Why do your customers buy?

We talk a lot about copy and how to create marketing materials but lets take step back and learn about why people buy?

Do you know why your clients buy? Seems like a pretty simple question, right? Not really, when you dig deeper under the surface. How you answer is critical to the success of your business.

To begin, understand one simple fact: prospects and clients buy for their reasons, not yours. They could care less about your company and your mission statement or the long list of product features you so skillfully articulate.

They only care about the outcome your offer provides them. They want the benefit, the impact, the improvement, the comfort, or the security it will deliver. Most small business marketing fails to address these crucial client needs directly. Instead, they focus on the greatness of their product or service and miss what is important.

Small business marketers are often their own worst enemies. Frequently, they are not communicating on the buyer's level of motivation. They are too busy figuring out how to "sell" the product than finding out the reasons the client "buys".

The problem comes down to the marketing strategy that is employed. Are you pushing your product or are you pulling the client through the marketing process?

There is a very important distinction here. Since buyers only care about their needs and take action for their personal reasons, why should they pay attention to why you think your product is so great?

When you push your products, you are essentially telling the client that they should buy from you because of your reasons. With this egocentric approach you often run into a stone wall of objections and delays. Pushing the product forces them out of their comfort zone and places unnecessary pressure on their decision making process. A relentless assault of closing techniques pushes them away from a purchasing decision on their terms.

Pulling a buyer through the purchasing process is much more effective. When you pull you are leading them to the purchase like leading a horse to water. You gently guide them through your features and benefits and come to a decision on their terms. If they resist you have not educated them enough with information to motivate them or you haven't addressed their objections sufficiently.

The buyer will only make a decision when they are comfortably satisfied your offer has met all of their purchasing criteria. As a seller, you must pull them through the process and always let them stay within the limits of their comfort zone. It's by staying within these boundaries that trust is established and a long term relationship is built with the client.

Also remember that the purchasing process is completely rooted in the perceptions of the buyer. They have ultimate control over the process, not you. Your job as a marketer is to develop all your communications to make them comfortable and lead them to the best outcome...purchasing your product or service.

Always be aware of which method you are using - push or pull - and adopt it to the buyer's personal reasons for purchasing and you will enjoy continuous success.

Be Your Best!

Laura
Marketing Freak

Marketing Swipe File

Use and build a swipe file to carve your way to the top of the marketing tree...

Direct marketing's a tough way to make a living but if you can master certain skills it can be extremely lucrative. It takes on many different forms, some of which are easily translatable to the web.

Although the term may bring to mind door to door salesmen pushing their wares to housewives in robes and curlers, it also has roots in print ads such as classifieds and space ads and direct mail.

The internet has created a massive opportunity for the skilled direct marketer to thrive without doing the customary legwork and engaging in personal contact with their prospects, basically expanding on the concept of direct mail.

So what skills do you need to hone in order to succeed at direct marketing? The top priority of anyone interested in making money on the internet should be their copywriting skills. This is simply putting your sales message into words. Since the face to face encounter has been eliminated you need to be able to convey your pitch through the words on the pages that your prospects are reading.

A great way to polish your copywriting skills, even if you've never written a single word of ad copy before, is to create a swipe file. This is just a file of already successful ad campaigns. Swipe files are incredibly useful tools. Every major player in direct marketing keeps a swipe file and for good reason. Everybody gets stuck for words and ideas at some point. When this happens it's good to have an example of past successes to go to and freshen your creative juices and get the words flowing again.

What should your file consist of? You should gather any material that has spurred you to action, whether its purpose was to get you to buy something or just leave your name and email address. Copy the good stuff and study it. Realise what was in the ad that made you act on the offer. Look for layout designs (bulleted lists are a big direct marketing tactic), action words, headlines and sub heads. You'll notice certain words popping up along with questions and statements that are all fairly alike but are tailored to specific products and services. That's the key to a good swipe file.

Gather a wide array of different styles and mold the message to your particular target audience. Study the material and write out many different versions of the same ad. Practice your art and perfect it.

A word of caution though... Never copy an ad word for word. That's plagiarism and it's illegal. Use your swipe file as an aid only, to sharpen your copywriting skills and make you better at direct marketing.

Be Your Best!

Laura
Marketing Freak
Business Development Consultant and Professional Copywriter, Laura will make your businesses goals go from dreams to reality!
Owner and Principal Consultant of D.Y.B Strategies
Visit us http://www.dybstrategies.com/