Two seconds.
That’s how much time the average visitor to your Web site or reader of your
brochure will spend looking for something of interest. If you can’t pique interest
in two seconds, your time is up.
Ironically, it takes hours of planning and research to create marketing materials
that withstand the blink-of-an-eye test.
So how can you create materials that harness the power of rapid cognition? Here
are some tips to make your audiences linger.
Pretty is pointless if it doesn’t work
Whether your marketing team is in-house or freelance, you need results-driven
talent. And whether they are working in cyberspace or in print, your team should
know your expectations, the goals you want achieved and how to measure
results. A low bid and a concept with lots of bells and whistles mean nothing if
the “product” fails to boost your bottom line.
One-hit wonders no longer exist
Don’t be change averse. If you rely on one ad, one mailing or a Web site that
rarely changes, your business will stagnate. Remember, it takes multiple hits with
consistent messages to make a lasting impression.
Avoid stagnation with sound strategy
Growth is essential. To promote it, develop a strategy that pushes the scope and
structure of your business. Implement your strategy with a plan that is costeffective
and fiscally maintainable. Shape the plan to yield consistent messaging
and visuals. Mold it to reflect the organization’s mission and audience interaction.
To do this, you will need personnel who understand the big picture and who know
how to plan ahead for maximum momentum and impact.
Know the playing field
Once you have outlined your strategy and goals, it’s time to collect information.
You need to understand your customers and your competition. Gather demographics
and psycho-dynamics of your target audience. Then gauge your competition—know their strengths and weaknesses. From there, hone in on the factors
that make your organization unique. Skip this step, as so many organizations do,
and you are certain to misfire.
The power of collaboration
Be sure that your marketing team knows what you know. Your writers, designers
and production people must understand your strategy and goals. They must be
sympathetic to your organization’s mission. This is the first step to ensuring that
visuals and words work together with budget and goals.
None of this will happen if you and your team are not interacting and collaborating
throughout the process—from brainstorming to postproduction evaluation.
Every member of the team owes the project a best effort. And every member of
the team shares responsibility—and credit—for maximizing results.
Move your audience with strong information architecture
How do you communicate effectively and efficiently with your audience?
Start with sound information architecture. Think of this question as the foundation
for your materials: What do customers want and need to know about this
product or service?
Today’s customers want their questions answered immediately. And they want
pertinent details. In other words, they want to know how your product or service
will help them and why they should choose it over the competition. You can outline
your product’s virtues, discuss its fascinating evolution and crow about its
track record—but none of this will translate into results if you fail to communicate
how it benefits your customer.
How you communicate is just as important as what you communicate. Your
graphics and packaging should connect cognitively, emotionally and even physically
with your customer. A sensitive and savvy art director uses design, color,
fonts and images to connect the customer with the message. Your text, meanwhile,
should speak directly and personally to the reader. Through strong verbs
and an active voice, the text should energize and encourage action.
Assessment: What worked? What didn’t?
Your site is up, your brochures are at work. It’s time to evaluate your efforts.
How is your target audience responding to your efforts? What will make your
materials better? Have the materials generated the expected results? Did the
results justify the cost? Be honest and be critical. And don’t fret over mistakes.
They are an essential part of the learning process and of bottom-line success.