From the course: Small Business Secrets

Refining your message

From the course: Small Business Secrets

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Refining your message

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Often, small business play guessing games with their marketing. Now, guessing games can be fun in a personal sense but in a business sense, that's something that we want to avoid. We actually want to be much more strategic, much more targeted in the way that we reach out to customers. If we play guessing games by trying to sell anything to anyone. The result is a jumbled message, which means that most no one knows why they should do business with you. The reason why people do business with you, the reason why customers come in and buy is your most valuable message. This is not a slogan, it's not a tagline, it's not a unique selling proposition. It's just a statement in one to three words that sums up the most important reason why customers like to do business with you. How do we figure out what your most valuable message is? It's simple. We ask customers why. Now, many businesses ask the how question. How did you hear about us? But the how question is not nearly as valuable as the why question. Why did you choose us? You could have done business with someone else. What was it about our business that made you choose us? This why question is something we can ask at the point of sale, right at the moment where they do business with you. Now, we can ask customers who have been with you for a long period of time, but it's not nearly as valuable as when we ask new customers. Because there was something about your business that attracted them. We want to figure out what that is. So, I recommend that you ask perhaps ten to twenty customers why they bought from you. As best as possible, get their answers written down or write down notes on what they say. After you've asked ten to twenty people, you want to look through all the answers and find a common thread. What were the things that came up over and over again? For example, a dentist I worked with once found out that people thought it was enjoyable to go to her office. An IT company found that people thought that their company was caring. Whatever that phrase is you will see a trend. They may not use the exact same words but they'll be a common thread, of why. Once you've determined that most valuable message, you're ready to create a marketing palette. Now if you think about a painter, they have that palette available to them, where they pick up colors and put it on the canvas. That's exactly what we want to do in terms of marketing. We want to create a series of things, that convey that feeling of most valuable message. We've provided a worksheet where you can put that marketing palette together. The first section for the marketing palette is words. In this place, you'll put any words that you can think of that convey that most valuable message. For instance, if the word is simple, we might include things like easy or hassle free. You might want to use a thesaurus to help you with this process. The next section that you'll see is images. This is where you put description of pictures that convey that feeling. For instance, if your word is enjoyable, you might have happy, smiling people. This is also a great place where you can use a stock image place or other pictures, to help get you ideas on what kind of images match that palette. The next section is for sounds. Now, you may think, my business doesn't have any sounds, but what if you have on hold music? What if you are putting videos on your website? There are certain music sounds and certain sounds in nature and in the world that convey that message. And last, you'll see a section for smell or taste. Now again, that may seem odd for many businesses, but if you have an office, we want to make sure that that office gives a particular feeling through smell. Or perhaps you're offering snacks or treats to your best customers. One auto repair company that had their most valuable message as feeling like home had the smell of fresh, baked cookies when people came in. After you complete the marketing palette, review your current marketing against the words and the images and the sounds and smell and taste that you've created. Odds are as you go through that process, you'll find little areas for improvement. You'll find things that you can add in or change to help make that message come through in every single thing that you say to your potential customers. When you do that, your marketing becomes much more focused. And much easier to attract the kinds of customers you want to do business with.

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