Daniel Wadleigh

W hether you are writing promotions, creating your marketing mission statement or creating a business plan, the key to success is the buying public’s confidence in your claims of benefits to them.

This is one of those “make you or break you” kind of things, for the long run. As stated before, in “Marketing for the Long Run,” not only do you need to eliminate all possible perceptions of deceit or unreliability, you need to establish two things.

1. You must establish proof or documentation of your claims. If you are selling on price only, you need to compare your prices with the market average or somebody really big and very noticeable. If you are selling on selection, you need to say something stronger than “many brands to choose from.” Everybody says that. You need to say, “Biggest selection in town” or “More hats than Harry,” or better yet, “Nobody has more options to help you make the perfect choice.” This last one gives you an example of the description of the benefit to the customer derived from the feature of selection.

2. You need to establish credibility as early as possible; it heightens the attention and response potential of customers. The earlier that you document your claims, the more believable everything else you say will be!

Credibility can be established by using testimonials, studies, or tests by recognized sources. Testimonials can be tricky. Studies need to either be documentable (findable) or else done by an acknowledged credible source. Tests fall into the same category, it isn’t enough to say “studies prove that. . .,” you need to say, “A 1998 study by the Boston University School of Medicine says. . .”

It’s the marketing of credibility that gets leads and sales. “Marketing of Dependability” gets you the ever important and lucrative referral business. Establish credibility early and establish it strong!

Next time, “Focus on Your Strong Suit.” You need to be remembered!

Daniel Wadleigh is Marketing Director of Profit Experts of Austin, TX. Excerpts are from “Profit Controlled Marketing” ( www.appropriatemarketing.com

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