At least, it shouldn’t be trying to.
That’s not what marketing is all about. Probably never was, but the old bullhorn, hard-sell, “we’re new/improved/better! better! better!” approach has become even less effective over time.
So if that’s your goal, it’s no wonder your marketing isn’t working. 
Your attempts to attract and engage with prospects will be much more effective if you invest your time in making your prospects feel understood.
Their search for a solution is not a “sell me this pen” exercise to them. It’s a search for improvement in their business. (And sometimes their career and their lives.) Sometimes that search is career-defining, or even mission-critical. So you can imagine why they aren’t looking to be convinced of anything. What they are looking for is evidence that you understand the issue they’re facing and can provide a solution.
Show you have the experience
Don’t tell people you’re good. Show them. Offer examples where you’ve helped your clients overcome a challenge. Be sure your examples feature your client as the star of the show – it’s their success your prospects will be focused on, and that success is what will encourage them to seek you out as a trusted guide and advisor.
Demonstrate you’ve got the knowledge
Again, don’t tell people you know what you’re doing. Demonstrate it with marketing content that gives you the opportunity to comment on issues of importance to your target audience. Thoughtful commentary and insights make it clear that you understand their dilemma. No need to make claims. Let the evidence speak for itself.
Highlight Your Ability to Deliver
Establish that you have the approach or process to apply what you know and what you’ve done in the past to their situation. Few clients like feeling like just another prospect. So they don’t just want to see that you’ve helped others like them. They want to see that you understand the nuances of their situation well enough to help them, too.
As always, focusing on your prospects is the surest way to get them to focus on you. It’s not always as quick a process as we would like, but the odds of marketing success are far, far higher than a hard sell that banks on the luck of being in the right place at the right time.
Occasional large-scale changes can re-invigorate a marketing plan that’s beginning to falter and can provide a blast of inspiration that ripples out through the rest of your marketing. By the way, if you’re interested in hearing some of my podcast and radio appearances, you’ll find a few of them listed on the Andigo website.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
