Annoying Managed IT Services Marketing?
Are you bombarding your audience with messages that eventually fade into the background as noise? Short attention spans may not be the problem -- it might be our messaging.
Pop-ups. Unsolicited email requests. Web and social media ads for products we don't care about. All of these things can feel like spam when they're not timed or targeted correctly -- or a useful tidbit that leads to a sale when you having your messaging and platform correct. As a marketer, how can you create a positive experience for your audience by sharing the right information, in the right format at the right time? There is a key tenet of marketing that is often overlooked: even if your product is precisely perfect for someone, they may still not be interested unless the timing is right. With today's digital marketing strategies, it's all about finding the tactics that start a two-way dialog with your customers without being disregarded by your audience as just another version of noise.
Removing the "Annoyance Factor" from Your Marketing
Want to rise above the noise? Start with removing the annoyance factor from your messaging. Does your marketing feel like a toddler jumping up and down in a corner and screaming for attention? Maybe not to internal teams, but if your messaging isn't extremely targeted, your prospects might be getting that impression. The message for today's marketers is that it's less important that you have a message everywhere and more important that you're hitting the right channels with the correct message. Are you marketing a professional service on Facebook or LinkedIn? If you don't understand the best practices of the platform you're advertising on, you're more likely to become part of the noise than an engaging partner in a conversation.
Clear and Consistent Messages Are More Likely to Be Heard
Do you have a series of marketing tactics that are all providing similar messaging points? It's challenging for prospects who see one clear concept on landing pages, different message points in their email inbox, and yet a third message being shared on social media. While it doesn't hurt to tweak the message points to work more effectively by platform, but maintaining a single prime directive reduces overall confusion for consumers and can amplify your message. While people's attention spans are not longer than a goldfish, we are wired differently. However, what we engage with is changing -- and our brains are tuning out messages that aren't relevant . . . often without us realizing that this filtering occurred. Storytelling is evolving dramatically, and marketers must evolve to stay relevant to our audiences.
Video Is Always Best -- Except When It Isn't
There is a tendency towards moving images to catch the eye, but they can also backfire if your prospects aren't in the right frame of mind. A video that aggressively launches as soon as you land on a website can be a frustration, especially if viewers have to spend time determining how to make the video stop. However, short-form videos in a social media platform pitching a relevant product or service or sharing knowledge can truly be a boon for people scrolling through their news feed. If the video doesn't add value to your message, consider a different form of media for your marketing.
Keep Your Content Snackable
There's definitely a place for long-form content -- in-depth articles that share detailed information, a range of tips and tricks or provide a how-to overview of a particular topic. That said, people often have only a few minutes to scan an article and get the key highlights before they're off to a meeting or scrolling further down their news feed. Breaking your content up into snackable pieces not only allows you to create a series of engaging articles or ideas but also keeps readers from getting bored and clicking off to the next thing to catch their eye. Everything you share should be high-quality as search engines tend to "vote down" sites that continually offer fluff to readers. Google's algorithms are targeted to do one thing and one thing only: answer the questions that searchers need to be answered even if the searcher doesn't understand how to correctly ask their core question. That's a critical concept and one that many marketers who are pushing keywords in their writing may not understand.
You've doubled-down on specific messaging. You have stunning visuals that support your storytelling. You're creating engaging information that quickly grabs attention for your users. But you're still struggling to get buyers to your products and services -- what could be wrong? Unfortunately, there's a core issue that marketers must address: the load times on their websites. In the world of buyers, milliseconds truly do count. Aggressively scale down the images on your site, ditch any excess scripting and do whatever you can to speed up your page load times. Creating a positive experience for users often starts with a website that loads blazingly fast on all platforms, especially mobile. Don't believe your infrastructure matters? Nearly 70% of consumers note that a slow load time impacts whether or not they hit the buy button. If you're not willing to give up almost 3/4 of your online sales, it might be time to optimize that website before you blame the marketers for reduced online sales volumes.
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