Credit: depositphotos.com What are you passionate about? What do you do for fun? What activity would you do for the rest of your life, even if you weren’t getting paid for it?
The answers to those questions are what many of your clients do for a living.
Most of them didn’t create a financial analysis of their geographic area, determine an unfulfilled market niche for a dance academy, music store, massage clinic or an auto detailing center, and then proceed to open one.
No — most are just excited and enthusiastic about their enterprises, which often began as hobbies, interests or skills that they then turned into businesses.
They’re passionate about their products, services, people they work with and customers.
Want to create a campaign that stands out? As a marketing partner, ask your clients why they got into the business and encourage them to tell their stories. Capture the lightning in a jar. Transmit your clients’ passion to your audience in their commercials and you’ll help them succeed.
CONTAGIOUS
Why does this work?
We all love to hear about what someone actually loves. It’s real, it rings true and doesn’t sound like advertising.
Most of your local direct clients are entrepreneurs. They’ll each have their own version of passion: quiet, humorous, intense, heartfelt or dramatic.
You can capture passion from owners, customers, partners or employees. They won’t all have it, but the ones that do will make your job easier.
As you talk to them, listen for the things that excite them about what they do. Passion is contagious; and radio, when done right, is viral.
Remember, when you have this meeting with your client, record it.
Yes, you should take notes, but you won’t be able to write everything down fast enough to capture the good stuff — the passion. Plus, it’ll take your attention away from following your client’s train of thought.
There’s no excuse not to use your laptop, your iPad, iPod, your smartphone, any of the dozens of available handheld recorders to capture your client’s input. Let them know you want to make the best use of their time and accurately represent them.
When you turn their juice, attitude, electricity and unique points of view into stories, you’ll have commercials that will get attention and touch the hearts and imaginations of listeners.
After you record their stories, you can use a variety of approaches:
• Edit them into segments using their voices.
• Paraphrase their words and have other voices tell their stories.
• Use a single voice, or multiple voices with music and sound effects.
Just be careful not to lose the original passion when you translate it into commercials. I’ve used this technique with great success for fast food chains, fertility clinics, glass replacement shops, home theater installers, ski resorts, landscaping firms, automobile dealers and many, many others.
Remember, we’re not just selling radio. We’re helping businesses survive and prosper, helping families, changing lives and rebuilding local economies. It’s a big responsibility, but by simply sharing your client’s passion with your audience (and now you have some additional ways to do that), you can build success for your client and for you.
For more input on how to effectively reach clients, email[email protected].
