Imagine if you will a large room filled with several thousand people…I mentioned it was large right? Somewhere in this crowd are one or two hundred voices that have something important to say and they really want to be heard. So, those voices jump up onto their chairs and start shouting to the crowd as loud as they can, all at the same time.
Who do you listen to, and why?
Unless you are really lucky and have a product that is the only one of its kind, this scenario describes your marketing environment. You are trying to get people to listen to what you have to say from right out there in the middle of all those other voices who are doing and saying almost exactly the same things.
Now, if you are one of the members of the crowd, chances are you’re going to listen to the voice that can convince you that what they have to say makes a difference to you, personally. And you will only listen if they can convince you that what they have to say is somehow different than what everybody else is trying to say. Why waste your time if they can’t do that, right? You’ve probably already heard it all from one of the other voices anyway.
Important to you, personally. Different from everybody else. Now you’re listening.
That’s really the difference between good marketing and bad marketing. Bad marketing is marketing that shouts your name out to anyone that will listen without telling them anything about why your name makes a difference to them. Good marketing is marketing that tells people why your name makes a difference to them while it tells them your name. Good marketing has substance behind what it says. Real content that matters to the listener.
So, how do you tell if what you’re saying, or what your marketing group is saying, is doing more than just shouting nonsense at the crowd?
There are a lot of really sophisticated ways of answering this question. There are tests, and studies, and numbers, and charts, and usability evaluations, and all sorts of other methods. But before you take that plunge try asking those that have heard your name two simple questions: “What does (place name here) have to offer you?” and “What is it that makes (place name here) different from everybody else?”
If the answer to either of those questions is “I can’t say” or “I don’t know” or anything of that nature, it may be time to pull out some of those other methods and start checking to see if what you are doing is making a difference. If your audience remembers your name, but can’t answer those questions you are probably just shouting your name at the crowd.
There is a disclaimer here that says something about the above results not being solely the result of bad marketing, but I will dispense with that and just say that’s why you start checking. There are a lot of things that can influence your marketing results…but if it were me, I would look there first.
“What does (place name here) have to offer you?”
“What is it that makes (place name here) different from everybody else?”