Who are those people you're selling to?
If you're in the IT business, that's an important question.
Most marketers are keen to profile their prospects. For some
products and services, these may be 'people with a large lawn',
'married couples over retirement age' or 'students living away
from home'.
What about your targets? Perhaps 'businesses running Microsoft
Exchange', 'people running an e-commerce Web site that require
more advanced visitor analysis' or 'telcos offering an
increasing diversity of services'. In each case, you almost
certainly have more than one type of person to talk to within
your target groups - the techies and the business people. Those
who bite first, and those who control the budget!
*Be careful to say the right things to the right people*
Whoever you're talking to, they need to be excited by your copy
- as someone in the advertising business once said, said 'no-one
was ever bored into buying anything'. And different people are
respond to different things. Broadly, you should talk technology
and technology benefits to technical people, and business
benefits to the budget holders.
*Look at it this way*
You need to really put yourself in their shoes and understand
what matters to them. As a contact of mine would say - where's
the pain? What are the pressures on the enterprise, department
or even the marketplace as a whole?
Can you present a persuasive Return On Investment? Can you show
how your product or service removes the pain?
It's all about identifying with your audience.