“Awareness Attention Impact Action” is my mantra at the moment for all of my marketing communications.
Awareness is selecting just one or two channels to get ‘onto the radar’ of the target persona.
Attention is getting a glimmer of interest so they are looking in the right direction and pause for a moment.
Impact is then hitting them hard by attending to both their head and their heart.
Action is inspiring a defined response from them.
It all sounds so simple doesn’t it. Just four easy steps and the world is at your feet. But of course, as we know, it’s so much harder than that.
Let’s begin at the start, with the word Awareness. Over the years I have heard so often the words ‘we are creating brand awareness’, and then the lazy marketer thinks their work is done. The more competent marketer, and the one who will succeed, knows the work is only just beginning, because the return on customer awareness is only as good as the behaviour it inspires. Yes it is important to get lots of target customers aware of your brand, but far better to have 100 aware and willing to give you attention, than 1,000,000 who are aware but disinterested.
So now your target customer is aware we aim to get their attention. If you story-tell and make it personal, you are statistically more likely to be able to make an impact on them. Remember the clue, if you use social media, is in the word social?
With your customers’ attention secured you now have a fleeting moment to make an impact. Here is where you hit them with a simple, single, unique proposition. This is your USP. Again the key word is Unique. What value can they only get from you and nowhere else? The best method is to focus on how you will change their world for the good, rather than the details about your product or service.
You have now made an impact. All that’s left is for you to direct them succinctly and accurately to what you want them to do. Marketers use the term “Call to Action”. It might be a click or a phone call, signing a contract or giving you their credit card number. It’s a simple, single step. A behaviour that concludes your transaction.
So my call to action for you is for you to tell me how this mantra worked for you… Email me. Thank you.
