What's the Most Powerful Way to Attract New Clients?
By: Charlie Cook

Do you know what one of the most powerful incentives you can use in your marketing is? One that is guaranteed to capture your prospects' interest and attention?

You may be surprised to learn that it's not money or love. Is it making offers of products that are "guaranteed", "limited", "proven", "easy and simple to use", "on sale", "includes a free offer", or "new"? You're getting warmer.

Offers like the ones above are helpful in getting a prospect's attention and are some of the most important words you can use in your marketing, but they pale in comparison to the number one motivator that makes your products and services irresistible to your prospects.

What is it that makes your target market want to read your marketing materials, email you, call you and buy from you? Before I give you the answer, let me tell you a story.

I remember getting up at five on Christmas morning when I was six years old. I tiptoed halfway down the stairs and sat there in my pajamas looking at our Christmas tree and the presents underneath. I stayed there for hours until my parents finally got up sometime after seven.

What got me out of bed so early? Yes I was awed by the tall tree draped with lights and dripping with tinsel. But the presents were the key motivator. Not so much because I was dying to possess more toys or eat more fruitcake, but because I wanted to know what was in each one of those colorfully wrapped boxes under the tree. My curiosity was so powerful I couldn't sleep and I was up long before anyone should be on Christmas.

Whether you're six or sixty, curiosity is one of the most powerful motivators. What prompted you to read this far? You wanted to know the answer to the question I posed in the article's title.

We're all curious. Dorothy Parker said, "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." Spark a prospect's curiosity about your product or service, and there is no stopping them. They'll want to know if you can help them and how you are going to do it. Get them curious and you'll get their business.

How can you use curiosity in your marketing?

The headlines you use in your marketing are like the brightly colored wrapping on Christmas presents. With the right words, you'll grab your prospect's interest and it won't let up until they've satisfied their curiosity.

Below you'll find two ways you can use headlines to prompt prospects' curiosity.

Suggest a New Solution to A Problem. Use a question or a statement such as:

"Want to Attract More Clients and Grow Your Business?"

"How Much More Could You Be Making With These Ideas?"

"Discover How to Attract All The Clients You Want"

"Sign Up For Your Financial Analysis To Find Hidden Resources You Can Retire On."

Ask a question that is relevant to your prospects, and they will look for the answer to follow. Promise a solution to a problem and its guaranteed to get the curiosity of your prospects and prompt them to contact you. Then deliver on your promise.

Use unusual and provocative headlines to engage your prospects. Get their attention with a headline that is thought provoking or incomplete. Create a "cliffhanger" with your headline and prospects will read your marketing copy to satisfy their curiosity.

The tabloid newspapers use this strategy to sell papers every day. Take a look at these three samples:

"How to Use Liposuction to Repair Adobe Reader 6? And give it mouth-to-mouth respiration too" - from the Inquirer

"Monkeys At My Car!" - from the SUN

"February To Be Canceled" - from the World Wide Weekly News

Unusual, unexpected or incomplete headlines can generate interest. The problem with many of the tabloid headlines is they aren't always credible or accurate. Instead you can use the cliffhanger idea, but use it ethically and accurately to catch your prospects' attention. For example:

"My Prize-Winning Roses Would Wither Up and Die If It Weren't For"

"Soup on the rocks." - by Ogilvy for Campbells

"Have you ever seen a bald-headed sheep?" - from a 1954 ad for NIL-O-NAL, a lanolin cure for baldness

"They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano But When I Started to Play!" - written by John Caples for a mail order course

A creative headline will make your audience pause. It will prompt people to read your marketing materials and lead your prospects to buy.

Curiosity is a powerful motivator. Put it to work for your business. Create curiosity with your business card, mailings, s.ales letters and website. The more curiosity you create on the part of your prospects the more inquiries and sales you'll generate.


2005 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

- The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Frëe Marketing Plan eBook, '7 Steps to get more clients and grow your business' at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com