You’ve Got the Sizzle Baby but Where’s the Steak?

Written by Karen D. Swim

Last week we talked about improving your marketing by adding a little sizzle. The combination of sizzle and substance will satisfy your market and entice them back for seconds.  The market can be forgiving of a lack of sizzle when the company has substance and high visibility.  Consider Google, who from the inception has focused on technical savvy and functionality rather than visually pleasing aesthetics. Craigslist is a visual nightmare but that has not stood in the way of worldwide use of the site.  Sizzle combined with substance provides a competitive advantage. On the other hand, a lack of substance is a guaranteed way to leave your readers hungry and searching for fulfillment elsewhere.

Here are three tips to help you fill your customer’s plate:

Pay attention to your content. You may believe that in this day when everyone skims rather than reads that you can let your content slide. Wrong! I visited a site last week that was breathtaking in its design aesthetics. Wanting to learn more about the company, I made the mistake of reading the content. I had to force myself not to rip my eyes out of my head.  The grammatical errors made me cringe. Instead of articulate, easy to read sentences there were run on paragraphs of buzzwords. It was obvious the company had intended to appeal to their market with “inside” language but the words hung together like puzzle pieces that were not in their proper place.  Even the press releases were a disaster! Please realize that your website, brochure or one-sheet may be your potential customer’s introduction to you and your company. Take the time to ensure that it is well written because many wil take time to actually read it.

Consider your market, and not your personal preferences. I recently worked with a client on a re-branding effort. His previous marketing materials including his website reflected his own personal tastes. The problem, however is that the marketing messages and images were completely unaligned with his company’s brand. The messages did not appeal to his target audience and the images clashed with the content. The result was an ineffective mess.  Your marketing should reflect some personality but ensure that you do so in a way that is not out of line with your market or brand image.

Tell them what, why and how in simple language.  When your potential customers read your words, they are essentially having a conversation with your company.  As you write, think of what you would say to Joe The Plumber or Shawna the Soccer Mom if they asked “What does your company do?” Will you answer them with industry acronyms or search optimized phrases? Or will you give than an easy to understand  explanation of how you help your market?  If you sell Pizza don’t tell them that you take dough, shape it into a sphere and lovingly cover it with freshly pureed tomatoes. Tell them you make pizza!

Your marketing does not have to be perfect to be effective.  A reader may forgive a typo (it happens in spite of our best efforts) but is unlikely to forgive unintentional grammatical errors, or wordy sentences that say nothing.  Treat your market with respect by delivering substance.

Have you ever made a purchase based on sizzle and been disappointed with the results?  Did it change the way you evaluate purchases?  Feel free to share your experiences, insights, or questions in the comments.  If you have specific questions you would like to see answered in a future post, shoot me an email at karenswim [at] gmail [dot] com.