Are Your Ads Trying To Be Everything To Everybody?

In a recent article,

Marketing Beyond Advertising’s Tom Wanek said:

“Powerful marketing messages make a statement  by choosing who to lose. Weak marketing messages attempt to please everyone, and in the end, please no one.”

It’s a pretty common mistake, made in a lot of radio ads.  Trying to say too much in your ads.  And it’s a very easy trap to fall into. 

First of all, you as a business owner, know a lot about your business or service.  You’re proud of it – and you should be – so it’s only natural to want to tell everyone all the things you do.  But here’s something you need to hear – and I’m sorry this is going to sound a bit rough.  Listeners just don’t care.

See everyone is self-centered.  I know we try to claim we’re not, but we’re hard-wired that way.  Self-preservation is one of the most basic of humanity’s driving force.  And I believe that forces us to think about our welfare a lot more often then we consider.  And if that is true, when we’re listening to radio ads we’re trying to gauge how the message we’re hearing is going to impact our lives – in essence “what does this have to do with me”? 

But if you’re not talking to me, because you’ve forgotten that I am indeed an individual, with different immediate wants and needs than everyone else, but you’re still trying to lump me in – well in truth, you’ve lost me (and a lot of others too).

So in actuality, instead of reaching everyone, you reach no-one.  So how do you actually talk directly to those who would be interested in your product?  Eliminate those who wouldn’t be interested! I know you think you don’t want to do this – but you do.  Regardless of what you sell or market, there are just going to be people who are not interested in what you have.  So lose them -- purposely!

How?  Choose one aspect of your business – aimed at a very specific part of your consumer base, and then talk to them exactly as they talk.

That means if they talk about your product using jargon – you should use jargon too.  And don’t worry for a second that it alienates a lot of the people listening, because they were never going to be your customer anyway, and if by some miracle you were to get some of them to come in, they’d only waste your time asking a lot of questions that your targeted customers would never ask.

This is the key to making a powerful, laser-guided ad.  That’s in essence what the quote at the top of this post means. 

So go ahead, say it proud.  Say it powerfully.  And say it in the language your target customer is going to understand.  And lose everyone else. 

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/solidether/1084349065/">solidether</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a