Grow Your Business With Clear Messaging
From: "Help! My Business is Growing" Podcast
An average person gets bombarded by hundreds of ads and other marketing materials on any given day.
It can get overwhelming, and as a consumer, it's almost impossible to escape from it, especially in today's highly connected - digital - world.
But as a business, it's even harder for our messages to break through the blur of everyone else's content. This is because the brain will naturally filter most of them out, choosing only those that resonate and grab attention.
The challenge that many growing businesses face today is communicating and spreading the message clearly and effectively to rise above the marketing clutter so that they can reach their target audience.
In this episode of Help! My Business Is Growing, our guest Orly Zeewy breaks down why (and how) creating a clear message can help grow your business.
Orly, an author, keynote speaker, educator, and brand architect, shares her experiences and insights on how to build the DNA of startup brands and create messaging that helps founders cut through the noise and scale in months, not years
In this week's episode, we discuss:
02:12 Why do a lot of businesses struggle (and waste money) getting effective marketing right?
07:21 What are the main differences between traditional and "Lean marketing"?
13:07 Is there a process - separate from the marketing exercise of coming up with the ideal customer persona - that helps companies define the ideal customer?
25:24 How to build relationships with potential strategic partners?
36:02 What is the next tangible step that business owners and founders can take to get closer to crafting a clear and tight message that will resonate with their market?
Orly is also sharing a gift, a PDF called "How to Turn Your Brand Into a Customer Magnet" - available here.
Listen to the podcast here:
“The reality is, you really don't want to talk to everybody, because you don't have enough marketing bandwidth to market to the whole world. So the first step is really figuring out who you want to talk to.” - Orly Zeewy
Why do a lot of businesses struggle and waste money getting marketing right?
The lack of understanding about what the offer/service/product really is, including its benefits to customers or how it can address their needs, makes it more difficult to get someone to buy it.
The need to develop the correct branding to gain a deeper understanding of the product. Branding informs marketing, which then acts as the engine to power sales.
Not knowing who their target market is, what their needs and expectations are, and what message will resonate with them.
Having the wrong marketing mindset:
Marketing should be strategic and not "we'll figure this out somehow."
It's also an investment that needs time to bear fruit and deliver results, so patience is critical.
What are the main differences between “traditional” and "lean marketing"?
Traditional Marketing:
Dependent on advertising, such as Superbowl ads or buying social media ads
Works really well for established companies that people know about
Aims to remind everyone "We are here and we're still great!"
Expensive!
Lean Marketing:
For companies that need to build brand awareness, loyalty and equity as fast as possible
Generates customer-needs-focused content and other marketing initiatives.
Establishes a presence where customers hang out and get their information
Engage, have conversations, build relationships with your ideal customers - and present solutions
“You do not want to be a solution looking for a problem. You want to identify the problem that your ideal customer has and you want to be that solution.”- Orly Zeewy
Is there a process - separate from the marketing exercise of coming up with the ideal customer persona - that helps companies define the ideal customer?
If your company is just starting out, it might be difficult to identify your target audience because you might not have met them yet.
Go through an “empathy map” exercise; get into the shoes of your ideal customer, get a sense of who they are and determine the following:
Their pain points
How you can specifically assist them,
The value they gain when working wi,th you
Once you have this information, you can find them, join their communities, show up and engage with them. The icing on the cake is to also share with them the knowledge you have that can help them.
How to build relationships with potential strategic partners?
1. Find them.
Identify a brand that's been around for a long time - that already has the trust factor - and determine if your goals align
2. Study them.
What is their messaging?
What is their value proposition?
How are they showing up?
What is the voice of their brand?
Are they working with people that can be potential clients?
How do they work? (Are they creative, entrepreneurial, process-oriented etc.)
3. Let clarity rule.
Set clear expectations
Be honest and transparent about your objectives
“How do you know if a strategic partner is a good partner if you haven't done your work to figure out who you are?” - Orly Zeewy
What is the next tangible step that business owners and founders can take to get closer to crafting a clear and tight message that will resonate with their market?
Create a simple survey, with three questions and send it to your clients.
Question 1: What do you get from working with us?
Question 2: How can we improve?
Question 3: How has working with us changed your life or your business?
You'll get valuable insights that can lead you to create clearer messages in the future.
We go in-depth with this topic and more over at the podcast. Listen here:
To Recap:
1. Many businesses get their marketing wrong because of:
Lack of correct branding
Lack of knowledge about the customer/target market
Lack of strategic marketing planning
Lack of patience for marketing initiative results
2. The differences between “traditional” and "lean marketing" are:
Traditional marketing works well with older, well-known brands, is generally expensive, is advertising heavy, and serves to revitalize brand awareness.
Lean marketing is agile, customer-centric, perfect for companies that want to fast-track brand awareness, loyalty, and equity gains via building relationships and offering solutions to their customer problems.
3. Empathy Map exercise is an effective way to discover your ideal customer persona.
4. Find an ideal strategic partner candidate that is trusted, established, and has similar goals and customers. Build relationships with them by sticking to the principles of clarity, honesty and transparency when setting expectations when dealing with customers.
5. To take an immediate step in crafting clearer messages to your audience, send them a simple, three-question survey that will give you an idea of how you make customers feel, the value they receive from you, and the impact you have had on them as well.
About Orly Zeewy, MBA
Orly Zeewy, is an author, keynote speaker, educator, and brand architect. She builds the DNA of startup brands and creates messaging that helps founders cut through the noise and scale in months, not years.
Orly has lectured at Wharton and taught in The Close School of Entrepreneurship at Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania.
She is also a frequent podcast guest and writes extensively on topics related to entrepreneurship. Her articles have been published in national publications such as The Marketing Journal, Smart Hustle, and Lioness Magazine. Her book: Ready, Launch, Brand: The Lean Marketing Guide for Startups was the #1 new business book released on Amazon in April 2021.
Website: https://zeewy.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/orlyzeewy
Orly's PDF gift "How to Turn Your Brand Into a Customer Magnet" - available here.
Orly's book | Ready, Launch, Brand: The Lean Marketing Guide for Startups
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
David Aaker | Building Strong Brands
by Kathy Svetina
Kathy is a Fractional CFO and the founder and director of NewCastle Finance LLC. She is a financial puzzle solver, focusing on women-owned businesses, providing financial insights needed for a healthy and sustainable business.