Differentiate! Know Yourself. Know Your Customer.
Posted on August 11, 2011 | Tags: online public relations, Personal Branding, Reputation Management
Do you know your prospect or customer well enough to capture his attention? Do you know enough about your message to know what to say?
Differentiating is just as much about you as it is about your customer. You actually need to know yourself (your products/services) as well as you know your customer. Why? You need to be able to select just the right messages.
In the early ’90s I started to work with talk radio show producers. Early on, I had the opportunity to be at CBS National Radio headquarters in New York. The producer I was visiting had a desk that was literally stacked several feet high with press packs and releases.
It was in those CBS offices where I discovered why it was our fledgling PR firm was getting such great response from talk stations around the country: my headlines were concise and spoke to the need of the producers. I knew my client’s subjects and I knew the mindset of the busy and overwhelmed producer and host.
Wading through the press materials from other firms and big publishing houses was …. well .. boring! Their headlines, written in 12 point, would often read something like:
John Doe Releases New Book About XXXX
Compare that with 36 point font headlines screaming a question, followed by smaller sub headlines, followed by short paragraphs that promised not to drone on.
I figured if I didn’t have ‘em after those three points .. it probably wasn’t a subject they’d be interested in anyway.
National Enquire-ish? Sure. Effective? You bet.
I KNEW the mindset of the talk show producer and host. I’d been a talk radio junkie in Boston since the early 80s and I listened to how subjects were introduced on the air.
Eventually, I applied the same principles to local tv. I watched how they introduced a story. What was the teaser? How did they talk to the audience? Once I understood that, writing to tv producers became equally as effective. They wanted to book our clients.
The same principles apply to your prospect. How do they want to be communicated to? Are you imposing what YOU believe to be interesting without really consulting their interests?
Know Yourself. Know Your Customer.
Get into their head. Imagine their mindset, their wants and frustrations.
Upcoming articles will delve into: The 3 Steps to Differentiating Yourself; How to Match Your Messages to Your Marketing; When Differentiation Matters Least; 5 Ways to Attract Your Prospect’s Attention, and How to Deploy Your Differentiation Strategy.
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