Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links
In today’s business landscape it’s all too easy to get lost in the world of digital marketing, to the point we forget the power of more traditional forms of marketing – such as human interaction, word of mouth marketing, and paper based formats.
Indeed, not all that long ago, if you were a small business owner then you would go to your local newsagent or corner shop and place a postcard sized advert (either handwritten or professionally printed) that touted your services to the local community with a phone number, and that was your marketing done.
Today, however, due to the phenomenon of information overload where it’s becoming harder and harder to attract people’s attention, let alone engage with them on a meaningful level, it seems all forms of marketing need to be much higher fidelity – both from a creative and intellectual perspective along with a more polished finish; for instance, it would now seem necessary to find a specialty printer to produce high quality documents rather than printing at home.
Similarly, in the digital world, it’s no longer about having a website for your business, or a social media page; that’s not enough today – it’s all about creating the most engaging and attractive digital collateral to ensure you reach the hearts and minds of your audience… as otherwise, they will pass you by and click off.
Therefore, it’s important to master the skill of marketing and look at the three core aspects:
- ATTRACT
The first step in the process of marketing is that you need to attract people’s attention, which means, you need to interrupt their current thoughts – distracting them enough to grab their attention and consider your message. This is why so many marketing campaigns use questions, intense visuals, or focus on a particular pain point so that people stop their inner thoughts for a moment and focus on what it is you want them to focus on.
There are many ways to attract your audience, though one of the most compelling is to use a question within your marketing material – as this way, people can’t help but answer. For instance, try not to think about the answer to this question.
- ENGAGE
Now that you have your audience’s attention you need to engage them, and the best way to engage people is to make it about them, rather than you… meaning, you must make your marketing about how you solve their problems, rather than about how great your company is. Focus on the audience rather than your company and you will engage them much more.
- CONVERT
The final step in the formula is to convert their attention and engagement into action – meaning, they do a particular thing, such as call you or visit your website. In terms of converting a looker into a buyer on your website, again, it is all about creating value for the customer by focusing on their needs; as most people prefer to focus much more on themselves rather than your company.
Growing Forward 