THE MOST WASTED (FREE) MARKETING OPPORTUNITY IN THE WORLD
For 15 years, I co-owned a marquee company. It wasn’t just any old marquee company. We had a production dream team, a creatively inspired co-owner and a vision to provide our customers with the best and most beautiful marquee parties, events and weddings.
We stocked structures, props, staging, dancefloors, lighting and linings that no one else in the country had. We provided the most personalised and bespoke levels of service to our clients. We lived and breathed the event industry motto, ‘you’re only as good as your last job’.
And we failed. Quite miserably in the end. Before we failed, we plateaued. We were stuck. For some reason, we just couldn’t get any further.
One day, post-failure, I had a memory. I remembered someone asking me at a drinks party, ‘what do you do?’. This was right around the time where our marquee enterprise had branched into full event design with theming, lighting… all of the bells-and-whistles. It was an exciting time for us because we had fine-tuned all the strings to our bow. We were all set to provide our customers with a mind-blowing one-stop-shop solution for their marquee wedding or party.
So what did I reply to the dinner party question? I replied, ‘It’s complicated – it’s hard to explain…..we do lots of things…we’re not just a ’ and then I rambled on and on…
And this reply is the reason why a business that deserved to win, failed. We didn’t know what to say when someone asked ‘what do you do?’ Not only were we confusing our customers, we were confusing ourselves and our team too.
We were in business for 15 years so of course we attempted to ‘market’ ourselves. But it was like shooting arrows at a very small target from a very far distance. Quick! Turn on adwords, get on social, get on the radio, get a website, get a bigger website, get a better website, make a video….
We tried to say everything on every platform. Why? Because we hadn’t defined ourselves. We had no words. We had no message. We didn’t know the answer to the question, ‘what do you do?”. So in trying to say everything to everyone, we said nothing to anyone.
The takeaway here is StoryBrand marketing guru Donald Miller’s mantra:
“If you confuse, you lose.
Clarify your message so that customers listen.”
As Alan Dibbs points out in his refreshingly easy-to-read marketing tome ‘The One-page Marketing Plan’, the pause that generally follows the question ‘what do you do?” is one of the most wasted free marketing opportunities there is. Remember, everyone you speak to is your marketer. If you’re not giving them a soundbite that will help them to remember you and entice them to want to engage with you in the future, you’re potentially throwing away the chance to reach every person that that person speaks to ever again in their lives. I realise I’m being a little hyperbolic here but you must understand:
Word-of-mouth sells products better any other advertising medium. Your customers trust their friends more than they trust you.
Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that a couple of sentences would have solved all of our business problems. But I believe it started them. The fact that we hadn’t formulated an answer to this question signifies a deeper issue. We were confused. We hadn’t sat down and thought about what exactly we wanted to say and to whom. We built a beautiful website and (I cringe when I think of this)……we got the web designer to throw a bunch of copy into it. We didn’t place any value on the words that our business was to be built on.
In short, if you haven’t spent a sizeable portion of brain calories figuring out the answer to ‘what do you do’, then you probably haven’t given any structured thought to your core brand message. Which means that your team are creating marketing copy on the fly. Sometimes it works, oftentimes it doesn’t. Always it costs money.
Is there any other part of your business that you spend money on and ‘hope’ that it will work? If, for example, you’re a caterer, have you ever hired chairs for an event in the hope that people will be able to sit on them? I don’t think so. So why would you spend money on marketing tactics and ‘hope’ that they’ll work?
A simple first step towards crafting your message is to develop your answer to the question, ‘what do you do?’. Otherwise known as your one-liner or elevator pitch, this exercise is a great business-messaging starting point:
How to Answer the Question, ‘What Do You Do?’
When you go to do this exercise, you’ll realise it’s hard. So to get you started, follow the rules.
The Rules!
1. Visualise the exact customer avatar that you’re speaking to.
2. Define the problem you are solving for that customer.
3. State how you solve that problem in a way that differentiates you.
4. Refer to how your solution makes their lives better.
5. Make sure the tone is conversational.
You’ll end up with something like this (this is one of mine!):
Monica, what do you do?
“Well you know how most businesses waste a lot of money on marketing because they struggle to communicate what they offer…PROBLEM)
…I use a 7-part story framework to clarify your message…(PLAN)
... so that your marketing generates sales, not costs. (HAPPY RESULT)"
Now learn your one-liner off by heart, practice it out loud and make everyone on your team do the same. And the next time you’re at a dinner party and someone asks ‘what do you do?’, don’t pause!
One more thing. I’d LOVE to see what elevator pitch you come up with for your business. Send it to me and I’ll give feedback. Remember, if no one sees or hears it, it doesn’t exist!