Here we will look at improving the results from your marketing efforts using the 3M method of marketing. This method will help you get more business from your most profitable prospects and increase the return on investment you get from your advertising.
We wrote this in response to Peter in Newcastle who wants to be able to write better adverts so that he can better promote his music lessons. So here we will look at what is needed to make a sales letter or advert a real success with the 3M method of marketing.
In his email, Peter says …
“Hi Paul … I am a self employed music teacher and though I have been a music teacher for years, business is new to me. I am now semi retired but I love to teach music and I am wondering what advice you can give me to get more students. I have tried adverts in the local paper but they are hardly working for some reason … I honestly thought they would work!
Any ideas or advice gratefully received. Thanks.”
Hi Peter I hope you are well. Thanks for getting in touch. I love getting emails for help from people who are so passionate about what they do. I hope I can help you today.
Now I hear quite often from business owners who are trying newspaper ads, or magazine ads, or various other methods of marketing and are having poor results, and are on the verge of giving up advertising totally because they believe ads don’t work. But when you start to believe that remember this … adverts must work or the big businesses like McDonalds, fairy, galaxy chocolate and so on wouldn’t do it. These people are not silly with their advertising spend.
The great news is if you follow the 3M method of marketing you will soon start to convert your ads into buyers.
One of the main reasons that ads don’t convert is because every day, every single one of us is bombarded with thousands of sales pitches and advertising messages that are not applicable to us, so we drown out all advertising messages, even those that may actually be of interest to us.
Lets face it – our minds are concentrated on our own day to day living so we simply tune out those messages because we automatically assume their advertising message isn’t applicable to us.
So I want to introduce you to the 3m method of marketing. 3M stands for market message media. In any type of promotional media you create you need to answer the market message media formula to ensure you produce a highly targeted marketing campaign.
So, first of all, who is your target market? As a music teacher it is probably parents looking for a tutor for their children is that right? If so, are those parents more likely to be well off? Or is it the more mature person you are looking for? What does your ideal customer look like? Where are they? How much do they earn? Create your own target avatar to find out who you are most likely to appeal to. Do your research and find out who your market is and where they are most likely to live.
Message, is the second M of the 3M method of marketing. So, what is it you really want to say? More importantly, what can you say that would really attract your target audience as detailed in your target profile we spoke about a minute ago.
When you are putting your message together, always remember to speak to your target prospect as they themselves would like to be spoken to, not how you would speak. With all your advertising, it is essential you put the customer first in everything you do! So what message will really appeal to them?
Media is the 3rd M of the 3M formula for success? How are your target market likely to hear about you. If your ideal prospect is school age children, it may be even better for you to target their parents as they are most likely the ones who will be paying for the tuition, but how can you get in front of them? Does the school run a newsletter that you would pay or contribute towards in exchange for a small article in the newsletter? Could you put up a poster in reception? Would it be worth putting up a poster in your local health club if that is where the local Mums hang out, or the local café?
If you are targeting older people, where will they see your message? Would a targeted mail drop of a certain area be good picking for you?
One of the main reason that ads fail is because the market message media formula has gone wrong somewhere, so your task is to figure out where it has gone wrong and put it right.
I just want to talk about your articles headline – your headline is by far the most important part of any ad or sales letter because it has to catch the prospects eye and ensure the article is actually read, and your headline MUST be highly relevant to the prospect or they will simply ignore it. So Peter, does your headline solve a problem the prospect has, or is it bland and boring, or, even worse, is the headline about you and not how you can help the prospect? In all your advertising you must remember that the prospect doesn’t care about you and that your advert is ONLY there so you can show how you can solve a problem the prospect has, which in your case is are you the solving the prospects problem of not being able to find anyone who can teach them your skills.
A few more ideas to ensure you message packs a punch are:
- Make sure there is an offer – first lesson or 2 free maybe to see if you get along
- A Strong Guarantee
- Statistics – would it help if you said something like – over 85% of my students passed their grade 6 first time (or something like that)
- Testimonials from thrilled clients are always very good too including pictures of the customer if possible or a video testimonial
- Have you got a great referral scheme in place, as I run all my businesses based on referrals and all are highly profitable and growing too.
- Are local papers and the like the best way to reach your audience? I don’t know, but maybe a highly targeted mail drop might get you better results.
Ultimately, as with everything, the only way to really know what works is to start small and test and measure your results.
These are just a very quick few ideas, and as always Peter there are many more top tips on the businesssuperheroes.org website.
