I have to admit that I’m tired of this cliché. I’ve heard it over and over again since the eighth grade. In so much of our business and personal lives, the exact opposite seems to be true. An airplane that can fly at 180 knots at Flight Level 230 is better than one that tops at 9,500 feet msl and 120 knots. A six-room bungalow is better than a studio apartment. An 18-ounce New York strip is better than meatloaf. We could go on and on.
With everything in our world that points to higher, faster, farther, and more as being superior, when is smaller, simpler, and downsized actually better?
In our industry, we often see marketing messages as a confusing array of multiple offerings that look more like a comprehensive catalog of services rather than a singular, focused idea. Many of them will rattle on and on with a deep level of detail that requires some dedicated reading time to get through. When you engage in a marketing campaign, whether it is one that goes on in perpetuity (such as your website) or one that is finite in scope and duration (such as a spring event), it is important to keep the message(s) segmented, compartmentalized, and very brief.
With these thoughts in mind, what can we do to change our marketing messages to current and prospective customers?
When you create marketing copy of any kind in the future, run them through this quick checklist.
The goal of marketing is to drive people to your phone or front door. It’s not to try to convince them to start a program or rating with you. That’s the point of sales, which is a completely separate discipline.
The key problem with so much of our marketing is that it’s trying to accomplish way too much at one time in one place. In a sense, many schools are trying to accomplish both sales and marketing with tools like their website. I guess in this case less really is more.
P. Jerry Lee is president and founder of aviation marketing and sales training firm Mach1 Consultants.
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