Is It Time To Let Your Mojo Loose?
"Call Us Today and Change Your Life!" Oh, yeah.
I get a real kick out of this little flyer.
Pretty heady claim, wouldn’t you say?
So what do we get to validate it? A throwaway email address and a phone number, sans area code.
Seems to me that if you’re going to trust someone to change your life, you might like to know a little about them first!
Yeah, I know. It’s just a flyer -an intro piece I found at my neighborhood grocery store. But let’s get real! Providing some visible evidence of your experience, or your credentials, or your capabilities, or just plain evidence of your own existence -is going to get people to take the first step towards buying what you’re selling. And this just doesn’t cut it -on SO many levels.
What’s With All The Anonymity, Anyway?
Alas, this penchant for playing the cards close to your vest isn’t just restricted to grocery store community bulletin boards.
I see this online all the time. Small businesses seem to be just as likely to attempt to conceal their identity as big companies. And what’s the rationale behind that? Why are you promoting your one-person business by mentioning only your company name, or referring to yourself in the plural as “we” and “us?”
Why have you decided to wear the Cloak of Invisibility and promote your just-like-everybody-else’s business instead of promoting your talented and remarkable selves?
What misguided advice are you following that makes you believe this is a great way to market your professional services or your products?
It’s horribly ineffective and it’s been the death of many a young business.
It’s Time To Let Your Mojo Loose.
Instead of hunkering down under that basket, stand up tall and take the point in your business. Get your personality behind your products, your star power behind your services!
The first step is to examine your website -all your marketing stuff, really -with a critical eye:
Does your name appear prominently on the first page?
Is there a bio of you that introduces you, describes your credentials, your experience, and what you can do for your clientele?
Is there a photo of you? (And not a passport type photo, either -rather, a photo that allows your personality to shine through?)
If visitors or readers want to get to know you better before contacting you personally, do you offer them more information in the form of a newsletter, articles to read, testimonials, a short video on your services?
More than One Star?
If your company has more than one person who provides services or works with the public, identify them all. If the business is really just you, with a few subcontractors as needed, that anonymous “we” in your marketing copy isn’t gonna fool anyone too long. Feature yourself as the company founder, and describe the benefits of working with you. Then identify some of your subcontractors by name, and give their backgrounds and strong suits, so prospects can see with whom they might be working.
:::
It’s no secret that we just don’t trust faceless companies anymore. We trust people. And it’s mighty difficult to find someone to trust at <insert name of your choice here> when the only live person we connect with will try hard to sell us even more products and services while we’re trying to straighten out the problems we have with our existing ones.
I have no doubt that, with enough Mojo going to build customer trust, small businesses will not only prevail, but they’ll prosper nicely. What other option do we have? As David Wiggs at marketinghitch recently remarked, “Something that we entrepreneurs all know; small businesses are resourceful, tenacious, and there IS no bailout for us. We have to make it work –we don’t have a choice. We can’t just pack it in and go home.”
Related posts:
- “AstroTurf Marketing” Is Some Bad Mojo.
- 7 Things People Want To Know About Your Company.
- Bad Mojo Day.
- Where Are Your Prospects Going For Opinions?
- “Take a picture -it’ll last longer!’”
- 5 Ways To Build Customer Trust With Your Website
Filed Under: Bad Business Mojo, Marketing Mojo on
