It is a fact that confused people do nothing. Confused businesses sell the wrong products. Without a quick simple way of explaining your business you will become instantly forgettable.

Your Core Marketing Message is at the heart of all your marketing. It describes the essence of what your business does for customers.

From your core marketing message you can quickly get a thirty second pitch or answer the ‘what do you do?’ question. Your message persists in your more detailed marketing materials. You should always double check that any of your marketing still refers to this distilled down version of your business.

What does a core marketing message look like?

It should look something like :

I work with <type of customer> who <describe problem> I <describe outcome/solution>.

For example:

I work with self-employed business owners who struggle to attract enough customers. I help them to create a steady stream of ideal customers and grow their income to the level they want.

I work with mums who are returning to work and can’t find a job with flexible hours. I find them a position with a business that needs a flexible work force.

We work with small businesses with cash flow issues. We help businesses create a step-by-step system to decrease time to payment and reduce debts that have to be written off.

How do you create a core marketing message?

Start with the WHO. Often people think they sell to everyone. Everyone seems easier to find. In reality finding a smaller group is easier as they gather in obvious places online and offline. If you want to find everyone you have to look everywhere.

Also working with one group of people or businesses allows them to feel you understand them in ways that someone marketing to “everyone” can’t do.

ACTION: Make a list of anything that describes your ideal customers as close as possible. Are they a business or consumer? What identifies them?

Do it now.

ACTION: Next make a list of the PROBLEMS you solve. What do they need? What challenges do they face? Describe the issues from the client’s point of view. From now on try to make almost all of your marketing describe things from the client’s perspective.

ACTION: Now list the SOLUTIONS OR OUTCOMES you deliver to your clients. How does your expertise benefit your clients? What do client get from working with you?

ACTION: Look at your problem list is there something that sticks out as a good summary of the problems your customers have. If not can you create a new problem description that summarises their situation better.

ACTION: Look at your solutions/outcomes. Is there one great outcome that you can promise your customers? If not try to write one.

ACTION: Now try picking the best from each list. Put them in the right order in the formula. I/We work with <the who> who <best version of the problem> I <best outcome/solution>.

REVIEW: Look at what your have created. Does it make you say “wow” or “tell me more” or “just so what”?

Is it clear? Is it concrete?

Can you add adjectives to make it sound more exciting?

Does the problem description highlight the pain the clients feel?

Does the solution/outcome grab you? Does it have teeth?

Think again if you mentioned price. Are you sure you want to compete on price?

Can you add a guarantee in the outcome?

Avoid describing “how you do things”? The “How” isn’t important to customers until they know what you do. Describe the benefits you provided to a client.

What you are looking for is something that stands out. Is clearly expressed? Does it positions your business perfectly in the market? Does it feel like a solid foundation to help market your business?

Now you have a Core Marketing Message you can do a lot with it.

Lets change your message into a quick pitch

Need a quick summary for a networking meeting or introduction?

One way to do this is to add, to the end of your message, a short client story to your message. Make this in the form.

Recently, we worked with a <describe client type> who had <problem> we worked with them and achieved <real benefit or results>.

For example:

Recently we worked with a consultant to the paper industry that needed to boost his income, he implemented a small portion of what we teach. The result in his first quarter was equal to his revenue from the whole of the previous year.

So a full pitch might look like

“I work with self-employed business owners who struggle to attract enough customers. I help them to create a steady stream of ideal customers and grow their income to the level they want. Recently we worked with a consultant to the paper industry that needed to boost his income, he implemented a small portion of what we teach. The result in his first quarter was equal to his revenue from the whole of the previous year.”

What Next?

Find out more about the Lift Off Program where we work on a step-by step marketing program built on the foundation of a great core marketing message.

One trick I use to create focused articles is an acronym KFC.

KFC stands for KNOW –  FEEL  -  CALL TO ACTION

Before I start I write down what I want people to KNOW after reading an article.

What I want them to Feel as they read the article.

And what I want them to do after reading the article. This is called a Call For Action. In case you’ve never heard of call to action, this is simply offering a next step for the reader. This could be visit this page or buy this product.

In the case of this blog post, I wanted you to know about the KFC acronym, feel a little better about writing and read a longer article on my blog.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how I sketch out longer article ideas and talk about the writing process in more detail. Make sure you pop back for that.

Why not take a look at other articles on the blog or find out more about Rob Wilson.co?

P.S. The KFC acronym comes from a brilliant and easy to read book by Andy Maslen called Write To Sell.

Contents

• 6 Days – 7 Networking Meetings – Pros and cons of different types of networking.
• From Stranger to Customer – The foundation of sales and marketing explained.
• Tools and Websites to Use.

1. Six Days – 7 Networking Meetings

Some kind of madness gripped me last month and I decided to go on a burst of business networking. 

Business networking works differently for different companies and for some it is not a viable strategy. Be careful before dismissing networking though as it may be something you are doing wrong that stops it being effective. For example if you don’t build relationships and try to sell all the time. 

I attended four different types of networking meeting in that period. Speednetworking, 4Networking, a Private event and the Muesli Mafia. I will attempt BNI and BOB networking meetings at some point soon. As you can see from the table below I highlighted

• The number of people at the meeting
• The number of contacts I made
• How long I had to talk to each contact
• If you could talk to the room how long you pitched for
• If you had an appointment slot given to you how long was your part of the appointment.

As you can see it varied greatly. Speed networking giving more quantity with less quality time. The first two are based on the format of the meeting giving you time with prospects while the last two the face to face time was informal and up to you.

There are additional benefits from the meetings including.

• Some inspiration and education – The meeting often included a talk – This is how long that part lasted.
• How social I felt the event was. This was a measure of in its ability to let you really build relationships over time.

I have four aims at Networking meetings – to sell, buy, advise and refer. Speed networking opened more doors but not as wide as the 4Networking meetings. I will be attending all of these again and plan to be very involved with 4Networking, which also has a very active online networking community. 

In each case you need to plan your marketing before you attend.

For speed networking you have to be very clear about what you offer and have some marketing material available to follow up with. You need a plan to grow the relationships after your 2 minute pitch. A leaflet handed out is not enough.

For 4Networking your 40sec pitch is important to practice before hand. At each meeting you have three 1 to 1 appointments guaranteed, so you need to know what to say and how to follow up afterwards.

For events like the Muesli Mafia and the private event you need more social skills to move around the room talking to people. Better you are at that skill then the more people you can talk to. Again you need to plan your follow up.

Useful links

• UKSpeedNetworking
• 4Networking
• Muesli Mafia

My conclusion:  Networking works for me, I recommend trying different types. Personally I will be doing more 4Networking as there are over 300 meetings across the country, more than 10 with half an hours travelling. I will be offering a couple of 4Sight talks (the education/inspiration) part. I plan to do the occasional speednetworking and a good few private and invitation events that I discover along the way.

2. From Stranger To Customer

Every customer or client has to go on a journey with your business from a stranger to customer. While the detail in every business is different the steps are remarkably similar.

Understanding this journey will help you understand how to market and sell your products or services. At each stage of the journey the individual needs different things from you or your business. Get it wrong and you risk losing business.

Have you ever suggested a meeting to a potential customer and felt them back away and resist. This is probably because they are still at the prospect stage and require more information. They are not ready to explore working with you and you have more to do.

The graphic and video below give you an overview of the journey, its stages and what you need to do. This concept forms the foundation of our Lift Off Program where we help you build marketing and sales processes that deliver new business.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EmBsiw1oE

3. Tools you can use

Card Munch (www.cardmunch.com) is an Iphone app that allows you to take pictures of business cards. After a minute or so you either receive the details from the card typed up or a connection to their linkedin profile. You can then quickly connect to them. If linkedin is part of your networking strategy it is well worth exploring.

Rapportive (rapportive.com) is an add-on to Gmail, google email system. If you are not using Gmail and still using outlook then you may wish to watch - Why are you still using Outlook?. Rapportive allows you to view facebook, twitter, linkedin etc data for the person you are emailing or received an email from. You can quickly connect to them using connect and follow buttons that appear. It is a great way to link to others and see what they are up to. It will even pull up a picture of the person if it can find one. No guarantees it is a flattering one.

Until Next Time

Please explore the rest of the site and follow me on twitter @robwilsonco and connect at linkedin. I would also love your thoughts in the comment box below.

You’re passionate about your product or service. You’re excited to tell others how it works or what it does. It’s hardly surprising that you sometimes jump the gun and try selling too soon.

After you answer the introductory question of “What does your business do?” It would be very surprising if the person opposite got out their wallets and pushed money in your hands saying, “This is just what I’ve been looking for all my life”.

Most customers will go on a journey with you, from stranger to prospect to a customer. That journey starts off with a marketing conversation that at the right time switches to a selling conversation.

Picking the right moment to switch to selling is really important. If you switch too early the prospective customer may not be ready to explore using your product or service. You risk coming over as pushy and images of used-car salesmen flash into their mind.

To stop premature selling, you need to consider the steps a prospective client needs to go through before they are ready to receive your sales messages.

When you first meet a potential client you need to get their Attention. They must see a glimmer of something of interest to them or their business.

Next they require more Information. They need to get to know you and your product or service better.

They may need to Experience your product or service. This might be a taster session or some form of free consultancy or a low cost and low risk product.

Only then will they be at the point of being ready to explore working with you or buying your product or service.

However you still need to be in marketing mode. To establish they have a real interest and need for your product or service. For most professional businesses signing up all clients that offer you money is a bad idea. We each have our ideal clients. Equally we have clients we can’t help or who may be a nightmare to work with.

Until you are sure they understand what you offer and you know they are your ideal client, you should still be asking questions and talking in a marketing conversation.

If you try to sell to someone before you have got attention, given information and an experience of your business … then it feels wrong and uncomfortable to the potential customer. While you will gain sales you will also be losing so much more.

Knowing where each prospective client is in the marketing and sales process is key to your success.

What Next?

As part of our Lift Off Program we work with our clients to understand the stages potential customers go through from stranger to prospect to customer to referrer. Armed with this knowledge and the marketing material we jointly develop our clients outperform their competition.

Dashboard Example - Click to enlarge

Running a business without knowing what is happening is like driving blind fold. Possible but very risky.

Our clients get access to their numbers in a unique way via a Digital Dashboard. The image on the left shows part of an example dashboard. 

My making the processes and steps to gaining clients more visible it becomes obvious when things change for the better or worse. Allow you to make corrections earlier.

 Our Lift Program customers will typically have a custom dashboard created as part of their program. Visit our Lift Off Program page for more details.

Many websites failed to give you compelling reasons to sign up. With my inbox overflowing I think hard before giving my details. Don’t you?

Why should bother? Does e-mail still work?

Building a customer database of e-mails is still a core-marketing tool. Yes twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn all have a part to play in capturing prospects details and communicating with prospects. But, e-mail when it is done correctly is much more powerful.

A questionnaire makes a great starting point to gain an email address and then to take a visitor on the journey to bring the prospect and hopefully a client to you.

People love questionnaires. This is hard to ignore. Because they pose questions and promise answers. But you have to complete the questionnaire to find out the answers.

Magazines are packed full of questionnaires for a reason. They intrigue, engage, entertain and inform.

In the context of a website, a questionnaire combined with a personalised report gives the prospective client value. This gives them experience of your knowledge and service. And moves the visitor to being a potential client.

At the same time as completing the questionnaire, it is easy to get an e-mail address and get someone to sign up to your keep in touch marketing.

When linked to a mail system like mailchimp or a customer database system you can also collect extra information about the prospect. This information can be used to break down your e-mail list by the different problems your clients face.

Knowing more about your potential clients allows you to send more targeted and relevant information to your prospects. This builds trust and respect for you and your business. People are more likely to open your e-mails, read them and respond.

By completing a questionnaire and reading your report, both sides have got to know each other a little bit more. With a little effort you have managed to move a visitor you would otherwise lose to the first rung of your sales ladder.

What Next?

Take a look at the Expert Gap Questionnaire as an example of this practice. As part of our Lift Off Program we work with our clients to create intelligent marketing materials.

If you have looked you, are probably seeing open rates between one and 10% of the people you send your campaigns to are actually opening your e-mails.

It gets worse. Of those who open your e-mails only 1% to 10% will click on a link.

So for every hundred people in your e-mail list between zero and one person will actually click on a link.

Why is this?

Let’s look at some basics.

To get somebody to open your e-mail, two things are required.

Firstly, the recipient has to know of you and have a reasonable opinion of the e-mails you send out to them. They need to feel they are relevant and useful. Without this your chances of them opening your e-mail are greatly reduced.

Secondly, the subject line of the e-mail has to grab their attention.

Hopefully you know about AIDA. The advertisers’ mnemonic for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. You should have this in mind when you write any marketing material and it should be influencing the way you write.

For example, the subject line of your email is all about the A – Attention.

The best way to grab attention is to make sure the subject line is talking to the recipient about their issues, problems and is not too general.

Compare:

ABC Ltd proud to announce new e-mail opening solution

With

Find out the real reason they don’t open your e-mails.

The first is very focused on what your company delivers, isn’t very exciting and probably won’t get much interest.

The second focuses on an issue. Addresses the recipient using you or your. And has an element of curiosity.

A good subject line on its own is not enough.

Most businesses tend to think of their e-mail list as one big list. Like most of you I get e-mails everyday, frequently from the same people month after month. Lots of these I simply delete without reading. I look for those people who are sending me important information, those whose opinion I value.

I value their opinion because they seem to talk to me.

How do you improve your ability to talk to your clients?

The secret is to split your mailing list into segments. Segments are just groups of individuals with something in common inside your bigger database.

A simple example might be ‘customers’ versus ‘prospects’. Another easy way to identify segment is those who have opened your e-mails and shown some interest.

Hopefully you can see how you could send different messages to these groups. For example if someone opens an email on Blue Widgets they will probably respond to another email on Blue Widgets or something closely related.

A good first step to segment or split your list is to send e-mails with links to articles or help on different problems that your clients face.

You will then be able to send further targeted e-mails based on which articles they click on and therefore which problem(s) they face.

By doing this, your open rates and click through rates should increase dramatically. You should expect 30 to 60% open rates.

It does take time for people to realise that you now speaking to them on topics of interest. For them to elevate you to the position of someone they want to listen to.

Always be testing

The final point I want to give you is that you should always be testing. With most e-mail marketing software you can provide different versions of e-mails or subject lines and send to different people in the same segment. This should be simple enough to do.

It should be easy enough to think of two different subject lines and test one against the other. In this way you will learn more about what works with your clients and what doesn’t and continue to improve.

What Next?

As part of the way we teach, setup and support our clients we help them create email lists in this way to make best use of the contacts they have. For more information on our products and services see our services page.

Typical Networking

When you go to a typical networking meeting, it normally goes something like this. You meet a bunch of people. You go through the dance of asking what they do. You talk. You listen. You get interested in what somebody has to say.

At the end of a short conversation, you swap business cards. Promise to call each other and to e-mail useful information the next day.

However, two weeks later and there has been no phone call or e-mail from the business you are really interested in.

Back to the dirty little secret.

It’s that pile of business cards in a drawer. It’s the list of attendees gathering dust in a file – never used.

We all have such good intent. But why don’t we follow up properly?

It might be the lack of system for following up with prospects. Maybe you feel following up is too time-consuming. Possibly earning money now is more important than potential money in the future.

Imagine instead that you have great follow-up material to give to your prospects, along with a way to keep in regular touch with the people you meet.

Let’s go networking again.

This time you promised to send some relevant material to a potential client. When the prospect returns home there is already a personalised e-mail waiting with the information you promised.

Two days later they get an e-mail making sure they got the information.

In another three days, if they haven’t rung you, they get a phone call from you.

A couple of weeks later they get their first copy of your monthly newsletter packed with useful information but still quick to read.

That seems a lot of work but here’s what happened behind-the-scenes.

In the car park before going home, you used your phone to fill out a form on your website. You added some personalised details. Ticked some boxes for the information you wanted to send to them.

Then you did nothing until an e-mail reminded you to call the prospect a few weeks later.

If it were that easy to follow up from networking events, would you do it every time? Can you shake off the dirty little secret of networking?

What Next?

Setting up follow-up systems is just one aspect of our Lift Off Program. The program designed to help you gain more ideal customers who pay on time and value your business. Find out more about our lift of program and how it can help you.

The ideal behind the dashboards was to make key business metric from IT systems – highly visible in graphical form. While nothing new in other engineering disciplines and production facilities, IT systems seemed to favour long winded reports and the odd chart produced at the end of a period. Losing the ability to monitor and give feedback or to raise alarms if something is seriously wrong. Imagine  a nuclear power plant running without lots of dials and gauges.

For me in 2000, the excitement left me and the idea withered due to more pressing matters and disappeared into the “not as easy as it should be” pile.

With the help of Metricly, digital dashboards have moved firmly back   into the “no excuse” pile.

Metricly allows you to create dashboards from a whole range of sources and combine them. In the free version you can use data from Google Analytics, e-mail software, twitter, support desk systems and many more. If you have a small budget to add, one of the paid versions allows you to link internal data into the dashboards.

The standard dashboards allow give you helpful prompts to solve issue you may see on the charts and graphs.

The set-up was smooth and pain-free for me. My main data source being Google Analytics. It is so nice to be able to bring all the charts I want into one web page rather than having to click around several pages.

The free version is worth a try. It will be interesting to follow how this product develops.