It's not about YOU!

The toughest lesson many of my clients have to learn is that their marketing is not supposed to be all about them.  “But it’s our marketing, it has to be about us,” they argue – but let’s look at it from a different angle – the customer’s.  When you visit my website are you trying to find out what I do – or what you get?

Ah, I thought so.  Most of us are trying to resource a product or service so we want to know ‘if I buy your product or service how will that benefit me?’.  You too? Of course!

Let’s think about this from a psychological perspective.  If you ask someone “What do you do?” there’s a high probability that they’ll respond with something like:

“I’m an accountant.”

“I’m in shipping.”

“I provide corporate gifts.”

“I sell cars.”

At this point you probably think ‘OK, I know what that is,’ and half tune them out.  They’re talking about themselves, it doesn’t sound particularly exciting, you’ve heard it before, blah, blah, blah.

How would you respond if, instead, they responded with:

“You know how infuriating HMRC can be – always grabbing your money at every opportunity?  Well, think of us as your personal warrior to help you to protect your hard-earned cash.  You know a bit of planning can make your business much more profitable, don’t you?”

“If your products are being manufactured in another country, you can leave the whole process to us.  Just tell us where the raw materials are and they’ll be collected (from anywhere in the world), delivered to your manufacturer to meet your production slot – quality checked before shipping and then delivered to your warehouse just in time to hit the retail outlets.  You don’t have to chase and your warehouse isn’t full up with stock waiting for distribution.”

“If you want your brand to make an impact – and keep on making one – you’ll be surprised at the opportunities you could be missing.  We’ve got a cycle shop that give away waterproof saddle covers with their brand on, a business consultant who delivers coasters that make up a jigsaw and even a financial advisor that has their logo gold-leafed onto the inside of a leather wallet.  Have you ever thought of what you might do to get your brand under people’s noses?”

“You know how some people get someone to go shopping with them who can advise them on colours, styles and so on – a personal shopper?  Well, think of me as a personal shopper for cars.  You decide what you want, colour, model, age, mileage – and I’ll find it for you!  What’s more I can sell your current car too so you don’t have the hassle of that either.  It’s one less hassle taken care of for you.”

OK – the replies are much longer, but also much more interesting – and more likely to generate a conversation.

What’s the difference?  It’s not just length or detail; it’s more positioning and using the word ‘you’.

When someone says ‘we’, at best, you have a polite interest.  The same applies to ‘they’ (some of my clients argue that they aren’t talking about themselves, they’re talking about other clients – usually in case studies).  However, when you say ‘you’ people respond differently.  They start running that little video in their head of themselves experiencing what you’re talking about.

They’re engaged with your message at a much stronger level.

Remember this when you’re creating your next marketing material – whether that’s on your website, an email campaign, a newsletter, a blog like this or even on social media.  You’ll get much better results.