In a recent post, I wrote about why it’s important to know your ideal customer. The next step to developing effective marketing – whether you’re using social media or more traditional marketing methods – is to create a clear and compelling core message that sets your business apart from your competitors.
How can you create an effective core message?
Go back to your IDEAL CUSTOMER. Write down the biggest result that you help your ideal customer achieve and the unique ways you get that result. For example, at Advantage Marketing, we help our ideal customers – owners of small businesses and professional service firms – turn their marketing into lead generation machines, faster than they can do it themselves.
Here’s another great example: Lisa Rangel, Managing Director of Chameleon Resumes, helps people get jobs. But her core message – how she differentiates her business – is that she helps people get the job they truly deserve. She’s not going to just get you hired so that you can get a paycheck – although that is very important too – she is going to help you get a job you LOVE and can be passionate about. She’s going to help you stand out from the pack, so that employers want to hire you. Lisa’s tag line which sums up her core message is “Reinvent yourself.”
When think you’ve got your compelling core message, test it! Ask someone who is in your target market if it resonates with them, and if not, why not? Then fine tune your message based on their feedback. You can also try it as your elevator speech and see what response it gets from a bigger audience.
Remember that a compelling and clear core message is a MUST-HAVE! For any marketing tactic to contribute to accomplishing your marketing goals – whether you want to drive leads to your business or build your company’s brand – you must nail your core message down. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and money.
What do you think? Tell us about your core message and how it helps you stand out from the crowd and grow your business.
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