Thoughts on Marketing…

Chase it off! Wait a minute. That’s NOT what you want to do.

None of us want to do that – at least not unless we come up against a customer or client who is rude and obnoxious. And even then, we have to be careful because telling them to get lost would trigger a whole lot of negative word-of-mouth advertising.

But sometimes it’s easy to get a little carried away. And sometimes when a would-be customer chooses to do business with someone we know won’t serve them as well as we would we really feel like asking them if they’re crazy.

Many times when I was selling real estate I heard agents bash other agents – and that’s always the wrong thing to do. Putting those thoughts in print for all the world to see is even worse.

So I was really startled when I saw a professional copywriter do a version of that.

Sometimes, just to check on the competition, I look at other copywriter’s website. One that I found recently really shocked me. After telling what a wonderful writer she was, she went on to say that people who used any other writer were stupid.

Yes, really. Stupid.

She had a long story about quality and how it always shows. She compared writing to choosing a dress. If you buy a genuine designer dress you’ll look like a million, but if you buy the discount store knock-off you’ll “look like a hooker.”

I couldn’t believe what I was reading.

So what’s my point? I know you don’t have the kind of arrogance it took to write that web page – if you did you wouldn’t be reading about marketing. But you might be tempted to compare your service with someone else’s. Don’t do it.

Resist the temptation to compare yourself with anyone. Show your customers what you’ll do for them and don’t even mention your competitors.

Just emphasize the benefits they’ll get with you.