Does Your Marketing Pass The "Grandma Test"?

Your potential customers don’t have the time to sift through your business jargon. That’s where you come in…ta da!  Marketing departments must craft messages to earn customer trust.  I have been thinking a lot about content lately and have developed the “Grandma Test” when I create marketing campaigns.  If you think your message can influence a wise, older person, then you are on the track for great marketing.

Warning-If you talk down to your customers, then you are not going to earn their trust. Broken trust is typically a main reason most customers leave and look at your competition.

3 Objectives of Impactful Marketing Messages

1. Can Grandma Read the Message?

Are you using too many 5 and 6 syllable words and obscure language in your marketing?  Marketers love the thesaurus, but does it make sense?

2. Can Grandma Understand the Message?

Does your marketing message have a goal?  It should and sometimes it is about solving problems, not a hard-core product sell.

3. Can Grandma RELAY this Message?

Are you crafting something unique, in your print and online copy?   Can the message be relayed in other words without losing the message?  Your message needs to be memorable and interesting or you lose impact.

Look at your website/flyers/brochures. If you are in healthcare, are your materials full of clinical terms?  If you are in science and technology, can you simplify the general terms?  Steve had a great post on Friday discussing Simpology–apply these principles to your marketing. Take time and look at readability statistics when you create content in MS Word and write for an 8th grade level.

If marketing doesn’t pass the “Grandma Test”; go back to the drawing board and revise.

If you have grandparents around, ask them if there was a family motto that they have used; it can provide tremendous insight.  Do you have a family motto and do they pass the “Grandma Test”?  If you don’t have one, develop one.  I still think of mine today, “Pity the Man Who Tries to Make a Fool Out of Me”.  Strong words to live by and it passes the “Grandma Test”.