If you’re in the process of creating your marketing message, chances are you’re either avoiding working on it, or you’re caught in the endless cycle of tweaking to get the words exactly right. Painful.
Of course, there is one step beyond this, where you get up the courage to test it out on others. You call up a friend or two, or email them, and shyly share your marketing message.
Then you know why you didn’t want to share it. One person tells you, “I like it when you said ‘special.'” Another says they’re offended by the use of the word “special.” A third gives you a complete rewrite.
And a whole horde of people just tell you they “like it.” “Yeah, I really like that. Nice job.”
Nice, sincere people giving you their honest opinions. About as useful as a wet paper sack on apple pickin’ day.
The Purpose of an Initial Marketing Message
Your business is about helping someone with something. Hopefully lots of someones, but basically it’s about helping. And help is a funny thing with us humans.
People in general aren’t that keen on admitting they need help. So to avoid jam-ups, you want as direct a line between the help and people as possible. The most successful help responses happen when a particular problem is associated with a particular solution.
Here in the United States, “911” is the universal number for emergency services. If you have some kind of an emergency, you call 911. You can get police, the fire department, or paramedics at your door in less than five minutes in an urban area. Nice service.
It’s linked inextricably in people’s minds here. “Emergency… dial 911.”
Notice that the same kind of link functions, with less urgency, in other situations. Let’s say I’m a friend of yours, and I tell you my back hurts. Immediately, without thinking about it, you’ll probably say, “Hey, my chiropractor is great. Want her number?”
Or someone else mentions that their furnace just broke. “You’ve got to talk to Jason, he’s fantastic with furnace repair.” You need to replace the sink? A-Boy Plumbing here in Portland pops into my mind.
Think about challenges in your life, and how often a particular person or business pops into your mind in response to them. It may be a therapist, or a restaurant, or a yoga teacher. Some situation presents itself, and immediately that person or business pops up as the answer to that problem.
You want your marketing message to do that, but backwards.
Names and Faces
When you speak your marketing message, which is your answer to that painful question, What do you do?, my hope for you is that the other person has names and faces pop up immediately for them. “Oh yeah, my friend Barbara should talk to you.” Either that, or they self-identify, “That’s totally me. Tell me more.”
If you get that kind of response, then you know you’ve made that all-important association between what you do and a problem that other people are facing.
Any other response is useless, because it means they don’t really see you as helping people. Instead, they find themselves in editor mode, wanting to help you.
You can have the slickest, punchiest, clever-est marketing tagline in the world, and if people say, “That’s cool!” or “That’s nice” or “Wow,” then you’ve missed. Because you don’t need wow, nice or cool. You need clients.
A marketing message, tagline, elevator speech, whatever-you-call-it, doesn’t need to be cool. It doesn’t need to pack a punch. I see zero punch or clever-factor in, “Oh, your back is hurting? Call my chiropractor, Jane. She’ll help you out in a jiffy.”
But I don’t think you’d be complaining if your clients were doing the equivalent of that for you, would you?
Who and What Gets Names and Faces
Here at Heart of Business we call this core marketing message the Who-Who-What, because that’s what it is. You say who you help, and what you help them with. There are two parts to the “who” so that’s why the owl-like repetition.
I created a whole program about the who-who-what (it’s called How to Say What You Do In One Compelling Sentence now-a-days) that you should check out if you’re interested: How to Say What You Do In One Compelling Sentence. Whether you follow our template or someone else’s isn’t as important as whether you get the response that you need.
And that response is… yup, you’re right. Names and faces.
So Don’t Tell Them What You Do
It’s a funny thing, but telling people what you do just rarely gets you names and faces. Tell people you’re a chiropractor, and people will usually say, “Oh, that’s cool.” But say, “I help people with chronic back injuries who really want to get back to their normal lives,” and you’ll get names and faces. I just made that example up out of thin air, and I thought of someone I knew as I was typing it, without even trying to.
It’s simple, but it just works.
Except When It Doesn’t
The other response you may get is a blank stare or dead silence. It happens, and it’s okay.
Every day for years you drive past a certain corner and never really take notice. Then, you buy a motorcycle. Yes, you’re really that crazy. You just did it. And then you notice… oh, on that corner there’s a motorcycle repair shop.
You’d never seen it before, because you never needed to. And now you do.
Because your message isn’t going for “punchy” or “cool,” you just want to elicit simple, conversational names and faces, folks who don’t need you and don’t know anyone who needs you will just drive on by.
And that’s okay.
You just want to make sure that people you are trying to reach aren’t driving by because they can’t see you. If they are, time to tinker with the message.
An Example or Two
As students in our year-long Moneyflow course are beginning to take on this approach, they are noticing that people are responding to them far differently. No glazed eyes. No stumbled words. No feeling awkward. Just plain and simple, conversational. And then baboom.
Here are responses a doctor in our course is getting:
His message: I support people with cancer who are scared of what may happen and overwhelmed with trying to find a treatment plan that is both safe and effective.
The responses: People seem to respond well to this, especially when I remember to keep it succinct and invitational. The two reactions seem to be interest in knowing more or, more commonly, a desire to tell me about a person they’ve known who had, or has, cancer along with her or his experience with treatment.
Here are responses to a social worker in our course:
Her message: I help service providers who have lost themselves in their work and who want to find their way back to themselves.
The responses: I have had great response. People really connect with it, including folks who have lost themselves in their work who are not identified in my demographic. One friend started crying and said, “I could work with you.” I will keep testing, but I am feeling pretty solid in what I have captured here.
Do people cry when you tell them your marketing message?
Your Challenge
Run whatever you’re saying now to answer the question, What do you do? by some folks, and see what kind of a response you get.
Do you hear, “That’s nice,” or “I like it,” or “Why don’t you say it this way?”
Or do people say, “Oh, that’s me!” or “Gosh, I know lots of people you should talk to.” Do they break down and start crying, “Oh, I could work with you!”
If it’s the latter, you’re rockin’! If it’s the former, are you willing to trade in cool and punchy for simple and conversational?
Try it. You just might like all the names and faces that come your way.
Come share your thoughts below.
