Marketing Techniques

Whenever I am in discussion with a new coach about marketing, we need to talk both about finding your own marketing voice and about marketing techniques. The distinction is important and can be confusing to some. As I have written about previously, your marketing voice is what you say in a way that is uniquely you. My marketing voice is the way I talk about Biz instead of business, it is the frank approach that I take to telling it like it is for beginning coaches, it is the clever and I think, funny, little phrases I use from time to time. Marketing technique is something else. It is the tried and true ways that marketers have found that work to get people to respond. It is certain ways of using your words and how they are structured to get the most bang you can out of your voice.

Let’s take an example. When you write sales copy of any kind, one of the most important pieces of it is the headline. If you don’t spark someone’s interest with the headline, then they are not going to read the rest of the great stuff you have to say. There are certain techniques and sequences of words that are known to attract people’s attention. As a business person, you need to read up on headlines and what makes effective attention-grabbers. At the same time, you want to be sure that your headline speaks in your voice. Generally when you are trying to create a headline for sales copy, you need to write 5-10 possibilities until you begin to get a sense of which one really does work for you. Make sure you are using the techniques for good headlines in all of them and you can’t go wrong.

Another example is what is called a sales page – the one page website with the sole purpose of getting you to buy something. It is vital that your sales page sounds like you and says things in the way that you might express them personally. At the same time, it is equally as important that your sales page contains the important elements needed to effectively get someone to buy your product. While you are putting in the great headline, the testimonials, the results your product helps achieve and all the rest, you are doing it in a way that is unique to you. When you can combine both your unique marketing voice and the power of research by others on effective marketing techniques, then your marketing will be powerful and draw those clients to you that truly understand what you have to offer.