The marketing and sales winners in the new economy moving forward will not be determined by the same set of metrics you’ve been told over the last two or three years.

If you are planning a new product or service launch in 2017, how you market it will be more intense, require more effort, and will need to be more personalized than ever.

Your ability to personalize your product or service will be the game changer that sets you apart from your competition, but more importantly, establishes you as the go-to company for your prospects and clients.

You will have to learn how to communicate and message your business in a way that you have never done before and may feel completely foreign and unnatural to you.

But to be successful, you will have to do what you haven’t done before.

How to Personalize Your Product or Service in a Non-Personal Environment

In order to reach your audience of those who are able, willing and ready to buy from you, it will require you to use non-personal media tools like your:

  • Website
  • Content Marketing (i.e. blogs, landing pages, content marketing, video, podcasting, email, etc.)
  • Social Media
  • Offline and Online Networking

I say non-personal because nearly 99% of businesses create websites and content that focus on features and benefits.

Features and benefits are in no way personal or relevant.

They are just statements of fact about what is being sold.

The challenge for us all is that we are trained to talk about “what” we do instead of “why” we do it a form that is relevant and meaningful to those you are attracting.

To personalize the product or service, you have to get highly specific.

You have to bring your prospects to that place, quickly, where they say to themselves:

“OMG, How Did You Know…”

Why?

Because consumers are telling us that they feel businesses are not relevant to them (B2B or B2C) and that they feel that businesses are more interested in selling than meeting their needs, solving their problems, or fulfilling their desires.

They want to feel that you understand them and where they are in their lives.

The way a product or service is personalized is to create content that is:

  • For one person
  • Who has one problem, need, or desire
  • And provide them one answer in each piece of content

That is all done through a concise, clear and relevant message.

What is Your Message?

By message, I’m asking you to proactively get into the minds of your consumers.

How does your product solve a problem, meet a need or want, or fulfill a desire?

Not from your point of view, but from your consumer’s point of view.

The challenge is that your consumers are only telling you 20% of what is on their minds. It’s your responsibility to discover the other 80%.

Consumers tell you 20% of what they want you to know. You have to discover the other 80%. @donpurdum

That’s where your message gets personal!

Do your prospects feel that:

  • You speak their language?
  • That you are relevant to where they are in their lives?
  • That you are interested in partnering with them or just selling them?

We all know that consumers are becoming more and more hesitant to spend their money in both the B2B and B2C world.

Yet, they still have needs and will spend money when they feel and believe that it makes sense to do so.

The question is; why should they spend their money with you?

Don’t Confuse Your Audience?

I meet businesses all of the time who confuse the online world with the offline world.

Online they are saying a lot of different things…

Offline they are saying other things.

Why?

First, it’s unintentional and comes from a lack of a message and fully understanding their audience’s needs, problems, wants and desires.

I relate it to debating.

If you don’t prepare for the debate, you are set-up to lose.

You have to know your position, but as importantly you have to know your opponents positions.

That means the debater has to prepare, research, study and know the core points they want to get across to the audience.

It’s the same in marketing and sales.

Consistency in the message is the key to success.

Don’t Market Your New Product or Service Without A Personalized Message

In the new economy, those who succeed will be the ones who understand their customers and how to relevantly talk their language.

It’s not just about being first on Google, content marketing, social media engagement, or driving traffic to your website.

Businesses who master the skill of a personal message over features and benefits will be the ones who connect, resonate and succeed.

Don’t launch your product or service until you have a clear, concise and relevant message.

It’s the missing link between just failing or just making it, and success.

If you have a question, thought or idea, please share below in the comments. I would love to interact with you.

Read more: Why Sales Winners Win