Forward March Communications

I just sat down with one of my favorite business owners and entrepreneurs. She has a fantastic business model and a novel approach for delivering value to her customers. Like all founders, she wants more business and fast. She’s leading with what she thinks is the most compelling part of her work. And like all entrepreneurs she’s spending her precious time and energy worrying about a social media strategy, and a conference strategy, and a networking strategy, a referral program, and, and, and. And she’s wondering why she doesn’t have conversions from her website.  

Sadly, my dear friend and fellow entrepreneur, has fallen into the everything, all at once trap. 

But the real reason her website and social media and all other strategies aren’t converting is because her messaging is not resonating and most tragically she is getting distracted by the wide and overwhelming array of messaging and marketing tools available. 

Messaging first. How you deliver the message, comes second. This is where a Fractional CMO can offer a ton of value. 

Customer Centric, Always and Forever 

So how do you craft messaging that resonates? Start with your customer, not you. 

In the case of my friend, her messaging is written for her, not for her customers. This is a story we marketing people hear all too often. 

Know your audience. Surprise, surprise, this is often different than what the CEO or Founder thinks it should be. I sat with a wonderful leader this week and in the course of a 45 minute meeting he mentioned five different messaging themes that he thought would resonate with his key audience. He just wanted help stringing it all together. Respectfully, no.  Your customers/clients/buyers want you to solve a problem for them, they don’t have capacity for several messages and themes all at once. 

Whether you are a non-profit, selling a service, or a widget; you must start by understanding your customer. Know why people buy your product and what problem you are solving. Are you selling a thing, a feeling or a transformation promise? If you don’t know this, you need to conduct user research. User research can be as big or small as you like, but you should at least have some user research and data to pull from.  

Here are some ideas for user research: 

1. Client interviews
2. A short survey at the end of a buying process, 
3. Informal online poll 
4. Focus groups
5. Analyzing customer buying data, demographics and regions
6. Website analytics like bounce rate, open rates, time on page,

Pulling data from all of these sources can help to paint a picture of your client. Big businesses do this continuously and have teams of people looking at customer data and adjusting accordingly. If you are an SME you should be doing some of these activities monthly, and some biannually to make sure you are in alignment with your customer. 

I cannot stress this enough. You must know your audience and who is going to write the check. What problem is your audience facing and how can your product/service/widget solve it and deliver 10x value over and above their expectations.

This is your secret weapon for creating messaging that resonates. Once you have this in place then you can turn your energy to the myriad of vehicles available to you to distribute your message and value proposition. But until this is nailed down my advice is to stop getting distracted by the constant churn that is social media, or thinking about going to conferences or creating a referral program. And in truth, the next step is to invest your time into a good ole fashioned, first principles, email marketing strategy. 

If you or a friend need help crafting a message that resonates, let me know! I help entrepreneurs, start ups and mid-sized businesses leverage digital marketing to grow their businesses. Email me at Caroline@ForwardMarch.xyz or click the button on the header to connect.