From the course: Small Business Marketing

Knowing your value proposition

From the course: Small Business Marketing

Knowing your value proposition

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- Once you know the audience you're talking to, you can create powerful and personalized messaging. Your messaging is how a consumer will come to interact with your product, to decide if it's right for them. And this messaging is present at every touchpoint, from the very first visit to your website, the interaction on an advertisement, all the way through to the decision to purchase. Now, you may be so lucky to never have to spend a dollar on advertising, but you must have powerful messaging, otherwise even the best brands will never connect with their intended audience. To persuade a customer to buy, you must communicate your value effectively and you do this through strategic messaging. One of the main attributes of strategic messaging is consistency. The best messaging is always simple and consistent. So, start by evaluating your current messaging to see how consistently your organization talks about your products and compare that with how your current customers talk about your product. Ask everyone in the company to participate in this simple exercise. Have them send you an email with one sentence answering the following questions. What is it that we do? What is the problem that we're solving? And how are we different from our competitors? And why should customers buy from us? Compare this with your messaging. Is it fitting the narrative? Who's off? The team or the message? You'll have to fix one or the other if they don't align. Now when it comes time for creating the messaging, use this approach. One, tell a good convincing story. Storytelling captures people's attention and motivates them to take action. To be convincing, make sure your product or brand comes across as trustworthy, confident, empathetic, and composed. And two, appeal to emotion. People buy on emotion and then justify it with facts. Remember to focus on outcomes that are inspirational, aspirational, or would represent a significant milestone for a person or company. And three, be clear. Avoid fancy words and use more conventional language. Four, be obvious. Don't assume that your audience understands terms that you use in your communication. Use obvious words or define ones that aren't so obvious. Be sure that your message contains a flavor of your value proposition and use the same tone and theme across all of your marketing platforms. Understand your audience, tell a great story, and be authentic.

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