If you sell accounting, legal or computer services you are probably very concerned about your brand.  You want to look appropriately serious in your marketing materials so that your clients take you seriously.  Your clients are making serious, numbers-based decisions.  You’ve got to prove your professional caliber in front of your clients.

Here-here!  Just remember: every one of the decision-makers and influences in your clients’ organizations was a little kid before they grew into business consumers.  Even your gruffest and toughest customers were trained as humans first and in their vocations, second.  As such, they still have emotions and it is critical in your marketing to factor in their emotions.

Marketing Tips

Here are some tips to set your company apart from your competitors.  Try this formula next time you are building a new brochure or website or PowerPoint presentation:

1. Tell a “Story-In-a-Split-Second”. What works well is a photo of people showing some type of emotion, coupled with a strong headline, and a subhead.  If you are selling business-to-business, photos that create a sense of trust or satisfaction are excellent.  The emotion to pursue is reassurance; a calming of lurking fears regarding the purchase.
2. Trundle Out Some Benefits — What’s in it for the customer? What benefit does your product or service provide?  Here you can start a short list of benefits, bullet points work well.  Remember, you are writing for the customer so don’t bury the benefit.
3. Features – You may be tempted to begin writing something like: “Our XYZ feature is the fastest in the industry” or, our “XYZ feature sets us apart from our competitors”.  Yes, features are important because they, “back up the benefits”; they add legitimacy. However, I have seen time and again lists of features that soon degenerate into industry jargon that only the most familiar and technically savvy can understand.  Features are the “supporting cast” in your collateral marketing — critical to the overall effect, but don’t let features become the star of the show.
4. To recap:   1 – Story,  2 – Benefits,  3 – Features.

Use this combination to create a repeatable message in the client’s mind and that’s what a story will provide.

Does the answer matter?  Absolutely.  The answer influences the caliber of salespeople you hire as well as marketing plans and budget.  In this first of two posts we’ll examine the case of the Sales Force that is supported by its marketing.

Marketing Plan To Increase Sales Leads

If you are a “sales-oriented” company, then salespeople are your front-line in actually closing the sale.  Typically, your $$ value is $300 or more (and yes, if you are a hotel or an airline this dollar value may not apply).  Typically, the higher the dollar-value of the product or service you are selling, the more important the sales person’s skill set is to increase sales.

Typically you are going to be hiring salespeople who are hungry to close and very much money-oriented.  Whether your sales cycle is long or short, a conservative approach or an “overcome the objection at all costs” approach, you usually are looking to hire hunters who want to go for the kill, not farmers who are interesting in tilling the soil. However, a seasoned hunter is appreciative of the gunsmith that puts a fine rifle in his hands, or the maker of the scope that allows him to see his quarry.  Just so, the wise salesperson is aware of the value of the marketer who gives him the opportunity to take many shots at the prey he seeks.

Increasing Sales Leads

We’re talking about leads, here. And, if that rifle and scope work well then the smart hunter lets the craftsman that produced the rifle know.  Likewise, if the scope mount is loose or the ammo needs a few more grains added then the wise hunter gives proper feedback and let’s his gunsmith know what’s wrong so he doesn’t miss the shot. Just so in a sales-driven organization, if your salespeople only grouse about their crummy rifles with pitiful scopes — in other words, if they say: “I don’t have any good leads and all my collateral stinks”, then nothing is going to happen and your company will be missing out on lots of big game. What your really good salespeople need are more and better leads.

Because sales close the deal, but marketing can “prep the prospect”.

Management’s job – get S & M to play nice together.  (But that’s the subject for another day…)

Throughout your marketing efforts in the sales-led company, don’t worry exclusively about closing the deal, just close the action.  The action may be to:

• get an appointment set
• get the phone to ring
• enter an email address
• fill out a comment card
• take a survey
• achieve a click through
• follow your company on Twitter

Marketing focuses on the action that will put the prospect closest to the hunter’s sights.  And then…track.  Track the source, track where the lead came from.  However rudimentary your CRM system is, you must make sure you are tracking at least some.  But more on that another day.

1. Safety Needs (concern for child’s future money well-being)
2. Love – (parent loves the child, wants to ensure child’s future)
3. Esteem – (inner-directed esteem, not “pat-on-the-back’ esteem)

How To Write A Headline

As a small business, don’t worry about writing the ad that will sound the cutest or grab an award. Instead, write an ad that stops the prospect long enough to cause them to take an action.

Stock Photo Tip

If you haven’t used iStock photo, make sure to check them out. I recommend opening a free account. Why? Because it’s quite handy to set up different lightboxes and save the photos you like. For every one I or one of my clients buys we look at several dozen. They also have very reasonable prices on their stock images.

Now back to the task at hand …

Example Bank Marketing Campaign

Let’s start with some ads.

• Teaching the basics of reading and math is school’s job.  Teaching her to handle her money, that’s on your shoulders. Open a child savings account today; we’ll carry some of the load.

There you go.  Have fun with the campaign…and have fun writing your own campaign using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs! Also, if you have a favorite method or formula for writing a headline, make sure to share it with our readers.

Example Of An Advertising Campaign

As I mentioned above, in this hypothetical example our client is a bank. On the surface a bank offers services such as: checking accounts, loans, safety deposit boxes, brokerage accounts …and a whole host of other services. However, in this advertising campaign exercise I want to focus on using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to develop a marketing campaign that is designed to attract new customers looking to open a saving account.

• Campaign -Encouraging parents to open a savings account for their children.
• Target Audience – Current bank customers who are parents of younger children.
• Media Used – In-branch posters, teller-helpers, statement stuffers, small landing page on website.

Three needs we will engage:

• Safety – I am concerned about child’s financial future.
• Love – I love the kids, so I want to do right and make sure they have a good future. Ties in with ‘duty’.
• Esteem – Maslow discusses two “subsidiary sets” of self-esteem need. “These are, first, the need for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom. Secondly, we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige (defining it as respect or esteem from other people), recognition, attention, importance or appreciation.” It is the first type of esteem – the inner directed – that we will address in our campaign.

Our Target Audience

Next let’s consider our prospect. Although we are aiming at “parents” I find it is more effective for me to envision the actual decision-maker when creating the campaign. I don’t ignore the role of the influencer, but I find it easier to focus on the decision maker. For this campaign, I envision the mother as decision-maker, although I’m sure many fathers walk their kids to the bank to open their first account.

Our mother cares about her child but also knows that it is on her shoulders to take care of the family. Right here we can briefly consider the second half of the esteem need. She is not going to get a ‘pat on the back’ from anybody from opening up an account for her child. It’s one of the thousand little tasks she’ll take on in raising the child that will never draw a compliment.

Because of this they may feel even more alone, even though she has a strong sense of duty associated with the decision. Of course, she is possibly going to look at her friends and family as primary referral sources, but if she is new in town she may not have many strong referrers. Your campaign may be especially effective at parents who have not been in the community a long time.

Here is what you must do:

1. Acknowledge their alone-ness. (Esteem)
2. Acknowledge the importance of the decision. (Esteem)
3. Acknowledge the threat. (Safety)
4. Acknowledge the family (Love)

You need to do this with your:

1. Headline
2. Photo
3. Subhead or Tag Line
4. Body Copy
5. Combination of all of these.

Wow, there’s a lot to a simple ad, isn’t there?

Only if it’s done right. In our next post, we’ll look at some possible headlines, copy and photos.

I may appear a bit archaic in discussing Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. After all, it’s more than 65 years since he wrote the original article, and it’s been commented on many times by marketers and the psychology community. However, the Hierarchy of Needs can be a valuable tool in a sophisticated marketer’s toolbox. Quickly, the basic needs are:

• physiological
• safety
• love
• esteem
• self-actualization

Human Motivation and Marketing

Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

An understanding of Maslow is more complex than what one gathers from a quick glance at any chart of the basic needs. Unfortunately, that is about all of us receive in most marketing books — if they mention him at all; which in my opinion is a shame. Why? Because in studying the Hierarchy of Needs you will find new perspectives when creating your ad campaigns. You will gain insight and understanding on motivation, leading to better conversions on direct mail, pay per click and other marketing campaigns. In the end the investment in studying Maslow’s hierarchy will help increase your campaign’s return on investment (ROI). However, what you will not find is a theory that answers all questions about human motivation. It is not an “end-all, be-all” answer to what motivates us.

Marketing Tool

There is no magic wand in marketing, there are only tools. I found Maslow is most useful as “one marketing tool among many.” For example, on those rare occasions I fix something at home, I often use a wrench, a screwdriver and a pair of pliers; sometimes a couple of different wrenches. I could try to repair everything with a pair of pliers, but that’s not very efficient and usually I end up marring a surface or stripping the head of a bolt. In the same fashion, if I am constructing a promotion for a client I may combine my understanding of the Hierarchy of Needs with Campbell’s explanation of the Hero’s Journey, and the Ries and Trout Positioning concepts. I might well consider a half-dozen others, depending on the scope of the promotion and the time I devote to it.

Maslow, then, provides a useful foundation to work from, especially when we try to gauge what set of needs our target audience is apt to be searching for. “Man is a perpetually wanting animal” Maslow notes, and yet we need to determine which of the needs we think are already satisfied (mostly) in our target audience. Then we can determine which of the “unsatisfied” needs to focus on as we develop our campaign.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Applied To Marketing

There is an important principle I missed when I first encountered Maslow in a simple “chart form”. He indicates that only percentages of the needs are filled at any one time. Most people simply don’t neatly fill each stage entirely, and then move up to the next stage.

This fact, that only a percentage of the needs are fulfilled at any time, allows us to craft unique, focused marketing campaigns targeting multiple needs. This key point is only one of the critical lessons learned by studying Maslow.

Other Marketing Tools

The next post will focus on specific applications in creating a marketing campaign. For our campaign, we will use the concept of Duty (as part of the Esteem needs) and combine it with the Safety and Love needs to illustrate a campaign for a financial institution…a bank.

Have you used Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” in your marketing campaigns? Or do you have a favourite Marketing tool you would like to share? We would like to hear from you.

OK, previously we’ve discussed the price vs. timing issue of the postcard vs. self-mailer or oversized postcard. Now, let’s go to the inevitable question — does size matter?

The answer, once again, is…it depends on your goals!

Self-Mailer

If you have an audience-specific offer that needs explanation in any detail, I would spend the extra money on the larger format. A postcard is 4 1/4 by 6, but a self-mailer (letter rate) can go clear up to 6 1/8 by 11 1/2. That is more than twice the surface area of the postcard.

Post Card

A postcard can suffice if you are mailing to a multi-faceted audience and want to quickly get across a ‘brand-building’ message. A photo/headline combination on the non-address side of the postcard can be very powerful, with a short general message and your company logo/tagline on the address side. Here you are building brand-awareness and quickly trying to make an impression on your prospect. You are not trying to get the prospect to act, other than to remember your name and company and start to build an emotional bond with the prospect.

Postcard Marketing

If you have a super-stunning, easy to understand offer, the postcard can work, especially if you are running other media, such as print or TV. If you have strong brand awareness already, and are just jolting the person to action, like “Save 1/2 off on all suits at Acme clothing this weekend” and you are sure the prospect knows your brand and your location, then the postcard can work well.

But, for most direct mailers, the prospect does not know your brand, is not familiar with your product, and needs some explanation of what they are supposed to do. Even with a compelling offer, you need some extra info to explain to that % of the population that wants more in-depth explanation of “what’s it all about”. The oversized postcard card or self-mailer allows you to present a greater level of detail.

Remember, you need to tell the story graphically on the oversize card. But, you can include things like maps to your retail branch, order information, link to your guarantee, mini-synopsis of your guarantee, or a few testimonials.

Free Marketing Campaign Idea of the Week

Here is a photo that I just loved…we need a bit more humor with the economy in the dumps.

Headline: Is This the Way You Felt After You Bought Your Last Suit?
Subhead: Acme Menswear – The Place Where Adults Shop

iStock photo 8266899

Happy Marketing
Craig Lutz-Priefert