Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Marketing Writing – What Are Clients Buying From You?

One of the biggest marketing mistakes we can make is not to understand what our target market clients are buying when they buy our services. We believe they are buying a service only, and that our job is to grab their attention through all sorts of marketing acrobatics. We want to impress them with our brilliance and credentials. The truth though that prospects don't care much about your brilliance and credentials until they have confidence in you. To make them feel secure they must know that you understand them and their problems. In addition, you must understand what they are actually buying from you when they buy your services.
1) One of the primary things clients are buying is our understanding of and appreciation for the problems they deal with.
Don't misunderstand this statement. This is about the problems that you solve for clients. They are buying your expertise in solving that problem. You must illustrate your depth of experience with clients having that problem. You don't do this with marketing writing that is all about you. What is relevant is talking about your clients' experiences of their problem.
2) Your clients are buying trust.
They believe that you are trustworthy to help them solve their problems. They will never develop that trust until they see that you understand how the problem affects their life. Typically, trust does not develop overnight. You must be meticulous over time in keeping your promises and agreements. You meticulously follow through in every way that you deal with your clients. That develops trust.
3) They are buying results.
The more quickly you can ensure that your clients have at least rudimentary results, the more quickly they will feel confident in your abilities. It is critical at the beginning of the client relationship to help the get at least a "taste" of the results they are paying your for. Give them visible results and you will cement their loyalty early in the relationship. Of course, ongoing consistent results is what every client wants, and it's smart to provide results in every session.
4) They are buying the solutions you provide.
They are buying the hope for that changed situation the long for. They are buying the contrast between the "before" and "after". It's important that your marketing writing shows prospects that contrast. They see themselves in that new situation no longer plagued by daily travails. They are buying the belief that this is what they will get from working with you.
5) They are buying relationship.
They need to like, believe and be attracted to you and your proposed solution. If they don't like you, they'll never want to work with you. If they don't want to be around you or associate with you, they certainly won't want to engage with you over time. Be sure that you base your business on your best relationship-building skills.
6) They are buying the secure feeling that their money will be well spent, not wasted.
They want to feel at peace with their decision to buy your service. Of course, they want to be rewarded for this faith. They need for their faith in you to be validated and to know that their money has been well spent. The more that you validate this with results not words, the happier your clients will be.
7) Clients buy logic and logical solutions.
Your marketing writing must describe results that your prospects see as believable, authentic, and attainable. When prospects can easily believe and grasp your description, they will be more likely to buy. If you oversell, hype, or make unbelievable promises, a sizeable portion of your target market will never consider your services for even an instant. Even if you are that miracle worker who can deliver on those over-the-top promises, prospects will seldom get past that overblown language long enough to check you out.
It's important to understand what prospects are buying from you besides your services. When you deliver on these unstated promises, it's much easier to attract and close target market clients.

Suzi Elton provides business writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site.

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