B2B marketers: your audience wants simplicity

We're living in extraordinary times. Likewise, we’re doing business in extraordinary times. Our economy is a mess. (Think it's getting better? Ask the people still unemployed and losing their possessions.) We're still at war. The middle-east is chaotic, and the oil barons keep antagonizing us with yoyo pricing. In these times of market uncertainties and geopolitical frustration, how do you think your prospects and customers relate to your marketing efforts?

Does reading your web content make them feel like they've learned something valuable or that they’ve just wasted precious minutes they can never recover?

Do your e-mail promotions clarify their thoughts about your company, or insult their intelligence with banality?

Does your webinar ring clear and authentic, or does it just seem stupid?

Customers today are edgy, mentally overloaded, time crunched, and with a splintered attention span. Screaming media has them backed into a corner, and they're turning pit bull-like. People are tired of lame, unintelligible, crappy marketing messages. They want value for the time they spend reading, or watching, or listening to your spiel. In fact, they don't want a spiel at all. They want to emerge smarter, after they've been dosed with your message, than they were beforehand. They require real information to make important buying decisions. Too much information can overload the senses. Too little and you’ve created no desire. The wrong information will just turn them off--when that happens, you've lost them.

Make messages that matter
There's a way you can create effective marketing messages even if you're not a marketing wizard.

Think: Simple. Clear. Direct. And qualify every message you create by asking some pertinent questions.

• What's the message my audience wants me to deliver?
• Does my own agenda encroach upon that message?
• Do my words, ideas, and graphics deliver that message?
• Is my copy organized for clarity, brevity, and navigation?
• Is my message free of distractions, e.g., too much info, too many links, irrelevant links, digressions?
• Will my words connect on an emotional or intellectual level?
• Does the overall design complement my purpose?
• What do I expect this content to accomplish?
• Have I provided the right stuff to make that happen?

Do your target audience a favor and give them a story they can sink their teeth into. The B2B marketer’s mantra should be: Get back to basics! Answer these simple content questions for every marketing tool you create and your reward will be better communications, a happier audience, and improved bottom-line results.

Comments

[Honeytoasted]

Another excellent post. I couldn't agree more that "customers today are edgy, mentally overloaded, time crunched, and with a splintered attention span." This can most likely be said for businesses as well in a B2B marketing environment. In this world where millions of marketing messages are thrown out into the online world each day, keeping your message simple, clear, and direct will give you the advantage you need. Your list of questions to review when qualifying you marketing message are great. Particularly, they seem to greatly pertain to writing white papers (http://www.hoffmanmarcom.com/) as a marketing material and are a great place to start. Taking the time to write quality and clear messages will "improve bottom-line results."