May

9

Deer-in-the-headlights marketing: give them a reason

May 9, 2008 |

Here’s a thing I read yesterday:

… when someone in the audience recommended he better define a technical term, he said, “If you don’t understand it, I don’t have time to explain it.”

He then went on to say it would simply take too much time to explain the term…so he believes the potential investors “either get it or they don’t. Sorry.”

The two-word term could actually be easily defined in civilian language. This would, however, require “Acme’s” founder to get down off his high horse.

It’s not the job of VCs, or bankers, or customers to work at understanding why they should open their checkbook.

Here’s the thing: there are other reasons besides the high horse that could cause a microbusiness owner not to explain why their potential customers should open their checkbook.

Sometimes, the why seems so obvious to us that we literally find it difficult to come up with language — especially persuasive language — to explain.

Let’s face it: there really are some things that you might reasonably have trouble explaining to somebody why they need to buy it. Stuff like diapers and deodorant and Preparation H.

If you use feminine hygiene products (to be properly euphemistic), you don’t really need me to explain why.

But that obviousness doesn’t mean that no explanations are necessary. If that were the case, there would have been no reason for you to have launched your business to begin with. And, sure enough, I have had conversations with microbusiness owners that went like this:

Them: But why do I need to explain to anybody why they need to use diapers? If they need them, they already know they need them.

Me: Yeah, but why do they need these diapers? Why do they need to buy them from you?

Them: Eh … um … ah … er … well, they don’t, really.

That’s perfectly true. Nobody has to buy anything at all from you. And if you can’t think of any reason why they should, then you should probably be in a different line of work.

But, of course, when you’re dealing with people, things are often not what they seem.

(Pause for musical interlude … )

One big reason why it’s possible for me to have that kind of conversation with somebody who calls himself a business owner is pretty much the same reason why a lot of microbusiness owners feel like they’re allergic to marketing in the first place. They really, really don’t like that icky feeling you get when you stand up somewhere and yell: BUY MY STUFF! BUY MY STUFF!

And who can blame them?

But of course, there’s a difference between standing in the middle of the virtual square and yelling like that, and knowing, within yourself, why people should buy your stuff. Modesty is all well and good but, in this situation, you really do need to be able to articulate why a customer should buy your product, from you.

It might seem obvious to me why a microbusiness owner might need business news and analysis that is especially tailored for them and, if I was my only target customer, that would be fine.

But there was no news outlet for microbusiness owners before the launch of The MicroEnterprise Journal and microbusiness owners managed to do okay without it. Which means that I need to be able to explain to those microbusiness owners why they really do need my newsletter if I want them to buy a subscription for it.

It means explaining to them what a microbusiness is and why it is important for them to self-identify as a part of that subset of the small business universe.

It means educating them as to how microbusinesses are different from larger small businesses and why that matters.

It means empowering them with the information that they are important to the overall U.S. economy, in spite of their small size, and why that is and how it works.

Explain, educate, empower. That is how you first serve your customers.

There really was a reason why you launched your business, right?

What you need to do is let people know that there is more to Preparation H and deodorant and diapers than hemorrhoids and B.O. and baby doo.

What’s nice for a deer-in-the-headlights marketer is that you can do all of that for potential customers without ever once screaming “BUY MY STUFF” in anybody’s face.

(And props to Mary for writing the stuff that got me started.)

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