Ironically enough, today marks my 15-year anniversary in the marketing business. And in celebration of this red-letter date, I’m offering up a tip on the single-most common problem with small business marketing:  Relevant benefit.

So what is relevant benefit? Simply put, it’s a message that speaks directly to and provides an resolution to a specific need of the customer.

When I say that relevant benefit is the most common problem with small business marketing, I mean that too often the business shapes their marketing message around how great the company, product or service is – the result is a very “me, me, me” message.

“Our product is revolutionary.”

“Our company has been around for 20 years.”

“Our president has umpteen years of industry experience.”

Great statements if you’re looking to make yourself feel good about what you do, but in most cases, it’s just excess noise to the potential customer. When I title this blog “It’s not me, it’s you.” that’s entirely the attitude a company must have in regards to its marketing. Advertising, when done right, is not an ego-centric proposition, it’s a value proposition. And far too often, especially with small businesses, it becomes a situation where a company spends more time telling people about how great it is in the hopes of building credibility, than it does telling customers about how much better their lives will be when they purchase the product or service in question.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to look at your product or service from the viewpoint of the customer.  Stop telling how good it is, and identify real and meaningful ways it can improve the lives of your customer. Every decision we make is based on an response to an emotional stimuli (‘will it make me happy’, ‘will it make my breath smell better’, ‘will it make me more attractive’, ‘will it make me more efficient’, etc.), and tapping into those needs is a great way to position your marketing message to have a tangible benefit to the customer.

As much as it may seem odd to say so, your marketing is less about you and more about the customer. Satisfy their needs and you’ll find that your needs will be met in return.

The purpose of marketing is to persuade people that you have the answers. So I ask you, what is a better way to get the response you seek? Is it to get on your soapbox and talk about your company, your staff and your reasons for being in business? Or is it to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and deliver your message in a way that directly communicates a real solution to their issues?

I’ll be the first to admit that all this seems like so much common sense. This isn’t a revolutionary breakthrough in marketing thought process; it’s been around for hundreds of years. But putting it into practice is often far harder than it seems. Over the years, I’ve seen thousands of small business (and some large business) marketing that fails to connect on a real level to the very people it means to reach.  If your advertising feels like it’s more about you than them, it’s probably time to step back and re-examine how you’re trying to communicate with your customers.

As you flip through the daily paper, watch television or sift through the contents of your mailbox, try to identify the marketing that attracts your attention. Then find the stuff that doesn’t. I’m sure you’ll easily point out a handful of advertisements that caught your attention; that spurred you to read further or open the envelope.  What’s that count look like? Five… ten… fifteen pieces? In fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s easier to identify the stuff you didn’t notice. All you have to do is look at your recycle pile.

Did you know that the average American is exposed to  5,000 advertising messages every day? Of that number they recognize only 52, and of that number they remember only 4. The point that I’m trying to make is that it’s difficult to get your message heard in a noisy world. These numbers only highlight how important it is to make sure that when you do get a customer’s attention, your message is instantly understood and has value to the reader –  it has to contain a relevant benefit. Stop posing credentials and start providing solutions. After all, it’s not about you, it’s about them.

So how do go about including relevant benefit in your marketing? Comment below, or hit our Facebook discussion board and let us know what you think!