Time and Attention Result in Currency
More than 71 billion dollars were spent on direct mail marketing last year according to the US Postal Service. That’s five times the amount spent on radio advertising and about half of what was spent on television advertising. Each of these dollars was spent in the hope that:
1. Your attention would be gained by the advertiser’s message and
2. You would spend time – at least a moment – considering it.
You open your mailbox and grab a handful of paper. Do you open each envelope and consider its message? Or do you do like most and sort the mail standing over the trash can– much of it going, unopened into the trash can?
Consumers today are confronted with an unprecedented number of marketing messages.
According to my friend, Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads, “A 1978 consumer behavior study by Yankelovich indicated the average American of that time was confronted by more than 2,000 selling messages per day. These “selling messages” included the signage in front of strip centers, posters in windows, point-of-purchase displays in convenience stores, product packaging on shelves, stickers on gas pumps and all the major media, of course. Yankelovich revisited that study in 2008: ‘today’s shopper is confronted by more than 5,000 selling messages per day.”
As a marketer, the success or failure of your marketing depends on how successful you are at breaking through the clutter and getting the buyer’s attention. (Bet they didn’t teach you that in your last sales training class) Until you get their attention you cannot get their interest or create desire in your product or service. No interest or desire, no action to buy your product or service. It all hinges on getting their attention.
The number one marketing sin is being boring. (Bet you never heard that from a sales training class either) Chances are your marketing, like most in your industry, is boring and goes unnoticed. If you are to stand out you must develop a Unique Selling Proposition (Hopefully your sales training instructor taught you this) and then communicate that message in an outrageous manner that gets people’s attention. If you fail to do that you will go unnoticed.
The important point here is that it doesn’t matter how good your sales skills are if your marketing sucks. Marketing gets you in the door. Sales skills help you close the deal. Lousy marketing makes you anonymous and prevents you from getting in many doors.
If you are interested in discovering how to get noticed and how to develop an outrageous marketing campaign contact me at sclark@newschoolselling.com and I will give you a free 20 minute consultation – no strings attached.