Some marketing myth busting

In the last post, I wrote about why people get as excited by your marketing collateral as they do your home movies. In this one, I’m going to bust some commonly held marketing beliefs.

Myth 1: People are going to pour over every word in your marketing text just like you do.

Reality: You’ll be lucky if they skim it. People like to feel that they are making sound decisions so it is helpful to have a coherent story in the text – just don’t expect people to read it word for word. They will skim it and piece together an executive summary, especially if you haven’ already provided a skimable executives summary.

Tip: Make your marketing text easy to skim. If they can’t get the message in a quick glance through go back to the drawing board.

Myth 2: The facts matter and, if they aren’t convinced yet, give them more facts.

Reality: Narrative is key. People don’t remember facts and are often bored by them.

Tip: Give them a simple narrative they can remember and repeat to others.

Myth 3: Marketing is a creative function

Reality: Good marketing uses both the left brain and the right brain.

Tip: Adopt an agreed upon set of marketing metrics, set clear goals, analyze your market, test and analyze your campaign to the degree possible.

Myth 4: You know what your customer wants and why they did what they did.

Reality: You probably don’t know. The customer might not even know.

Tips:

a. Talk to customers. Conduct 1 on 1 research, surveys and analyze behavior.

b. If you have sales reps, go with them on calls or listen in on the phone to understand where customers get excited, what turns them off, what closes sales, and what inhibits the sales process.

c. Get your customers to come and talk to the sales staff and the marketing staff about whey they bought and what they think of dealing with your company pre-sale and post-sale.

d. Where possible analyze customer behavior over time, across channels and across touch points otherwise you have no chance of getting a clear picture.