Crafting a Marketing Message That Converts

If you’ve ever had a marketing campaign completely flop, it’s likely that your message was to blame.

In my last blog post, we talked about the first step in creating a successful campaign – understanding your audience. Today I’m going to show you the next step – how to create a message that converts.

A great marketing message resonates with your prospects, builds a relationship with them and takes them from cold contact to paying customer.

But it can be surprisingly hard to get it just right.

Your message is more than just telling people what you sell – it has to connect with their thoughts and feelings, overcome their objections and leave them feeling certain that you have the solution to their problems AND that you can be trusted with their hard-earned cash.

So how do you craft this message? I’ll show you here in this step by step blog…

Just one thing before we getd – It can be tempting to skip the first step (getting to really know your target market) and jump straight to defining your message – but don’t!

You can’t create your message without first truly understanding your audience – if you try then it’s likely your message will miss the mark and you’ll end up burning through your marketing budget with very little return.

If you need a little help digging deep into the minds of your prospects then check out my previous blog post here… if you’ve already got a deep understanding of what makes your audience tick then keep reading…

Step 1: What’s The Goal?
The first thing you need to do is start at the finish. Think about the end result that you want from this marketing campaign.

What are you selling? What do you want to achieve?

Let’s say you’re a corporate cleaning company, running a marketing campaign to get more contract office buildings as clients. The goal for your marketing campaign might be to get them to book a date in the calendar for you to go and view the building and give them a quote.

Most people do this step – they know what they want to sell – but that’s as far as they go. If you want to make your campaign a success you’ve got a little more work to do…

Step 2: Where Are They From?
With any form of marketing, it’s important to meet your prospect where they’re at – not where you’d like them to be.

Let’s say you’re a hypnotherapist selling weight loss programmes. You know that the real problem is your prospect’s underlying issues and beliefs around using food for comfort, but your prospect doesn’t know that yet. They think their issue is physical cravings.

If your marketing message focuses on beliefs around using food for comfort, your prospect just isn’t going to connect. They don’t think it applies to them. So you’ve got to meet them where they’re at. Meet them with a message about cravings then gently nudge them along the path to discovering the real problem – food and comfort.

Step 3: What Journey Do They Need To Take?
So you’ve established where they are now and you know where you’d like them to be – so it’s time to fill in the gaps.

What beliefs, knowledge and ideas do they need to have to make the journey to becoming a paying customer? What objections do you need to overcome? What questions do they need the answers to? You can use your previous experience, customer feedback and even common sense to work this out and build a marketing roadmap that will take them where they need to be.

Step 4: What Do They NEED To Know About You?
Your marketing should always be customer-focused – it’s all about them. But they won’t buy from you without first getting to know you, deciding they like you and feeling that you’re someone they can trust.

So what do they need to know about you? Your experience, your story, your qualifications, your track record – define whatever it is that you have that makes you the perfect person to solve this problem for them.

Keep it short and simple. Don’t bombard them with too much info – just give them enough to show them that you care, that you have the answer and that you will deliver on your promises.

Step 5: What Do They Need To Do & What Happens Next?

And finally, you need to be clear on exactly what you want your prospect to do – do you want them to book a meeting? Schedule a call? Make a purchase online? You need a clear call to action – people need to be told in very simple words what to do next! Call us, visit our website, book a call, fill in the form etc.

Most people get this far but they don’t know that having a call to action is only half of the job.
People don’t like uncertainty. They want to know what will happen next. What will happen when they book a call with you? What will the call be like? What will be discussed? Is it a call just to take payment or is it a consultation call to see if the service is a good fit for them?

The more uncertainty you can take away the more likely they’ll be to take that next step.

Pulling It All Together
Now you know what your marketing message needs to include, you need to pull it all together and create your marketing campaign. The next step is to decide which media to use – will this be an email campaign? A Facebook campaign? Leaflet drop?

We’ll discuss which media type is right for you in my next blog post…