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Is your marketing magnetic?

December 7, 2011 by Dale Furtwengler — President, Furtwengler & Associates, P.C.

An interesting fact about magnets is that they can either attract or repel other magnets depending upon their polarity. Marketing also has the ability to attract or repel potential customers. Which is yours doing? Not sure? Here's a simple test:

Go to your website and answer the following questions as if you were a prospective customer:

• What result will I get from doing business with this company?
• What ROI can I expect on my investment? (Recognizing that ROI can be expressed as image enhancement, innovation or time savings.)

If you find the answers to these questions on your site, kudos; you're a rare bird - a value marketer. What you're more likely to see is:

• A list of the products/services your company provides.
• A company history.
• Unsubstantiated claims of how you're better than your competitors.
• Few, if any, results-based testimonials.
• A reference to "affordable prices."

Unfortunately, this information doesn't help a prospective buyer make an informed decision. From the buyer's perspective, absent the answers to the questions above, yours is merely another company offering what others in your industry offer. In other words, you're a commodity. And as we all know, price becomes the sole factor in commodity purchases.

One of the keys to higher prices is your ability, in marketing messages and sales scripts, to communicate the results the buyer can expect and what kind of return they'll get from those results. Answer these two questions and your marketing becomes a powerful magnet attracting customers that are willing to pay a premium to get what you have to offer.

Fail to answer these questions and your marketing becomes your competitors' favorite tool - a magnet that repels your prospects and gives them a shot at the business. The choice is yours.

About Dale Furtwengler

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