I Don’t Like Your Tone
by Andrew Shedden
Being frequently preoccupied with work sometimes means being a little less than fully engaged with the external world. Work can periodically spill into your home life and make you seriously consider whether you’re working too hard. To misquote Martha this is “Not a good thing.”
The other day I was watching one of the Austin Powers movies with my kids (for about the ninth time) and Dr. Evil told his son Scott that he didn’t like his tone. This is a statement that resonates with virtually every child, having been told this at one time or another by parents, teachers, and other authority figures. Because I tend to spend a little too much time thinking about my job I’m afraid that Dr. Evil’s statement had resonance of a different kind for me.
One of the greatest communications hurdles faced by companies is their inability to set the right tone in their marketing communications. Far too much effort is put into stridently communicating the glorious wonders of dealing with your company is, while little or no time is spent on accurately addressing the concerns of your prospects. Companies hard sell when they should soft pedal; they yell when they should whisper. This atonality is largely the end result of company wide introspection.
If you want to set the right tone in your marketing communications be certain to practice empathy in your communications. This is very easy to accomplish, simply view your business as your prospects would and then address them as if you were speaking to them. While this may seem to be a fairly obvious and simple practice what truly is obvious is how few companies actually do this.
Let’s say you are putting together the marketing materials for your company that sells a $249 small business startup course. If you are like most of your competitors you will emphasize the fact that your course is fast, informative, quickly learned, and only has 1 calorie per serving. While all of this may well be true you would dramatically increase your marketing effectiveness if you practiced empathy in devising your message.
Consider your prospects wants, needs, fears, and desires
Why would someone be interested in a small business startup course? The obvious answer is to tell the boss to shove it, make millions of dollars, retire early and live a life of sybaritic ease in Monaco. The truth may be somewhat more prosaic. Perhaps the end results more likely sought by your prospects would resemble the following:
Reassurance that the course they are buying is reliable
Reassurance that the course they are buying is effective
A business that will provide a realistic first year income goal of $500 per week
Reassurance that they will get strong backup and ongoing support
Reassurance that if they feel that they made the wrong purchasing decision they will get a refund
If you craft your marketing message to address the above points you will be amazed at how much better you’ll do. Effective marketing communications need to be written at about a Grade 10 level, don’t be superfluous or pedantic, and eschew obfuscation. There are no bonus points for million dollar words and you don’t get extra marks for cleverness. The true measurement of success in your marketing communications is their ability to convert suspects to prospects.
Utilize a calm and reassuring tone
The amount of advertising clutter in the modern marketplace is thoroughly astonishing. You can find advertising on bananas in your local grocery store. This makes it increasingly challenging to rise above the crowd and leads to no end of advertising and promotional excesses. Many companies continue to pour astronomical sums of money into ever more wild marketing communications campaigns in a vain effort to be noticed.
The person with the loudest voice won’t win all of the arguments. Sometimes a soft voice and a good strategy is all you need to run rings around your competitors. If you spend more time determining what your prospects really want and present it calmly you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll break through the clutter.
What you say is important, how you say it is equally so. Brazen, shrieking me-centred copy is an enormous insult to the intelligence of the average reader. If you really want to differentiate your company in the marketplace be reassuring and show great empathy in your communications.
