I get information daily on how I should market my business. You’ve seen them too I’m sure – 5 Tips to Create Amazing Content, 3 Things Every Business Needs to Know about Marketing, or maybe 7 Steps to Create a Workflow for Your Content Strategy. Most have good information. And I want to have time to read them all. But I don’t. I’m just too busy.
As a solopreneur, I juggle many things in my business including taking care of clients, emails, invoices, expenses, marketing, networking. The list goes on. I’d like to offer you the strategy I try to use to make the most of the time I spend marketing. I believe, as a solopreneur or small business owner, you ARE your business. That means that who YOU are is what your clients are buying. How do you share that in your marketing message?
Understanding WHO
We can’t get away from a discussion about target clients. Know WHO you are trying to attract to your business. What and how much you know about them may vary based on your product or service. But you can’t attract the right people if you don’t understand who they are and what they care about. Most people buy things for the promise of what they will deliver. However, most of us are initially drawn to a suggestion that a business can solve a problem (or pain) that we have. Look at some of your best clients. What do they have in common? Do you have just one target client? Do you have more than one maybe for the same or possibly different products? Make a list of what you know about these clients including:
- Age
- Gender
- Income Level
- Family (married, kids)
- Career (or role in their career)
- Interests (hobbies, fitness, etc.)
- Goals
- Challenges/Pains
This list is just a beginning. Come up with as many as seem relevant to your business. Ask others for input.
Then ask yourself. What questions will this person want answers to that my business can help them achieve or overcome? Try and build a list of at least ten questions and keep the list handy adding to it every time someone asks a question you hadn’t thought of before. You’ll be surprised how many you will come up with over time.
Combine that with YOU
As a solopreneur, you are your business. You are your brand. Your target clients are people. And, especially if yours is a service-based business, they want to work with someone they like. Bring your passion to your marketing message. Why did you start your business? What is it about your business you love? What energizes you and excites you about the people you meet and how you can help them?
We all have testimonials (or hope we do) from clients we have worked with that felt we did a great job for them. Take another look at them. What is it about YOU that your clients just love? What are the qualities you have that resonate with them? This is your brand. You want to bring these qualities into your message.
I’ve been working with one of my clients are her website content. I like her website and the work we’ve been doing together has included encouraging her to make sure that her content lets her special qualities shine through. She called me recently to tell me she got a call from someone who had seen her website and said, “I love your story and you are just the person I want to work with on this project.” Don’t be afraid to let who you are come shining through!
How do I know WHERE to put my message?
This is one of the questions I get a lot. And what I tell people is, it depends. There are a lot of facts and statistics about the number of people on each of the different social media channels. This is good information but in the end, you should be on the social media channel where your target clients are ‘hanging out’. It really doesn’t matter if 1.7 billion users are on Facebook if your target client is not.
Rather than give you a snapshot of statistics, I suggest that you do some online research considering these options and how well each aligns with your target client.
- YouTube
- Snapchat
Once you’ve done your research, pick the 1 – 2 that seem to make the most sense for you. See if you are getting the engagement from the people you are trying to reach. You can always change to a different social media channel (or you may find a target client you hadn’t considered).
WHAT should I say?
You’ve gathered all this information and understand WHO you are talking to, what you want to say about YOU, and WHERE you want to share this information. Now, what should you say?
The simplest answer is you want to share useful information that answers questions your target clients have. Go back to questions your target clients want to know more about (that you believe your business can solve). Pull out a stack of 3 x 5 index cards and on each write a fact, benefit, advantage, promise, offer, or idea you can share with your target clients that will provide value to THEM. Remember, you will continue to add to your list of questions, so try and add to this stack periodically. You want to be sure you don’t forget to share information on the great new questions you’ve heard.
As you write your blog or social media post, let me suggest you keep these simple guidelines:
- Always opt for clarity over clever. Too many messages are lost because we thought our readers would understand what we were trying to say. People scan rather than read. If you’re still reading this post, then I succeeded in providing clear (and useful) information.
- Bend over backwards not to confuse your reader. Every marketing piece should have ONE message. Your readers should not have to wonder what you are trying to share with them or what you want them to do. I like to use the acronym S.T.O.P. which stands for Single Thought One Person. Write as if you are sitting down speaking with one person about a question they asked.
- Keep you and your brand in your message. Show your passion and let people see who you are. In this digital world we live in, authenticity is rare and it is incredibly attractive to your readers.
- Get feedback from others to be sure your message is staying focused on your client. I believe that what I write should provide valuable information to my audience regardless of whether they ever do business with me or not.
This is the strategy I continue to use in my business. It’s manageable and allows me to be consistent especially by using tools like Hootsuite (more on that in another post). If you want help getting your Values-Based Marketing Strategy going, call or email me.