Marketing Motivates Action

When preparing marketing communication, be sure you can answer this question: what action do you want to your audience to take when they receive your marketing communication?

It's a simple question, but too often small business owners miss the mark on their marketing pieces. They forget that each marketing communcation must motivate some action. Each sign, ad, e-mail, web page, presentation, blog post, tweet or other marketing message should push its intended audience to do something.

The easiest way to think about how to use marketing to motivate action is to remember the sales funnel: contacts become prospects, prospects become leads, leads become customers, customers become advocates.

Each marketing communication needs to move your target through the sales funnel.

Here is one simple example:

1) Simple branding--like logos, signage or letterhead--should create awareness and generate more contacts.

2) A website, for example, might convert contacts into prospects with valuable content.

3) Prospects become leads once they complete an opt-in form on your website, or otherwise give you their follow up information.

4) Leads convert into customers with some strong sales calls using scripts.

5) And finally, customers become advocates after their experience with your product or service encourages them to tell others.

One thing is common in each step: the marketing is set up to encourage action. Each marketing communication motivates action to the next step.

To move your business to the next level--and to move your target market through the sales funnel--be sure that your marketing motivates action.

So next time you have to create some marketing--no matter what marketing you choose--ask yourself: does this piece encourage action and movement through the sales funnel in the best way possible?

The answer to that question may have you rethink how you communicate your message and how you market your small business.