Speaking the language to create effective advertising messages

Marketing and advertising are how a business communicates with customers.   Communication is the “essence” of marketing.   Learning to effectively communicate with your customers begins with speaking your customer’s language.

In my book, Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results I take you step by step through this process.

First, you begin by identifying who your target customers are. Then, once you know who they are – then you can determine what “language” they speak.

You may be thinking, “Wait, Kathy!  My customers all speak English.  I already KNOW what language they speak.”

Ah – if it were that simple – I wouldn’t have had to go to the time and trouble to write a book on it.  It’s not enough to know that your customers speak English.

Several years ago, I moved to the South and this morning I got an email with this “funny”….

Southern Ten Commandments

Some people have trouble with all those ‘shall’s’ and ‘shall not’s’ in the Ten Commandments. Folks just aren’t used to talking in those terms.

So, in middle Tennessee  they translated the ‘King James’ into ‘ Jackson County ‘ language…..no joke

(posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Gainesboro , TN ).

This is  much easier to remember!!!

(1) Just one God
(2) Put nothin’ before God
(3) Watch yer mouth
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meetin’
(5) Honor yer Ma & Pa
(6) No killin’
(7) No foolin’ around with another fellow’s gal
(8) Don’t take what ain’t yers
(9) No tellin’ tales or gossipin’
(10) Don’t be hankerin’ for yer buddy’s stuff

Now that’s plain an’ simple.  Y’all have a nice day!

Seems that someone decided that putting the Ten Commandments into easy to understand ‘Southern Speak’ made it easier to remember rules that have been around for thousands of years.

If the Ten Commandments need “translating”  to make them “easier to remember” – what can you do with your marketing messages?

What language are your customers speaking?

Yesterday, I had a conversation with a budding entrepreneur who is building a business targeting caregivers.  The first question I asked is, “What kind of caregivers?”  Turns out, there are two “types” of caregivers:

• Mothers of young children
• Caretakers of their aging parents

The first category – mothers of young children are heavily into social media.  They are blogging, they are Twittering – they are heavy users of the internet.

It appears the second category – caretakers of aging parents – are not blogging, they’re not connecting – they’re not using the internet to communicate.  Unfortunately, when they do turn to the internet, according to my client, it’s usually to vent their resentment.

What’s fascinating about this is that these two “target markets” are not easily segmented by age – instead they must be defined by their “stage of life”.  It’s possible for a woman in her early 40′s to fit into EITHER of these two categories.  However, make no mistake – the marketing message you use to communicate effectively to one of these groups will not make the transition to the other.

Want to increase your advertising effectiveness?  Create and compose your marketing messages with a single customer in mind.  Go ahead – pick one – and then create a message specifically for that individual customer.

You’ll be surprised in the difference of the response!

If you need a step by step guide to creating truly effective marketing messages for your small business- pick up a copy of my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results.