Does Your Marketing Message Have ROI Potential?
Can you capture a prospect's attention in under 10 seconds?
By Karen Hope,
Marketing Expert
When you were a kid and ran your first lemonade stand you knew that a sign saying “Lemonade” would attract the interest of your customer. What you did not know is that the sign was not working alone: it had your cute little face supporting it. Your sign told people what you were selling, but it was your young face that motivated them to buy the lemonade. Your sign combined with your face produced an ROI – Return on Investment.
The market place is cluttered with words on signs telling people what is for sale. However, often what’s missing is an impactful visual that works with words to attract interest. By definition, marketing is "the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services”. It makes sense that in order for marketing to work you need to CREATE A MESSAGE THAT ATTRACTS INTEREST.
Marketing messages can be delivered in many ways. Typically, a message is displayed in print or digital form combining words with visuals. However, if the chosen words have no meaning, the message is easily ignored and never received. If there is a visual supporting the message, the visual needs to work together with the words in order to have an impact. If a message does not have a “marketing punch”, there will be little to no motivation for anyone to take note or respond to what it says.
In the marketing world, a poorly crafted marketing piece will not produce a “ROI”. An ROI is important to any business that wants to build awareness and generate sales. That being said, there are many business owners who continue to spend good money after bad on marketing strategies that fail to bring an ROI. Often the messenger is blamed. They attribute their lack of ROI to the wrong media. But most often, the media is not to blame, but rather the message portrayed. I believe the reason many companies fail to get an ROI from their marketing spendfing is due to the fact that they do not hire professionals to craft their marketing messages.
To create a compelling marketing message, one must research the customer to understand their situation in this world. What is it they need most from your business? How can you make their world easier, nicer, faster, tastier, happier etc. Motivating a sale is all about how well you can get your message received, understood and accepted by a potential customer.
In a world with little time to dwell on any one thing, a marketing message must be clear, concise, creative and compelling - all in about 10 seconds. Whether you are posting on a website or handing out a brochure, your marketing message must pull together what it is you do and why you do it better than anyone else. Your message must be direct and state why you are the business to choose.
A marketing message with ROI potential should: “Catch the ATTENTION of a potential customer with a marketing message (strong text with visual) that will MOTIVATE them to take a desired ACTION (phone, email, store visit) that could translate into future SALES (ROI).”
Think about Canadian-made Royale Tissue and the fluffy white kittens in the magazine and TV ads. Royale is promoting the message that their tissue paper is the softest. What better way to communicate “soft” than with Persian kittens? Text supported with a visual can work wonders to get a key message across in 10 seconds.
Think about how you could create a marketing message that works, blending words together with a powerful visual. It’s not an easy task. If it was, everyone would be doing it. But when you get it right, you can sit back and watch the return on your investment come rolling in.
Does YOUR marketing message have ROI potential?
Karen Hope is the President of the Marketing Edge and a Food Marketing Expert located in Calgary, Alberta. To find out more about The Marketing Edge and its services please visit The Marketing Edge.
