Your potential customers can't hear you. With the average person exposed to anywhere from a few hundred to a couple thousand ads a day, you need to make sure you stand out. You can't be vague in your messages to your customers. You must make sure you are reaching your target audience, and then make sure you are communicating the benefits of your product to them. You need to get potential customers interested enough in your message and your product to reach out to you. To visit your store or Web site. Then you can develop a relationship with the customer, which is the first step in the selling process.



How do you effectively communicate with your potential customers and make sure that you are heard, seen and read above your competitors and other advertisers? Read on to find out how.

Target your market. Decide who you want to reach with your marketing efforts. Define as much about your target customer as possible. Is this person (or people) men or women? What age group do they fall into? Do you want to narrow it down further by occupation or lifestyle? What about the area they live in? If you have a clear idea of who you are trying to connect with, you'll have a better chance of actually connecting with them while you create your marketing messages.

Market to a broad audience. Act as a specialist by targeting your market, but deliver your message broadly. If you are marketing a dermatologist's office, yes, you want people with skin problems so you market to their general doctors, but who else could use a dermatologist's expertise? You could use postcard marketing and mail some informational full color postcards pieces to a cancer center. With skin cancer on the rise, market to cancer centers, supermarkets that sell sunblock and you can get more generalized from there.

Speak directly to the customer. Tell your prospects their needs and wants. Tell them how you can fulfill their needs and wants, but focus on them, not you. Focus on how you can help them with a solution. Show how you've helped others just like them with similar problems or wants.

Talk about your benefits, not just your features. People don't care about the newest technology. They care about how the newest technology will help them. How will it be a benefit in their lives? Meticulously define your benefits and the best way to communicate them to your customers. Will you save them money? How? Give an example of how your product or service benefitted someone else.

Complexity does not impress. Don't convolute your message with big words, industry jargon or long sentences. People understand simple words in simple formats. Don't try to impress by throwing in words they'll have to look up – no one will. You could “complicate” things by mailing out full color postcards – the color is enough interest to draw the customer in. Your simple message will do the rest of the work.

Come up with a catchy slogan. A slogan is a phrase that expresses something about a benefit or feature of a product or service. Burger King for example uses “Have it your way.” This clearly states that you can have your food any way you want it. They exist to accommodate you.

Get feedback. Show your ads or copy to friends, family or co-workers before you let the world take a look at them. These people are part of your world, and could be in your target audience. Getting their opinions can make your ads so much better. If you have the resources, use a focus group of your target market and use their feedback to make changes for the better.

Provide easy-to-understand information. Use words that your target market will understand. This applies to everything from your postcard marketing campaign to your Web site. Clearly label your Web site address, your business address and phone number, and any other information the customer needs to know. Include any instructions needed, like directions to get to your store.