There are those in business who relish sophistication in processes and systems but when it comes to marketing, sophisticated ideas will only muddy up your messages. If you have an important idea to convey, remember the KISS rule; keep it simple, stupid. Why? Because your audience wants ease and brevity. Once you add more than two or three ancillary features or components to your main value proposition, you dilute, spread around and complicate your main idea. By all means, be well prepared to articulate every fine detail of your value delivery but save those details until your audience wants or needs to know them.
A Simple 4-Step Approach to Persuasion
If you need to make your message understandable and actionable, there’s a simple methodology you can use called AIDA (Attention – Interest – Desire – Action).
Attention: First you need your audience to notice you and listen. Make a bold, singular promise.
Interest: Once listening, build interest in how you will enrich them. Begin to reveal some unique key benefits. This is really the make or break stage because interest can be lost as quickly as gained.
Desire: One way to know if your prospect has reached the desired stage is by the questions they ask. If their questions focus on recommended service levels, budget ranges, or what actual implementation involves, you and your prospect have reached the closing stage of the sale and are ready for…
ACTION! Unless your message is acted upon, why bother with branding, great web design and advertising? Why have salespeople? Marketing and sales cost a lot of money so they have to work! Your calls to action can be simple, such as direct contact links or more robust like full-blown presentations, depending on what you’re selling and to whom.
Content is gold. You have limited mind space and attention spans to work with. Avoid muddying the water by keeping your initial marketing message simple. A powerful first impression can set the ball rolling from Attention to ACTION faster than you expect.
Chuck Sink is CEO of Chuck Sink Link, Contoocook, N.H.
