One of my associates sent me a promotional email she'd received. "I know this marketing communication doesn't work," she told me, "but why doesn't this make me want to buy?" I took a look, and what I saw was familiar and sad. The promotional piece was for a weekend retreat. I could feel all the good intentions behind it, but the words just lay on the page like tired puppies. Worn out. No zip. No life.

As solo business owners, we are often at a loss to understand why our words aren't getting a better response. Although an offer can fail for many reasons, I always recommend you look first to your marketing communication.

Why? Because if your message doesn't connect, you won't get much payoff from more exposure. Once your words really speak to people, you'll get more bang for your buck from more marketing activity or better alignment.

Here then, are the top 5 reasons your marketing communication may fail to strike a chord.

1. No Clear Focus for What You are Offering.

When we aren't clear on the ultimate outcome that we are delivering, we sometimes try boosting our appeal by offering to deliver everything under the sun. In this case? The retreat offered: renewal, creativity, connection, peace, appreciation of life, awareness, balance, and self-discovery

Phew! It's so many different ideas my poor brain can't wrap around it all. There's no central theme or image I can use to fix in my mind what she's offering. Instead of thinking "wow! I'd get a lot from this experience," I walk away thinking, "I am confused, and I wonder if the retreat leader is too."

2. No Verbal Markers that Say "I am talking to you!"

When we try to be a fit for everybody, we end up being a fit for nobody. Even when we think we believe in the law of attraction, our words often reflect our indecision or confusion about whom we want to reach. One sure sign that you aren't clear? When there are no concrete "identifiers" in your copy. By identifiers, I mean phrases like "as a working mom," "as a business owner," "in the workplace," "navigating the world of academia." These concrete markers confirm for the audience that your marketing communication was written for them. It makes it personal.

3. No New Insight into Your Audience's Struggle

It's no longer enough to let your audience know that you feel their pain. You have to quickly demonstrate that you have valuable insight into that pain. That you've made some connection they haven't about why they are stuck where they are. That gives them hope that what you are offering aren't the same old tired solutions that they've heard of before.

In this marketing piece, I would have liked to have heard answers to questions like "What is it that leads us to be so disconnected from ourselves?" "Why is renewal needed now more than ever?" Even something as simple as "The harder we work, the more we need quiet, open space to recharge our batteries" would have made me go, "hmm, could that be true for me?"

4. No Visible Plan for Delivering on Your Promise

Once you've shown that you know your audience, and you have a juicy and specific outcome to offer them, the communication shifts. Your reader is no longer asking, "Am I interested?" She is asking, "Do I believe this person can deliver on what they are promising?"

Testimonials are one way to establish credibility, but what testimonials don't do is create a picture for your audience of how you lead them step by step to the destination you've promised. When the way you deliver is a mystery, you're asking people to take a big leap of faith. When you describe your logic, process, or philosophy in a limited number of steps, your audience can see how your steps or ingredients add up to the outcome you are promising.

For example, if the woman offering the retreat had listed the "five stages of renewal" or the "three ingredients of creative discovery," her readers would have immediately believed more strongly that she could deliver.

5. No Fire in your Belly

To me, words are transparent. They reveal every nuance of who you are, how you see yourself in relationship to the world, and how you feel about your work. Since so many creative professionals say they hate marketing, it is a surprise that the communication they write comes across as strained and tense?

On a gut level, you readers will feel if you are writing from the place of consuming excitement about what you offer or from a place of caution and ambivalence. The more you let your words carry your passionate and full-hearted energy, the more your message will have an indefinable "something" that stirs the readers' soul and sparks their interest in what you offer.

Copyright 2004-5. Isabel Parlett. All rights reserved.

Isabel Parlett is a cutting-edge communication expert who helps innovative professionals stay current with the changing language of business. Get her free e-mail mini-course "The Secret Language of the New Economy" at http://www.parlancetraining.com