If you act on your personal preferences rather than your target audience\u2019s, then you\u2019re likely to make the wrong decisions. Instead of putting yourself<\/em> in their shoes, get into their<\/em> heads.<\/p>\nFor better #marketing results, get into your target audiences' heads, not their shoes. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span>\n I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard time and again to cut jargon or replace it with simpler words and phrases. This advice is meant to make your marketing more conversational. And in some cases it does.<\/p>\n However, jargon is<\/em> conversational to specific audiences.<\/p>\n Car enthusiasts love talking about torque, horsepower, drivetrains and dozens of other specialized terms. This jargon makes what they are reading more compelling to them.<\/p>\n IT professionals are another example of an audience that uses their own vocabulary. In fact, the technical terms they use are so commonplace to them, that they often speak that way to people outside of their industry.<\/p>\n In these cases, taking the jargon out weakens your marketing. It sends your target audience the message that you don\u2019t them or the topic. It could even be insulting if you dumb it down too much.<\/p>\n So how do you decide what jargon to cut and what to keep?<\/p>\n Follow the advice in the first section. Get into your prospects\u2019 heads instead of their shoes. Don\u2019t worry whether a term has meaning to you. Find out if it means something to your audience. Keep the terms that do and get rid of the ones that don\u2019t.<\/p>\n The idealist in me loves this advice. Why leave anything up to guesswork when you can get definitive proof of what works and what doesn\u2019t? There are a couple of reasons.<\/p>\n Accurate testing requires time and volume. You need to let them run long enough to account for market fluctuations and reach a large enough sample size for statistical significance.<\/p>\n Optimizely has a calculator<\/a>\u00a0you can use to determine the sample size you need.<\/p>\n Simply plug in the expected conversion rate of your control, the minimum difference in conversion rate you are seeking and the acceptable statistical significance. The tool will automatically show the calculations every time you adjust one of the variables.<\/p>\n Knowing that you can only run a certain number of tests each year, you want to focus on the big stuff.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all seen articles about big wins by swapping a single word or changing the color of a button. But these types of tweaks won\u2019t usually provide the same impact as a test involving the offer or psychological appeal.<\/p>\n Plus, if you\u2019ve played with the sample size calculator, you know that as your change in conversion increases, the sample size needed decreases. That means testing the big things also gives you insights faster.<\/p>\n As a content creator, I\u2019d love to say that this is true. But as much as I\u2019d like to toot the value of my profession, content is not king. Context is.<\/p>\n In the early days of content marketing, you could get ahead simply by feeding the machine. Quantity mattered more than quality. Those days are long gone.<\/p>\n Content without context is just noise. And there\u2019s a lot of noise you need to rise above<\/a>. Every minute:<\/p>\n Source<\/a><\/p>\nContent without context is just noise. #blogging #contentmarketing <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span>\n If your content doesn\u2019t give me the information I need, at the time I need it, then it\u2019s worthless to me.<\/p>\n Conversely, if your content gives me exactly what I need at that moment in time, then I\u2019m likely to pay attention, even if it\u2019s not Pulitzer-worthy prose.<\/p>\n Always consider the context first.<\/p>\n Start with your target audience. Learn about their pain points and motivations. Think about what they already know and identify knowledge gaps. Consider where they are in your sales funnel and what it will take to get them to the next stage. Then craft your message specifically for them.<\/p>\n Some marketing techniques and formats are so ubiquitous that they\u2019ve become de facto requirements.<\/p>\n Every company needs a Facebook page, right? And if you have an online product, you have to run PPC ads. Or do you?<\/p>\n Groove, an online helpdesk software company, got rid of their Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0a while back, and they continue to grow steadily. At the time of this writing, their monthly revenue is over $341,000. And Dropbox learned the hard way<\/a> that Adwords were not a good strategy for them. It didn\u2019t prevent them from gaining millions of users.<\/p>\n These are just two examples of why you shouldn\u2019t blindly accept any marketing advice. No two products or services are alike. What works for one won\u2019t necessarily work for another. That goes for other blanket statements as well, such as _______ works better than ______ or long (or short) copy is best.<\/p>\n It takes guts to fly in the face of best practices, and you don\u2019t want to give up on anything prematurely, but you\u2019ll never get ahead if you\u2019re always following the pack.<\/p>\n You may have noticed that I mentioned understanding your target audience throughout this post. That\u2019s one of the most important takeaways.<\/p>\n The better you know your audience, the easier it will be to use their language, hit on their hot buttons, and make smart marketing decisions.<\/p>\nDon\u2019t use jargon<\/h3>\n
Test everything<\/h3>\n
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It\u2019s not feasible for most marketers.<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Not all hypotheses are worth the investment.<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Content is king<\/h3>\n
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You need to be doing _____________<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h3>\n