Do You Like Dog Food?

Many of you have dogs or other animals. They must be fed regularly.

When you go to the store for their food you don't buy what you would like to eat, do you? No, you buy what they like to eat. Makes sense? Right?

Why then, when you create marketing materials for your business do you shy away from certain approaches because you don't like them? Such as, conversational style, 2nd person, use of contractions, ending sentences with prepositions, etc.

What's easier to read and understand, "... I write in the manner to which I have become accustomed..." or " I write the way I'm used to?"

Do you think your customers are too sophisticated or too educated or too conservative for these approaches that you don't like? You opinion -- not theirs. You didn't ask.

Since you don't use these approaches you have no idea whether or not they work. You may be missing out on some serious money because of your preconceived notions of what you customers will respond to. You can do one of two things or both.

You can test or do research.

That's how you found which brand of food your animal likes. You tested different brands until you found one that produced the most enthusiastic tail wagging.

Do some research. Check around in your industry to see what marketing approaches your competitors are using. With few exceptions they may be doing exactly what you are. Is that because that's the best approach or the one that both you and they have gotten used to? Then check what approaches the exceptions are using. Some may be the ones you don't like.

Then test the approaches you don't like to see what gives the highest conversion rates. Not hits -- conversion rates. You can't buy dog food with hits.

Testing is the only reliable way to find out what works and what doesn't. Make testing of new approaches an integral part of you company's marketing process. That's what the top marketers do.