“Marketing is too important to leave to marketers.” – David Packard, Founder HP

Introduction

For the longest time in advertising history, the biggest challenge and costliest aspect of marketing was getting your message seen by the right people.

Most marketing strategies and educational materials were obsessed with figuring out who to talk to and how to reach them. The actual message—the thing that convinces people to change their minds and buy—was often an afterthought. It was something you outsourced to "creatives" after you'd paid for media space and they were clamoring for your ads.

However, times have changed.

The internet has made it ridiculously easy to put a message in front of your ideal customers, no matter how niche your market is. Anyone with $5 and a Facebook membership can now place ads in front of their ideal customers with pinpoint precision.

Now, if your marketing efforts are failing, there are only two likely reasons:

1. Your product isn't good enough.

2. Your message isn't good enough.

If you've created a product or service that at least some people want to buy, but you're still not attracting all the leads, customers, and sales you deserve, then the problem is almost certainly your message.

Marketing Is a Message-Based Medium

Marketing in theory is very simple. You craft a message. Then you put it in front of your ideal customers. If the message is effective, it will grab their attention and then persuade them to buy or take some other action, such as enter your sales process.

All of the marketing tactics you're familiar with—websites, trade show graphics, social media ads, radio spots—are just vehicles for communicating a message to an audience.

If your message isn't effective, it doesn't matter how well you've targeted your ads: you're not going to see results.

Your Message Must Achieve Five Objectives

Every business needs a message—a core set of stories that its marketing efforts reinforce—that achieves five strategic goals:

1. Your Message Must Attract Attention: In today's digital age, consumers are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information. It's easy for your message to get lost in the noise. This is why your message must be crafted to grab your audience's attention. It needs to stand out and make people stop scrolling and start reading. But attracting attention isn't just about being loud or flashy. It's about connecting with your audience's needs and desires, sparking curiosity, and promising value. An attention-grabbing message is the first step to getting your audience to consider your product or service.

2. Your Message Must Persuade Your Audience: Once you've grabbed their attention, the next step is to persuade your audience. This is where the art of storytelling comes into play. People aren't interested in features or specs; they're interested in benefits and solutions. Your message needs to show your audience how your product or service can solve their problems or enhance their lives. It should stir their emotions, agitate their desires, and convince them that what you're offering is not just desirable, but necessary. A persuasive message turns casual browsers into interested prospects.

3. Your Message Must Call them to Action: A great message doesn't just persuade—it motivates action. It's not enough for your audience to understand and desire your product; they must be compelled to act. Your message should include a clear, compelling call to action (CTA)—a direction on what to do next. Whether it's to "Buy Now," "Sign Up," or "Learn More," your CTA should be direct, urgent, and easy to follow. And ideally your message will culminate in an offer so strong that the value it provides your customer is as irresistible as possible. A strong offer is the most effective means of turning interested prospects into actual customers.

4. Your Message Must Nurture Your Audience & Prepare Them to Buy: At any given time, 2-3% of your audience is actively shopping for what you offer and prepared to buy when they find it. Your success will most likely hinge on how well you maintain the attention of the other 98% of your audience. When you put the right sequence of stories in front of that audience, you will mature their interest, overcome their objections, and augment their desire. The result? Much deeper market penetration and an enduring source of customers.

5. Your Message Must Build a Relationship With Your Brand Character: Ultimately, your message is about more than just selling—it's about building relationships. People buy from brands they know, like, and trust. Think of your brand like a character in a story. When your message gives your brand character the right attributes–enabling your audience to infer its personality, values, and story—your audience will begin to develop an authentic relationship with your brand and what it stands for. This is how you turn one-time buyers into loyal customers.

You cannot achieve these strategic objectives by accident. Nor can you achieve these objectives with the typical "tactics-first" mindset that most approaches to marketing strategy employ.

The traditional marketing approach of focusing on the 'who' and the 'how' before the 'what' is outdated. In today's digital age, where reaching your audience is no longer the primary challenge, the 'what'—your message—needs to take center stage.

The only way to create a strategy that achieves these objectives is to start with your message first and build out from there.

You, Not Your Marketers, Are Best Equipped to Direct that Message

Let's be clear: as entrepreneurs and sales managers, you know your products and services. You understand their value, their unique selling points, their benefits.

If your marketing isn't communicating this effectively? The reason likely is because there is a disconnect between your vision—what you know about your customers and what you know about your products—and what your marketers understand.

If that describes you, please know it's not your fault. The marketing industry hasn't done a very good job through the years educating entrepreneurs and sales executives what they need to contribute to marketing. The marketing industry has also painted an unrealistic picture for up-and-coming marketers.

In their quest to sell marketing services, influential marketers have painted an inaccurate portrait of what it really takes to create a customer. It's a lot easier to get creative freedom and sell the tactics you need to sell when your clients believe marketing is a creative exercise instead of a calculated exercise in psychological engineering.

The good news is that the skills and insights that equipped you to design a winning product and bring it to market are the same skills and insights you need to create a winning message. You just need someone to show you how to translate your vision into the stories and arguments that will get the attention of your customers and persuade them to buy.

That's where our facilitation-based approach to marketing strategy comes in. We work with senior management teams to clarify their vision, establish the foundations of their message, and then craft a plan that will make their marketing teams and agency more effective. Where necessary, we engage to help with the initial execution and/or manage the iterative process that brings success.

Next Steps

If your marketing isn't working, it's time to take a hard look at your message.

Why? Because your message is the foundation of everything. It's what differentiates you from your competitors. It's what connects with your audience on an emotional level, stirring their desires and fears, and ultimately convincing them to buy. A strong, clear, compelling message can cut through the noise of today's crowded marketplaces and resonate with your ideal customers.

If you need help assessing your message or believe it's time to take the next step so you can attract the leads, customers, and sales you deserve, book a free consultation with us.

Or if this post has peaked your interest and you want to learn more, check out my book, First Fix Your Message. It will walk you step-by-step through the process of determining where your message falls short and show you what you need to do to fix it.

Wishing you all success in your marketing journey. Please let us know how it goes.