Your Marketing Message: My Lesson
Your business' marketing message should get to the heart of your business.When I meet owners who are discouraged at how to market their business, more often than not they have lost focus on why they decided to go it alone.And here’s my confession: Only a few months into starting my business, I had lost my marketing message – me, a marketer!It wasn't that I had lost passion for why I started; I was simply overwhelmed in running a business that I forgot the reasons why I had taken the leap of faith.Put simply, I had over-complicated my marketing message to be all the services I could be, rather than where my passions lay and why I started my business.It wasn’t until I stepped back and focused on four key questions that I re-gained my marketing message's clarity.What drove me to start my own business?What type of client did I enjoy working with most?What aspects of my client work gave me most satisfaction?What (about me) resonated with my clients?During my internal, one-person focus group, I also focused on who I am and what's important (to me) in how I conduct business.It was then, when my marketing message was in-line with my authentic-self, ready for criticism and rejection, that everything clicked. Beyond having a clear pitch, I started to get a tribe barracking for my success and customers who wanted what I alone could provide.Few of us have a unique product that has no competition, so, ultimately, you need to bring the real you to the marketplace.Too often, as business owners, we over-complicate our marketing while our customers are looking for someone with a clear and authentic message.I always tell clients that marketing your own business is hard and now I've had that real-life lesson. Marketing messages should be a fluid process, as you and your business will continue to evolve and grow.But ultimately, the core reasons of why you started your business will hold the answers to your pitch. Keep it honest, simple and real.This article first appeared in Australian Businesswomen's Network, 6 April 2013