Get the message right, fast. Then shout it out!
It’s been said often, but the easiest way to lose, or confuse a prospective client (or even an existing one) is to make the message about your business confusing. The idea needs to be to get that message across, particularly with prospective new clients, quickly, so they not only understand what you do, but the decision to use you can be made fast. And that doesn’t happen too often.
Regardless of whether it’s a slick elevator pitch, a business card, website, or social media, or just a conversation at a networking event, all too often the person you're talking to has no idea what you do, it’s confusion. People talk too much and yet say very little!
The problem I think is that we are too close to our business, and we think our product or service is enough to give us the success in our business we want, but in fact it isn’t! And it has less to do with that than most people realise.
1: It starts with clarity! Get the brand, message, logo and tagline clear. Think about it and continue to refine it until a stranger gets it in under 30 seconds.
2: Findable and memorable. Eliminate confusion, creative names, tricky spelling. That all makes it harder to be found. There is so much common sense in easy SEO, and Google Mybusiness, and straight forward domain names, that can’t be confused with other businesses.
3: Identify the unique reason that someone should use you over anyone else. And that can be hard, but if you don’t, you compete on price, or convenience. Have an indestructible why that no one else can offer, so they only buy from you. What is it?
4: The tagline. If that one sentence, or three-word description doesn’t tell someone what you do, re write it, until it does. Don’t have “we give great service, cheaper”, that’s not what you want!
5: Consistency. Colours, logos, branding, message, frequency. A post once a month won’t work, having a different look on your website and social media, will just confuse. The big guys like Coles, Coke Cole, Apple, Kodak and more spend millions to protect their brand for a reason.
Don’t delay a business start, don’t, not do any marketing because you’re perfecting the tagline and it isn’t quite right yet, do it, but keep improving it. Get laser focused on what to say, how to say it and why someone should use you and then tell everybody, all of the time, everywhere, and regularly. Shout it out loud! It’s not rocket science! (Or maybe it is?). There is generally a simple reason businesses don’t work, and it has little to do with the product and everything to do with everything else.
Businesses need to b’found, b’seen, b,heard, b’remembered and be the one. If they can’t see you, or can’t find you, they probably won’t buy.
