Subscribe to our Blog!Whenever I start an interactive marketing campaign, I start with a simple question: What is your message?
You might be surprised when I tell you I get more blank stares than you think. Many of the businesses I work with are very customer driven. They have a traditional sales force that hunts for customers, but they haven’t focused on pulling customers in. To do this, you’ve got to distill your business down to a simple message that prospects can understand.
Image by EmaStudios via Flickr
Understand the Mission
In World War II, German spies would wear Allied uniforms and imitate our troops as runners of information. To combat this, Allied soldiers would put a gun to the head of the runner, and they had to state their mission in ten seconds or less…or else. While this is a morbid example of understanding mission, it demonstrates the need to have a simple, direct, easy to understand mission that dictates all the decisions we make as business owners.
Understand the Values
Once we understand the mission, the next question is how do we want to implement it? What values are important? Integrity, Price, Service, Community, Empowerment? Values help us understand the flavor by which we implement our mission.
Understand who you’re speaking to
Stephen Covey talks about seeking to understand then be understood. When we look at why people use our service, what emotion does our service evoke? What fear do we address? When we seek to understand why our audience is drawn to us, we can frame a message that helps them understand why our product or service is for them.
Putting it all together
Once we understand why we’re here, the values by which we provide products and services, and why our customer base uses our products and services, we are ready to create a simple marketing message that will draw the right people to the right product or service we offer. This process can take a little time, but saves a massive amount of effort across any marketing effort.
