One of the benefits of having my “baby” graduate, get a full-time job, and move out on her own (*sniff*sniff*) is that I get to leave my tiny office and move into her very nice-sized bedroom. I figured I’d do a major purge before “the big move” so I decided to clean out my large stack of trade journals and industry magazines… which, if you’re easily distracted like I am, can be quite an under taking. (Does this sound familiar… you block off 15 minutes to clean out a pile of magazines, but 2 hours and 14 articles later, you haven’t thrown away a single one?!)

I was flipping through my magazine pile to quickly decided which ones I absolutely needed to save when I spotted a magazine that had a very intriguing headline right on the cover. The topic fit perfectly with a client project we are currently working on, and I thought it would be a good idea to give a copy of the article to the ever-so-wonderful Michelle.

I quickly thumbed through the magazine, looking for the article. It was the cover story, so it should have been fairly easy to find, right? But I got to the end of the journal and didn’t find it. Never being one to ask for directions, I humbly turned to the table of contents, but still couldn’t find anything that matched the headline on the cover of the magazine. I paged through the magazine one more time, with a keen eye for the exact wording that I saw on the cover. But nope, couldn’t find it.

So I got mad and threw the magazine away.

Yeah, I know, you’re probably thinking “what an immature reaction” but the point is, it’s not an uncommon reaction, and there’s actually a lesson to be learned here.

Your clients and prospects have very short attention spans. They want what they want and they want it now. If you make them a promise (like offering a particular article on the cover of your magazine) you need to deliver on that promise quickly, or you risk losing their attention.

We’re living in a world of immediate gratification – no, this isn’t a social commentary; it’s just a statement of fact.  Everybody is so busy (busy, yes… productive, well, that’s another story) they’re just not going to spend more than a few seconds trying to find what they’re looking for.

Alright, you’re probably saying to yourself “I’m not a magazine publisher” but this concept actually applies to every “promise” you make to your clients and prospects. Where are you making these promises? I’m glad you asked.

How about your SEM campaigns? Does your PPC terminology match up with the wording at your website? When your prospect lands at your site, can she immediately find what you promised in your ad? If you’re noticing a high abandonment rate with your PPC ads, I suggest you walk through the exact click path with a very objective view point. Try to see exactly what the customer sees, not what you know is there. A great testing method is to watch your 80-year-old grandmother or 10-year-old neighbor as they navigate through the click path your prospects would take. Can they find what you’re offering in your PPC ad in 3 seconds or less?

And then there are your email messages. The nice thing about email marketing is that it is so extremely affordable. The downside is that it’s getting harder and harder everyday to get our messages into the in-box. There are times that we have to edit our email messages to the point that the wording doesn’t resemble the landing page at all anymore! What we’ve promised in our message might not be what we’re offering at the site. And that’s when we see a huge loss of conversion rate.

A great habit to get into is creating distinct landing pages for your email marketing links to ensure message-to-media-match. If you find it necessary to take certain words out of your email message, be sure to take those words out of your landing page also. This is where having a dedicated email-only landing page comes in handy, since you won’t have to risk losing conversion rate on your current web-based landing page.

(Just as an aside, if you’re having trouble getting your messages delivered, grab a copy of my spam words checklist.)

Don’t forget your radio spots. Make sure your employees are familiar with your ads currently running on the radio. If your radio spot is bragging about your Super Duper Summer Sale how will your employee respond when a new customer comes into your store asking about the Super Duper Summer Sale? Will he be able to deliver that promise, or will his response sound something more like “Huh? The super duper what? Uh, I’m not sure about that.”

Do you use coupons packs or card decks? Generally, the advertising company you’re using for your coupon pack offers to design your coupon for you, which seems like a great deal. The problem is, the coupons are often based off a fill-in-the-blanks template, which means what’s promised in the coupon might be very different from anything available in your store. Now I’m not implying that it’s false advertising or anything of that nature; I’m simply suggesting that your coupon holder might walk into your store and not immediately recognize what’s being offered – especially if one company created the coupon and a different company created your point-of-sale signage.

Do you have an ad in the Yellow Pages? If you’re advertising your website in your Yellow Pages ad, why not create a dedicated url strictly for that ad? This has a two-fold benefit. First, it’s great for tracking purposes. You’ll know how many people are coming to your site from your Yellow Pages ad – and whether or not that large financial outlay is actually worth it. Plus, you’ll be able to provide your prospects exactly what they’re looking for. The messaging and offer on your home page will more than likely change from time to time. Unfortunately, your Yellow Pages ad will last for an entire year. By providing a dedicated landing page, you can present an offer that you won’t need to change until your next Yellow Pages ad is published. The promise you make in your ad can be immediately delivered on at your site.

The point I’m trying to make is that you can’t expect your prospects to do your work for you. It’s not your prospect’s job to dig through your material or comb your store aisles looking for what it was you promised. It’s your job to give it her, and give it to her quickly. And, since it’s a total win-win situation, why wouldn’t you want to do just that?

You might also be interested in:

• How Does Your Landing Page Measure Up?
• SEO or SEM?
• The Three Key Elements of Irresistible Email Subject Lines
• Turning Your Direct Mail Campaign Into An Online Lead Generating Machine
• 5 Ways to Get Unstuck in Your Marketing – Part 1

This entry was posted on Monday, May 3rd, 2010 at 9:27 am and is filed under Small Business Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.