2 Simple Steps To Creating Targeted Messages (cont.)
Crafting the Message and Headline
Armed with some helpful considerations about targeting your market, let’s say you are now ready to create a powerful message. Let’s pretend that you personally sell the Cadillac of lawn mowers, John Deere. With this in mind, you know just the right spin for your article starting with the headline which could be, “Lawnmowers: Did You Get The Best Deal?” I think I would probably want to read that if I had just purchased a lawnmower, wouldn’t you? Let’s look at another example.
Audience
Individuals who have owned the same lawnmower forever and desperately need a new one.
Message
(hint) People who need new lawnmowers or really anything are generally motivated by special deals. They may even be in the comparisons shopping phase of the buying cycle at which point you will now conveniently place yourself in the right place at the right time. However since John Deere is at the high end of all lawnmower pricing, you have to sell on quality – no problem! How about an excellent feature benefit article comparing all the bells and whistles of the John Deere vs. other comparable brands.
Possible Headlines
“Choosing a Quality Lawnmower at the Right Price” or “Why Putting off Buying a New Lawnmower is Actually Costing You Money” “Cut the Grass and Your Costs This Summer” “What You Should Know Before Purchasing that New Lawnmower”
Both audiences mentioned are part of the larger market of all people who buy lawnmowers. If we narrow our scope with our content, (imagine a dartboard) we increase our chances of hitting that bullseye. A bullseye in this case is what we call a conversion. A conversion could be any type of action taken by the reader as a result of our message and is not necessarily considered a purchase. Most often we have to win them over first, which is our goal when we write targeted content. Now the reality is; did we hit that bulls eye simply by breaking up our market? No not really. We hit that bullseye because our message had more impact.
Why did our message have more impact? It wasn’t because of our masterful skill of putting sentences together. It had impact because it hit home. Our audience ate it up, every last word of it, because it related to them. When we try to speak to our market as a whole unit, our message is diluted and while may have some highlights for certain groups within that market, we failed to make an impression that was strong enough to resonate and initiate action from them. As long as your message is well targeted, it will resonate with the intended market. In summary, targeted messages take a lot of the pain out of writing. In addition your message will have much more effect by it’s striking similarity to the audience for whom it was intended. This similarity is the key in provoking them to take action.
