretty much any form of persuasive communications, and is the antidote to two very common errors in business-to-business communications.

The first error, and the advertising and marketing pros are often more guilty of this than anyone, is relying on clever language rather than clear, straightforward language to get the audience’s attention. Studies have shown that cleverness sometimes works, but clarity always does (other things being equal).

The second mistake is to substitute hype and hyperbole for actual information. This is especially problematic in today’s information age, when advertising claims will be Googled to check for accuracy, and the second generation of TV watchers is generally wise to misleading advertising tactics (think of the “Target Market” campaign).

The clear vs. clever rule is especially applicable to headlines, where the temptation to be clever is strongest. Nothing will get your audience to continue reading that a clear headline that allows them to self-identify and anticipate a benefit (see my earlier posting on “Ad Headlines”).

Use clear statements of fact (or opinion, for that matter, as long as its clear) to describe your products or services and you’ll do a lot better in the long run.

Attract with benefits

Probably the biggest single flaw in most sales communications that I see is that they promote the (no-doubt) amazing features of a product or service. It seems like a natural way to go - after all, the R&D folks spent of ton of time and money pimping that better mousetrap; why not brag about the whiz-bangs?

The reason is simple - customers could care less about the mousetrap whiz-bangs themselves. What they care about is getting rid of mice as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So while touting your mousetrap’s highly superior bait-action and completely enclosed trap might seem like the way to address these concerns, its still indirect: in effect, you are making the prospect translate from “superior bait-action” to “gets rid of mice quickly” and from “enclosed trap” to “disposal is a breeze”.

Instead, tout the benefits directly: "Works quickly, and disposal is a breeze."

"Why should I believe you??"

Since, at heart, nearly every business communication is trying to persuade its audience of something, a major consideration is whether you expect your audience to believe what you’re saying. If you think the basic trust is there, fine. Just make your case and move on.

If this is a concern, however, there are several ways to enhance the piece’s credibility. Here is a sampling:

• Tell the truth. Seems obvious, but people today have pretty good b.s. detectors: don’t trigger them. Related: don't exaggerate.
• Quote someone who they will believe. Recognized experts, for example, or testimonials from people who your audience will identify with.
• Offer a guarantee. A dime-a-dozen these days, so if you don’t have one, it will hurt your credibility. It's best if the guarantee is simple to understand and as unconditional as possible.
• Offer a free trial. They don’t have to believe you – they can see for themselves.