Marketing really only has one purpose and that is to influence your prospects and customers. Without influence, you won’t be able to build the necessary trust to persuade your audience to buy from you. There’s no mystery involved in developing a systematic approach to your marketing. There are only four steps:

Interrupt + Engage + Educate + Call to Action = Influence

 

Step 1: INTERRUPT

You need to have a compelling headline or offer that interrupts your prospects and clients, so that they take notice of your marketing. You’ll want to design a message that turns off people’s “autopilot” - that unconscious haze where nothing gets noticed as they go about their day – so that they stop to check out what you’re talking about.

The best way to interrupt your prospects is to activate their brain by hitting their “hot buttons”. A hot button is something that generates an emotional response because it’s something important to them. The most effective way to do this is to identify and highlight what is their greatest pain, problem or frustration. Once you’ve activated your prospects’ brains, they’ll want to engage with your message to find out if it’s right for them.

They’ll be screaming (on the inside)  “Tell me more! Tell me more!” as they search your marketing copy to see if you can solve their problem or deliver the transformation they’re after.

 

Step 2: ENGAGE

After your ‘traffic stopping’ headline that interrupts prospects in the first step above, you need to assure your audience that you’ll provide the information they need.

This is where you engage your prospects after capturing their attention. Your message will need to convince them that you offer the information they need to make the best buying decision possible. Identify their frustrations and make it clear that you understand.

 

Step 3: EDUCATE

Ok, so now that you have interrupted and engaged your prospects, you must prove to them that you can actually solve their problem!

The next step is to teach your audience what they need to know in order to buy your solution. Make sure that you build a case that gives prospects and customers the confidence that buying from you is the best solution and buying from anyone else would be foolish.

This is best achieved by providing detailed information that educates your prospects – be quite specific about the benefits your product or service will deliver – so that they can justify their decision with logic. Even though we think we’re rational, we all buy on emotion and justify it afterwards with logic!

So, push all those hot buttons, but give your market logical reasons to purchase from you, so that buyers are confident in their decision to do business with you.

 

Step 4: CALL TO ACTION

Every marketing message should contain a low-risk offer to encourage prospects to take the next step in the sales process. This is called a Call to Action – ask them to do something.

The Call to Action usually entails the opportunity to receive additional information such as a report or brochure to further educate your prospects and build trust. The aim of this step is to allow prospects to feel in control of the final decision. A commanding offer can often improve response rates tenfold.

The Call to Action also enables you to capture those people who are not quite ready to buy, but who are happy to gather further information. As you continue to educate your prospects, they feel less at risk of making the wrong buying decision. They also trust your more and therefore, are more likely to buy from you when they are ready.

 

EXAMPLE

1. Interrupt

Thinking About Buying A Digital Camera?

Don’t have any idea what to look for or where to go?

2. Engage   

5 Things You Need To Know Before Buying A Digital Camera:

Price and budget
Mini, flip and professional
Zoom, zoom, zoom
Mega Pixels, Megabytes and Gigabytes
Built-in vs external microphone

3. Educate   

FREE REPORT: “5 Things You Need To Know Before Buying A Digital Camera”

Understand pricing and how to determine your budget
Learn to navigate the different cameras
Digital or optical zoom? Which is best for you?
What is a megapixel and why is it so important?
Find out when you might need to use an external microphone

4. Call to Action

Enter your name and contact details here to download your FREE REPORT now

            Or Call our store on 9898 3657 to get your FREE copy now

NOTE: Much of the detailed educational material is provided in the FREE REPORT in this example, but the points below the heading highlight the questions that the prospects need answered, so the education process has already begun.