Have you taken a look at your marketing materials lately? Did you read through all the copy? Click on the links on your website? Fill out the forms? Look at the pictures?
If you were to put yourself in the shoes of your customers – or prospective customers –would your questions be answered? Would you walk away from the experience a better, more informed, consumer?
Would you understand how the product works? What sets it apart from your competitors? Would you know what position the brand holds in the marketplace? Would you know how much money you’d have to fork over when hitting the "Buy now” button? What you know how to do "that thing” using "that one thing” and if it works with "that other thing” that you’ve already got sitting in your living room?
If you had questions, would you be able to figure out how to contact someone – a real human being – to have your questions answered? Most importantly – would you know what to do if you wanted to purchase the product?
Do these questions – or more specifically, the answers – scare you? Have you avoided thinking like your customers? Do you know, deep down, that you’re not always talking TO the customer, but you’re really talking AT the customer?
If the customer’s experience isn’t matching up with your marketing and sales goals, why don’t you do something about it? Do you even know what your marketing goals are?
Do you know what your customers are looking for? Do you understand the sales cycle for your product? Have you thought about what kind of marketing pieces you can create to help guide your customers through that sales cycle? Do you have customer research to guide you?
Have you avoided talking about that hot topic issue all your customers want to know about out of fear for giving away "trade secrets?” Did you choose not to list prices on your website because you don’t want your competitors to know what you charge? Have you considered what this type of content could do for your website’s SEO rankings? Have you thought about how good it would make your customers feel to find this information readily available? Do you think it would make them more likely to consider you and your brand?
Are your brochures, your flyers, your website, your presentations, your posters, your tradeshow booth, your print ads, your banner ads, your on-hold messages, your email newsletter and your other collateral pieces working towards your overall marketing goal? Are they written FOR the customer? Are they helping your customer understand what it is you’re trying to sell? Do they have a purpose? Will they discourage your prospects from navigating to your competitor’s website, or pick up the phone and call them?
