Marketing Writing - Five Ideas to Help You Write to Attract Your Target Market
There are specific written business materials you need so that your business will attract your target market, and there are ways to write those pieces that are most effective. Before we detail those facts though, let's examine your knowledge of your target market. Most business owners are quite vague when they are asked about their target market, or when they have to put together a written target market description. If you have this problem in your marketing writing, realize that it's hard to attract a market unless you're clear on who they are. Before you do your marketing writing, do the work to get clear on your target market. There are no shortcuts to that process.
When you are clear on your target market, here are some ideas on how to write your business materials to attract your target market.
1) Clearly define the specific prospects you want to have as clients. The best place to start is by detailing the problems they have that you can solve. What are their lives like and what struggles do these issues cause them? What emotions do they experience, and what words and phrases do they use to describe those experiences? Your objective is to make these specific prospects and their problematic experiences as real, emotional, and authentic. You want to present a description that causes self-recognition in the exact segment of the market you are targeting.
2) Next, contrast that problem image with a clear picture of how things could be for them - once they have the solution you offer. What is different, and how do they feel about it? What are the new circumstances? What are they free from, and what does that make them feel? This is a place where you want to clearly demonstrate your depth of knowledge by using the words and phrases past clients have used. Describe how changed their lives have been and how changed your prospects' lives could be. Your objective is to make this so real that a prospect can "inhabit" the possibility. Make it tangible, believable, and exciting.
3) Keep your writing prospect-centric. One of the biggest challenges in doing your marketing writing is remembering that this is not about you, but rather about the target market you want to attract. You are talking about your prospect - what they feel and what they want. You may have to revisit your writing repeatedly to strip out language that's all about you, and refocus it on the prospect. Think about it this way, the prospect will gradually become interested in you - and your ability to deliver - once they've become convinced that you "know" them, their problems and the solutions they need.
4) Leave the jargon out. Such language drives a wedge between you and your prospect. If it took you years of study and specialized training to learn your skill, get help in eliminating "too technical" language from your business writing. Confine such language to "white paper" type writing that has specialized, in-depth information. In general, keep your marketing writing simple, easy to understand, and low tech.
5) Keep your target market in mind in all the business writing you do. Don't just have a little bit of prospect-centric information and veer back into "me, me, me" language. Think like your target market. In fact, if you once were your target market, that story can be very compelling. Prospects feel immediate trust when they know that you have struggled with the same issues. It's obvious that you truly do understand what it feels like to have those problems. If your story tells about the influences and experiences that led to your creating your solution, that's even more effective marketing writing. They can see and understand your path and the logic that led to the solution you provide. It's also inspiring to know that SOMEONE has freed themselves from the struggle.
To attract your target market, be clear on who they are and think and write - like your target market. When you're doing his effectively, attracting targeted prospects becomes easy.
1) Clearly define the specific prospects you want to have as clients. The best place to start is by detailing the problems they have that you can solve. What are their lives like and what struggles do these issues cause them? What emotions do they experience, and what words and phrases do they use to describe those experiences? Your objective is to make these specific prospects and their problematic experiences as real, emotional, and authentic. You want to present a description that causes self-recognition in the exact segment of the market you are targeting.
2) Next, contrast that problem image with a clear picture of how things could be for them - once they have the solution you offer. What is different, and how do they feel about it? What are the new circumstances? What are they free from, and what does that make them feel? This is a place where you want to clearly demonstrate your depth of knowledge by using the words and phrases past clients have used. Describe how changed their lives have been and how changed your prospects' lives could be. Your objective is to make this so real that a prospect can "inhabit" the possibility. Make it tangible, believable, and exciting.
3) Keep your writing prospect-centric. One of the biggest challenges in doing your marketing writing is remembering that this is not about you, but rather about the target market you want to attract. You are talking about your prospect - what they feel and what they want. You may have to revisit your writing repeatedly to strip out language that's all about you, and refocus it on the prospect. Think about it this way, the prospect will gradually become interested in you - and your ability to deliver - once they've become convinced that you "know" them, their problems and the solutions they need.
4) Leave the jargon out. Such language drives a wedge between you and your prospect. If it took you years of study and specialized training to learn your skill, get help in eliminating "too technical" language from your business writing. Confine such language to "white paper" type writing that has specialized, in-depth information. In general, keep your marketing writing simple, easy to understand, and low tech.
5) Keep your target market in mind in all the business writing you do. Don't just have a little bit of prospect-centric information and veer back into "me, me, me" language. Think like your target market. In fact, if you once were your target market, that story can be very compelling. Prospects feel immediate trust when they know that you have struggled with the same issues. It's obvious that you truly do understand what it feels like to have those problems. If your story tells about the influences and experiences that led to your creating your solution, that's even more effective marketing writing. They can see and understand your path and the logic that led to the solution you provide. It's also inspiring to know that SOMEONE has freed themselves from the struggle.
To attract your target market, be clear on who they are and think and write - like your target market. When you're doing his effectively, attracting targeted prospects becomes easy.
