If your small business manufactures all-natural, organic dog food, would you say that every dog in America should be eating it? Well, you might believe in your dog food so much, that you do in fact think every dog in America should have it. And you also try to tell every American dog owner you can that they should buy your food. But just because you believe it and say it, it really ain’t gonna make it so. So how would you make the dream of every American dog eating your dog food come true? You have to start small and then build it out slowly. And that, my dear friends, all begins with pinning down the right messages and then spreading them around to the right audiences. You see how I bolded the word, “right” twice – that’s because there are definitely wrong messages and wrong audiences and wasting money and time on those is, guess what – a waste of time and money. And what do we often lack as entrepreneurs? A surplus of time and money!
As I have mentioned before, the key word in marketing is strategy and where does a good marketing strategy go after the objective is set? If you guessed audience and messaging, congratulations, you get a gold star for the day – now read on. If you had no answer or even worse, no inkling, you better settle in – this one’s for you.
You Talkin’ to Me?
Really, who are you talking to? Do you know? Let’s go back to the dog food example to illustrate my point. Yes, you have a great product that you wholeheartedly believe in, but who is your target? Dogs of course – but sadly, you can’t directly converse with them (though some people beg to differ). So who you gonna tell how great this food is? Obviously, the dog owners. So you’ve got this amazing premium dog food, but because of your high standards, your kibble costs more than the typical supermarket kibble, in fact it’s even more expensive than many of the specialty kibbles. Who wants your kibbles? Umm, probably a very specific and particular consumer who really, really loves their doggy and even allows them to sleep in their bed. Even more than that, this person is most likely food conscious and progressive in their beliefs. And finally, even if you aren’t making a ton of money yet, you are probably targeting someone who does. So after breaking it down, it doesn’t really make sense to target everyone who owns a dog – in fact this is kind of like the uber-wealthy – only about 3% of the American population. Of course I exaggerate, but really we could go on and on breaking this down until we created a pretty accurate picture of the person who is actually gonna buy your kibbles.
So – now that we know who we are talking to, let’s figure out what we’re gonna say.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness – works the same for Clarity and Brevity (in marketing that is)
When you look at your website, at your printed materials, publicity, ads – are there a lot of words. I mean really, a lot of words? Are you including every single solitary benefit, ingredient and kind word about your kibble in every piece of material? When someone asks you what you do, do you babble on for so long, the person you’re speaking to glazes over. If that happens, you are talking too much and saying too little. And that’s a huge problem with entrepreneurs, they think every component is so important, that just can’t leave one part out, but then no one hear or sees anything. It just sounds like the teachers on Charlie Brown – whah, wa, whah, whah, whah, whah, wa! You get the picture. Back to the dog food…What do you think the person we defined above would like to hear most?
How about something like this: Mean Green Kibble is wheat-free, made with water from the Alps and organic, hormone-free beef. And we’re allowing you to have three or four statements of this nature – but that’s it! Let’s get it down to the real nitty-gritty and then you’ve got your key messaging.
When you read this, I know it sounds like such common sense, but I also know there hundreds, heck thousands of you out there who have never completed an exercise like this. So, am I talkin’ to you?? Yes, I am! Get to it and if ya need some help – ga ‘head and contact us at (shameless plug) www.sweettalkpr.com. Whatever you do, just go out and get right!