The Tuesday Business Corner: Improve your marketing materials

The objective of most B2B marketing materials is to trigger enough interest that your target gets in touch.

So, your aim is to convince people to call, not convince them to buy.

This means the only criterion when deciding on content is “will this persuade someone to get in touch?” This is very different to “will the content sell our products/company, so the readers know everything, and could buy without even speaking to us?”

• This new focus makes your content
• shorter (good for them)
• cheaper (good for you), and
• more focused (good for you both)

Examples of content that convinces people to call are:

A name and number to contact. If you don’t include your contact details, they don’t know how to contact you. So they won’t. And, if you don’t include a personal contact, they won’t know who to contact. After all, emailing “office@…” doesn’t make people feel very special, does it?

Have an engaging title and/or subtitle. A title’s only aim is to convince someone to want to read on. Unengaging titles like “About us”, “Our services”, and “Our history” just don’t engage. A better formula is “Helping you to (insert benefit)”.

Free advice. When people read your marketing material, you want them to think “well, I’ve never thought about it like that before”. Include top tips, common errors people make, etc, so they feel compelled to find out more.

Include a brief example of your ability to deliver. Remember: facts tell, stories sell. Include a testimonial and/or very short case study. The best ones contain (1) an impressive customer name and (2) the impact you caused, not just the work you did.

Include 1-2 jaw-dropping credentials (if you have them). “Our customers include the Royal Family” is pretty compelling. “We have 17 offices and here’s our map” isn’t.

Mention your unique way of doing things (if you have one, and it’s interesting). Only include things that others can’t say. So “unparalleled market knowledge” isn’t unique – everyone says things like this. Better is: “All agencies do A, B and C. But we find this results in (bad thing). So, we also do D and E, which gives you (good thing)”.

If in doubt, make it shorter. Remember, you’re looking to convince people to call, not buy.

And the best way to trigger interest? Almost always, through word of mouth. Next week’s Tip will show simple ways how to achieve this. But, for now…

Action Point

Review your current marketing material, asking “if I knew nothing about this company, would I get in touch?” Use the above list to help improve it.

And, when creating new material, use the list in the order it appears. So, start with a name/number to call, and then work backwards to the title, then the free advice… You’ll find you end up with shorter, and much more compelling, material.


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Written by NativeEnglish

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