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2SUP-LG03 Lead Generation Messages
2SUP-LG03 Lead Generation Messages
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Key Points
The fundamentals for creating your lead generation message are your Central Demographic Model, unique selling proposition (USP), positioning statement, product attributes, and the channels youve selected. The four key parts of your message are: the attentiongetter, information, persuasion, and a call to action. The three creative elements you can use in your message are: words, images, and sensory elements. Remember that the lead generation channels you use will shape the way you present your message. The likelihood of people responding to your message increases to the extent that you can eliminate the customers perception of risk.
E-Myth Worldwide
Putting the Pieces Together
Santa Rosa, California, USA
TM
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Page 1
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
to them. Therefore, it wont strike them as relevant, and it wont have the ability to stimulate a response. It all comes together in your message. Its where all the work you did to understand the psychology of the people in your target market finally pays off: Establishing the positioning and sensory experience that have the right appeal, and selecting the right channels to reach them. Understanding the product attributes of greatest importance to them. Understanding their purchase decision needs. And now putting it all together in a message that:
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Attracts them to an opportunity to have their needs met, and I Promises them the gratification they want. Thats what youre striving for: significance, not merely structure; impact, not just ingredients; meaning, not simple mechanics. All you have to work with are words, images, and sensory elements, out of which you have to create significance, impact, and meaning. Does it call for more creativity than you can muster? Not at all. It just takes know-how. Creating the right message for your target market and for your business doesnt have to be difficult. It requires some homework, most of which youve already done, some insight, which youve already developed, and some techniques, which youre about to learn. But first youll need some philosophy to help you put the pieces together in a sensible way.
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
How do you attract and hold attention? Relevance is the key. Unless the customer can somehow relate your message to his or her own needs, the message is, at best, interesting or entertaining, and at worst, a waste of time. Either way, its useless for lead generation. Attracting attention in a way that is relevant to the customers need is the key to creating a lead generation opportunity. Relevance is what holds customers attention and compels them to engage with your message. Then, if the need is real and your message promises real gratification, the potential customer wont be able to turn away. Lead generation is assured. Without relevance, your message wont hold your customers attention, and it wont motivate the customer to respond. Without response, youve got nothing; with it, youve got a lead.
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Objective 4: Qualify your leads. Depending on your business and products, your lead generation message should usually discourage unqualified people from responding. Whos not qualified? People who would not be served by your product, people who cant afford your product, and people who dont have the ability to use your product. You dont want people responding to your message, only to be disappointed or angry when they discover what you offer isnt even in their ballpark, for whatever reason. Its more respectful to them, and more cost effective for you, to eliminate non-customers through your lead generation message than by using your salespeople to do it.
Review what you already know about your target market. Start by reviewing your unique selling proposition (USP) and positioning statement for your target market. These provide the basic elements and direction for your lead generation messages. (Refer to your work in Mastery Process 2D-04, Positioning and Differentiating Your Business.) Then review the psychological profilethe Central Psychographic Modelfor the market segment youre targeting. Be especially mindful of the emotional associations and the drives (functional and emotional needs) of the market. (Refer to your work in Mastery Process 2D-03, Customer Perceptions and Behavior.) Next, review the product attributes of importance for the target market. (Refer to your work in Mastery Process 2E-02, Product Strategy and Design.) Finally, review the requirements of the channels you have selected to reach the target market. Determine the constraints imposed by the channel and note the specifications that could impact your messagefor instance, how large your advertisement will be, whether it will be color or black and white, what kind of publication it is, how much time your radio ad will have. (Refer to the work you did in Mastery Process 2SUP-LG02, Lead Generation Channels.)
Develop the content of your message. Determine what the message has to communicate in terms of explicit information, impressions, and unconscious associations. Your message has four parts:
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
1. Attention-getter 2. Information (facts) 3. Persuasion (your promise and indications of emotional gratification) 4. Call to action and a way to respond First, think about each of these four areas generally, without worrying about the specific words and images youll use. What general approach will you take to get your target customers attention? What information or facts will they need? What promise will you make? What action do you want them to take? Develop the creative elements of your message. Now youll take the content youve decided on and plan exactly how youll present it in your lead generation message. The presentation of your message is built from three elements: 1. Wordsthe copy or text used in your message.
2. Imagesspecific mental pictures you create using words, pictures, and sounds. For example, the warmth and security of grandmothers kitchen is an image you can create with words, pictures, sounds, and smells (and even tastes and textures). 3. Sensory elementsthe colors, shapes, tastes, smells, textures, and sounds that your target market respond positively to, but are not necessarily part of a particular image youre trying to convey. For example, you might use bright blue lettering because it has high visibility and retention for your customers. Remember that in your final message, all the elements need to work together in a seamless, cohesive way. To your customer its one message, one look, and, for you, the only chance to make the right impression. Make sure your message appeals to both the conscious and unconscious mind, and avoid hype at all costs. Pre-test your message. If you can afford it, use professional market researchers to test your message. If you cant afford market researchers, conduct your own test or pick a few of your customers and ask them for their opinions (be aware that theyll react more positively to you than they would to neutral market researchers). If you cant do that, at least run your message by some of your more objective employees. They wont react exactly as your target customers would, but theyll provide some useful feedback.
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
5
Your New Best Friend
Track and quantify the message. Track all messages in each channel every time you use it. Quantify the number of times you run the message, the different channels, the different versions of the message, the different creative treatments, the costs, and, of course, the number of leads that result from each.
Theres an important trick you need to learn. All this information about your target market is just thatinformation, facts, data. By itself, its lifeless and lacking the connection thats essential to communicate with and have real impact on your market. The trick is making the connection, making your target market as real to you as your best friend. The goal is to create an intuitive understanding, a feel, a gut-level connection with them. Heres how you do it. As you review your target-market information, build a detailed mental image of a person who represents your target-market customer. If you know someone who fits your market, make that person your mental image. Get to know that person. Get a sense of his or her personality, tastes, attitudes, and opinions. Thats who your message has to connect with, speak to, move emotionally. Thats the person you have to know and understand. Thats your new best friend.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Display channels: size; lighting; weather conditions; location/placement. Direct-mail channels: envelope size; paper weight; mailbox size; class of mail; delivery time. Telemarketing channels: available time (length of message); time of day; limitations of sound quality. Radio: available time; time of day; content of programming surrounding your advertisement; live versus taped. Television: available time; time of day; content of programming surrounding your ad; print size and amount of information that can be shown visually. Public relations: editorial slant of the publication. Channels targeted to specific populations, such as political, religious, youth, seniors: ideas and language must conform to the standards of the group.
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The purpose of a headline is twofoldto grab your attention and interest, and to convey the essence of what follows. In the case of radio and television, the lead-in serves the same purpose as a headline does for print channels. The lead consists of the words, images, and sensory elements that carry you to the next part. Since the headline (or lead), the images, and the sensory elements that support it must attract the audiences attention and establish relevance, consider using your unique selling proposition, or some variation of it, as your headline. For
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
example, if your USP is To Enjoy the Good Life, that could be your headline. You could modify it slightly: The Good Life, Enjoying the Good Life, The Way to Live the Good Life. You could transform it into a question: Would You Like to Enjoy the Good Life? or Wouldnt You Like to Enjoy the Good Life? or Are You Ready to Enjoy the Good Life? You can even use an anxiety approach: Havent You Been Missing Out on the Good Life Long Enough? You should find your companys USP equally rich in headline opportunities. For printed messages, use subheads: In a recent nationwide (US) study, it was found that fully 85 percent of readers skim commercial communications rather than read them thoroughly. They only read through the communication if their skimming generates continued attention and interest. If your message will contain more than several sentences of text, you should consider using subheads, or subordinate headlines. Subheads make it easier to read and follow the text and they provide a summary of the main idea for those who wont read all the carefully crafted words in the text. Your subheadings can be mini-titles running through the text, or they can tell their own story. Here are two effective approaches for writing subheads that continue the story begun in the headline. Lets assume that your headline is, Wouldnt You Like to Enjoy the Good Life? Approach #1 is called anxietyanxietyrelief: Anxiety subhead 1: Anxiety subhead 2: Relief subhead 3: You dont get much of the good life. And, when you get it, its not what you wanted. Now you can get the good life, exactly the way you want it. You can have the good life. Its closer than you can imagine.
Fulfillment subhead 3: All it takes is a minute of your time. Of course, between the subheadings will be text giving the audience more information and meaning. Use your headlines (or leads) to establish and maintain the relevance of your product or service to your target customer. If
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
youre using only an image, make sure it has relevance. A sensory element as attention-gettera loud or unusual noise, a splash of colorcan attract people but will usually not carry much, if any, of the significance of your message. Information The main thing to remember when deciding what information to present in your message is simply: less is more. Unless youre advertising through direct mail or in full-page print ads, give readers a minimum of specific information, just enough to pique their interest and answer their key questions. Some types of information you can include are: I Important facts about your product and/or about your company
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Key facts about the customers needs, frustrations, and desires Information that answers the key questions the potential customer might ask. Key questions are those that enable the customer to confirm relevance (Does this really apply to me? Can I benefit from this product?) and to feel that he/she knows what the message is about (what the product is, basically what it does, what it will feel like to have it).
Persuasion The persuasive part of your message is where you inject the subjective, emotional element. It adds meaning and significance to the information and gives your message its flavor, its color, its positive and preferential connotation. It creates intimacy by speaking to your customers unconscious (and conscious) minds. Dont think of your persuasive elements as necessarily distinct and separate from the information youre presenting. Theyre often merged. Consider the statement, The extraordinary effectiveness of this product has been proven in hundreds of clinical tests over the last decade. Would you say this is information or is it persuasion? Its both, of course. Elements that add persuasiveness to your message are: I Promise of emotional gratification
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Logical benefits (based on functional needs) Emotional benefits (based on emotional needs) Elimination of risk or the perception of risk
These can be communicated explicitly (directly), through specific words and pictures, or implicitly (indirectly), through images and associations you attempt to create.
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Call to action and a way to respond Dont forget to let the audience know what you want them to do next. This is usually done in words (text), but dont neglect the impact of a visual or some other sensory element to encourage people to respond. A picture of your store, the sound of a telephone ringing, an image of someone dropping a response card in the mailthese make the experience more real and, therefore, more likely to happen. Regarding your call to action: I Tell the audience what to do, how to take action.
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Provide a way to respond. Offer a telephone number, preferably toll-free. Give a street address, possibly with cross street or directions. Provide a response card, preferably postage paid, preaddressed, and easy to complete (fill in the blanks or check the boxes). Include your internet web site address. Make it easy. Make it low-cost or, better yet, no-cost. Make it immediate. Eliminate all barriers to response.
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If you develop a compelling message and place it in the channel that reaches the customers you want, you will create a powerful magnetic field that attracts people to you. As you create your lead generation message, keep in mind that single customer who will be experiencing your business for the very first time through this message and this channel. Will she be attracted or repelled? What will her impressions be? Will she be moved to respond immediately, or will she experience resistance or hesitation?
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
What does your message convey that customers may perceive as risky? Here are a few examples: I Not credibleYour message doesnt sound right, it doesnt match my experience. Your advertising has too much hype.
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Not appropriateYour message doesnt fit my picture of myself: Its too high/low class, and not the kind of thing people like me would buy. Too expensiveI cant afford it. Not reliableIt might break down or not do what I need it to do.
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In other words, risk is whatever makes the customer uncomfortable with your product, your business, your people. So, how can you overcome risk? How can you help the prospective customer feel so comfortable with your offer that resistance melts away? I Honesty. Most people believe that if your product sounds too good to be true, it probably isnt true. Few things help a customer feel more comfortable than believing that someone is telling them the truth.
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Messages appropriate to the customers self-image. If youre not talking to me, your products probably not for me, either! Satisfying the customers decision-making needs (refer to the seven selling functions from Mastery Process 2F-03, Your Lead Conversion Process). Addressing the needs most important to your customersinformation, understanding, needs clarification, advice, assistance, reassurance, transaction processingwill go far to eliminate their perception of risk. Satisfying product/service needs (product attributes). Communicate that your product or service was designed specifically for your target customer. Show them, or tell them, how. (Refer to the work you did in Mastery Process 2E-02, Product Strategy and Design.)
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
But lead generation messages are tricky to create, and subtle things (intentional or unintentional) can have a major impact on your message, for better or worse. So its almost always money well-spent to get professional help with your lead generation messages. Consider using copywriters, graphic artists, advertising specialists, and public relations professionals. When you use professionals, dont abdicate lead generation to them. Its still your business, and you know more about it and about your target markets than they do. Graphic artists will create gorgeous images and designs, but they may not pay attention to the functionality of their designs (the graphics may be beautiful but convey the wrong impressions; the sensory elements may appeal to their tastes rather than those of your target market). Advertising agencies may select the channels (theyll call them media) that generate the highest income for them rather than the ones that will reach your target market most effectively. Copywriters may use words that are preferred in literary circles, but dont communicate the right tone or unconscious associations to your markets. Use the creativity of professionals, but dont let them intimidate you with their expertise. Respect their expertise, but also respect your own. You make the final decisions.
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
So, avoid negative messages and images about your business and your products. Negative elements in your message can be highly effective, but only if your product or service is the solution to the negative situation.
Copyright 1986, 1988, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2005 by E-Myth Worldwide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from E-Myth Worldwide.
Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Worksheets
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Unique Selling Proposition (USP), Positioning Statement, Sensory Package The USP for this target market is:
The key sensory elements (colors, shapes, etc.) for this target market are:
Emotional needs:
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Sensory impact:
Unconscious associations:
Conscious-mind conclusions:
Price/value:
Access/convenience:
Channel Requirements (For each channel you have selected to use with this target market, indicate the specifications that shape or constrain your message and its presentation.)
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Image(s):
Sensory element(s):
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
(Note any words or copy that should not be used for this market.)
Images (What image(s) do you want to create for your target customers? How will you create it? What words, pictures, sounds, etc. will you use? Use additional paper if needed.)
(Note any images that should not be used for this market.)
Sensory Elements (What other visuals, sounds, smells, tastes, textures, etc. will you use to create positive response to your message?)
(Note any sensory elements that should not be used for this market.)
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
Describe the action you will take based on the pre-test of your message:
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Mastery Impact! Supplemental Module: Advertising & Public Relations Business Development Process: 2SUP-LG03
B
CHANNEL
C
COST
D
COST PER THOUSAND EXPOSURES
E
NUMBER OF LEADS GENERATED
F
COST PER LEAD (CE)
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