Marketing has become more complicated over the recent years and it’s very difficult to stand out in the crowd and get the attention of your prospective customers. No matter how good your products or services are, if your marketing isn’t on-point, you won’t get much traffic or conversions. A well-planned marketing strategy consists of three points or purposes:
- Getting attention
- Encouraging interest
- Converting prospects by getting them to take action
These three steps are the basic foundation of all marketing plans, whether they are based on telephone, scripts, sales, meetings television advertising, or digital platforms. All three stages have their unique challenges and difficulties but in this article, we’ll focus on the first stage, which relates to gaining attention from your target audience.
It’s not easy
We live in a world where we’re bombarded with information, ads, and content. Most people online are very selective about what they pay attention to, which is why you need to make sure your ads headlines, email subject lines, and content titles, etc, hand out. This is the first step in the formula so if you fail in this step, the marketing formula won’t work as the customer won’t move to the next step.
The three questions
Creating a good and attractive headline or subject line isn’t as complicated as it seems. Most people don’t follow a set formula and just wing it, which can lead to mixed results. Some headlines are great, while others are a complete failure. Why leave everything to chance when you can use a formula to create good titles, headings, and subject lines? All you need to do is ask yourself three questions:
#1 What problem/problems does my product or service solve?
All business owners and marketers should know the answer to this question, but surprisingly few do. You create products and services to fill in the vacuum in the market and resolve a problem. For example, if you’re a gym, you solve the problems related to physical fitness and this can include weight loss, weight gain, muscle gain, better stamina, sports fitness, etc.
As you can see, a single product or service can solve multiple problems and you need to be aware of all of these in order to market your product or service correctly. Becoming familiar with your product or services is the first step to developing a good marketing strategy.
You can create a chart or table and note down all problems your product or service can solve in the first column. This will help you keep your thoughts organised and make it easier for you to create the headline or subject line in the future.
#2 What is stopping my prospects from solving the problem/problems themselves?
The next step is to ask why your prospective customers can’t solve the problems without your assistance. The answer to this question showcases the value of your products and services to the customer. You can capitalise on this value when you write your headlines or subject lines. For example, a person that wants to lose weight might not have access to the right equipment and they might not know which techniques or exercises they should you.
In this example, your value is your gym equipment and facilities along with the expert personal trainers on your staff. Your prospective customers don’t have access to these facilities or knowledge without your aid and will pay money to gain access to it.
You can make a note of all the reasons why your prospects can’t resolve the problems on their own, which will help you make great headlines once you have all the elements of the formula in place.
#3 What kind of results do my prospects want by solving the problem?
The final question you ask is what kind of results your prospects want from the resolution of the problem. You can also get multiple results from the same product or services so you need to make a note of them all. So in the example mentioned above, your prospect might want to lose weight and gain muscle mass in a fixed period of time. This is the most important aspect of the sales pitch because you’re focused on the results of the solutions you provide.
If the results aren’t convincing or impactful, your prospective customers will not be convinced and will look elsewhere. You need to avoid that so make sure you note down all the compelling results in the final column of your table or chart.
Now you have all the elements of the formula in place and can piece together the different columns in order to come up with a perfect headline. By following this formula, you can come up with compelling subject lines like, “Expert advice on how to lose weight in 8 weeks.” You now have all three elements of the formula coming together to create a headline and this technique can be applied in all kinds of marketing strategy.
