If you are having problems selling your services, it might be that you do not have a clear marketing message. When a target market prospect reads your marketing writing, they don’t immediately “get” and understand what your business does. You have not communicated the essentials of how your business works, and the prospect is not able to ascertain how they could benefit from your business. This failure to communicate may be because your marketing message is garbled, not clearly focused, or you have too many competing marketing messages. Let’s look at some ways that you can arrive at a clear marketing message in all your marketing writing.
1. What do you want your business to be known for?
Select one clearly defined area where you want to be THE PROVIDER for this type of services. What is your specialty? What specific niche or market segment do you want to capture as your target market? Who do you want to be known for helping? What problems do you target and what solutions do you want to provide? When someone is describing your business, how do you want them to identify you? What do you want them to say about your business? If you’ve done a variety of services in the past, think about being more sharply focused. When you do all sorts of things, your target market cannot identify you as the master of anything.
2. Put together a sentence of seven to ten words that captures your marketing message.
If you were going to give a succinct one-sentence description of your business, what would you say? Include target market, problem you solve, and solution. This is one of those “assignments” that is actually a lot tougher than it initially seems. Most of us think that we cannot describe our business in anything less than a full paragraph. We drone on and on and on, adding more words, but typically not grabbing and holding the attention of our target market. With this exercise, you’re forced to use words sparingly. Each concept becomes essential. You eliminate all extraneous information and whittle down to the core of your marketing message.
3. What distinguishes your business from that of your competitors?
What is it that makes you different from all the others who provide services like yours? You want your target market to know and understand what you do that is better than what your competitors do. This might have to do with your unique background or combination of skills. It might have to do with the way you deliver. Be sure that your marketing writing emphasizes those ways that your work is superior to your competitors’ work. Make it easy for prospects to figure out. Don’t make them have to do all the work of analyzing all competitors to discover how you exceed them. Let them know what sets you above competitors.
4. What do you tell your prospects to turn them into clients?
These “sales pitches” often contain your most effective language. You’ve refined these statements and they’ve succeeded in the past. What aspects of those conversations translate directly into your marketing message? How would you include these statements in your marketing writing? Take the time to analyze what it is about your sales language that is effective in closing a sale. You probably have a series of statements that emphasizes benefits that the client receives. Capture all that in written form.
5. How can you sharply focus your business?
If your business is too general, attempting to provide a wide range of services, how can you focus more sharply on a core business? Prospects need to be able to clearly identify what your business does, or they will become confused. They will tend to choose a service provider who is a specialist because that suggests greater expertise. What is your greatest expertise in and how do you emphasize that in your marketing writing? If you’re a generalist and like to do a wide variety of activities, you’ll be at a disadvantage against competitors who specialize, and are clearly identified with that specialty.
It’s critical to have a clear marketing message in your marketing writing. You want your target market prospects to be able to recognize and identify exactly what your business is known for. If that is not happening, you need to work on your marketing message.
Suzi Elton provides business writing that attracts targeted prospects to your service business and converts them into clients for you. She is a Robert Middleton Certified Action Plan Marketing Coach, as well as a professional writer. Her website offers a free series of 8 assessments you can use to analyze your own site.
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