By: Michelle Abreu
Submitted: 2010-11-11 18:50:34 | Word Count: 899
Maybe you don’t have the design that would create a ruckus among your target market. Or maybe your small business doesn’t have the most appropriate card printing to represent your business as a professional. Whatever it is, you know that your marketing collaterals are not getting the record sales you hoped it would be able to. Your business cards and brochures are not connecting to your target audience the way you expect.
You’ve checked your design again and again. Gone back to the drawing board to come up with new ideas and new marketing tools to promote your business. But you’re still getting zilch in terms of the results you want. What’s wrong? How can you make your marketing collaterals more effective?
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Have you tried looking at your content lately? More than your design, your content is another element that you need to address in your marketing collaterals to draw your target audience in to your message.
Anyone can write a straightforward description or features of a product or service and then have it printed in the marketing collaterals. But smart business owners know that you need more than that. You need to have content that has the power to drive traffic to your website or attract audience to your print materials, as well as reinforce your brand to convince your target clients of your value as a service provider. A strong content than can draw your target clients to what you have to offer. It is what you need to have the results you want from your marketing campaign.
So how do you write effective content for your collaterals?
First of all, you need to know and understand your target audience. Writing is all about communicating. It is about you conveying your ideas to a target audience. So you need to know who you need to convey your message to. Who are your target audience? Who do you need to speak to? Where do they live? Where do they go to shop? What are they looking for? Consider also the demographics of your target audience. By knowing all these things, you will be able to focus your content and know what information you need to include that would surely entice them to your collaterals.
Next, be sure to catch people’s attention – those of your target audience, that is. You would want your target clients to not only be attracted to your message, but more importantly, you would want them to stay to know more of what you have to say, and ultimately make purchases to increase your profits. However, most people often spend only a couple of seconds to decide whether they want to stay more or move on. This means then that in that few seconds you need to be able to catch their attention and encourage them to stay more by placing your most important information where they can see it right away – the top right portion of your collateral. Always remember that your readers would be scanning briefly and probably won’t even bother to go down within the few seconds that they’re reading your content. So make it worth their while to follow your content from your headline down to the last part of your message.
And then always keep it simple. With the short attention span that your target audience has, your goal is to communicate your message in the shortest, simplest and most direct way possible. Keep your language simple and straightforward. You have to remember that your target clients are not looking for specialized knowledge at that time. They need to understand your message right away if you want them to go for your offer instantly.
Similarly, your layout should also be as uncluttered as you can make it. Don’t confuse or overwhelm your target readers with too many elements, especially if they’re not even necessary in emphasizing your point. The key is to organize your information in such a way that they are easily digestible using more bullet points rather than long winding paragraphs about your offer.
Then, be sure to sell your benefits in your content. Don’t waste your time talking about the technical description of your products. What matters to your target audience is what they can get from your offer. What is it to them? What benefits can they derive from your business? What can your product do for them? Rather than list the features, go directly to the benefits to keep your target clients interested.
Finally, don’t forget to edit and proofread your content. Nobody wants to be distracted with grammatically incorrect sentences and paragraphs or typographical errors. Weed out errors that look like it’s done by someone who is careless and therefore unprofessional. Before you submit your final print file to your printing company, be sure to review it many times. Or have someone else do a final check.
Learning to communicate means having effective content to convince your target audience of your worth. By providing them with good and solid copy, you can be sure to build a long lasting relationship that can definitely increase your sales as a result.
Author Resource:-
Michelle Abreu has been writing articles online for about 2 years now in a printing company. You can also check out this website for more information about how to make winning business cards, and tips on how to make successful online card printing, for a superior and smart marketing.
