The world has changed dramatically over the last several months. Many more changes are likely in the weeks, months and years ahead.
It’s time to ask yourself:
- Is how you talk about your business still valid today?
- Are your marketing campaigns getting the results you expect?
- Are buyers responding to your products and services the way they always have?
- Are your sales results what you expect them to be?
- Is it time for you to update how you talk about your business and the products and services you offer?
Updating — or completely rethinking — your business messaging doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. And it’s completely worthwhile. It will help you increase your sales now and better position your business for the years ahead. Here’s how.
Create your mission and vision statements.
Your mission explains what your business does, how it benefits customers, along with its objectives, and how it goes about achieving those objectives. Your vision is an aspirational statement that explains where you see your operation going in the future and how it will get there.
Your mission and vision are typically used in-house and not shared publicly. Still, defining these things is at the foundation of being able to communicate effectively about your business and developing solid brand messaging. Mission and vision statements are often combined to create a single statement about a company’s purposes, goals, and values.
Define what makes your business different.
Nobody starts a business to do things in the same way that everyone else does.
Think about all the things that make your organization unique and how those differences positively impact your customers.
Outline the points of differentiation so they’re clearly defined and can be understood and used by everyone on your team. Use this framework to document each differentiator.
- Headline: In as few words as possible, convey the value of the differentiator to your customers. It should be clear and simple and stop people in their tracks.
- Supporting details. Add three to five details that support the headline.
- Statement: Leverage the supporting details to come up with a statement that explains each differentiator in a clear way.
Here are some examples:
- Headline: The simplest way to protect your home and family.
- Supporting details:
- Our security system can be installed in less than 20 minutes.
- It connects you with our security experts and your local police department instantly.
- A leading security consulting agency has determined that our security system is the easiest to install and use.
- Statement: Experts have determined that our security system, which can be set up in minutes, is the easiest way to connect you and your loved ones to people who will keep them safe.
- Headline: The most dependable solution for accessing the internet any place, any time.
- Supporting details:
- Our solution is great for people who travel or work remotely.
- It’s been proven 99 plus percent dependable.
- It has been tested in the most remote parts of the United States and world.
- Statement: Our new, proven, one-of-a-kind solution will connect you to the internet no matter where you find yourself.
- Headline: Introducing a new way to ensure your customers read your emails.
- Supporting details:
- It’s easy to use email optimizer.
- It leverages “best of” data to improve email messaging and layout.
- Our metrics dashboard provides results in real-time.
- Statement: Our new and cutting-edge solution will optimize your emails instantly and provide you with the real-time metrics required to prove your email marketing program is working.
Come up with approximately ten key differentiators and outline them completely. Then, narrow them down and pick your top three. Choose the ones that resonate most with people in your target audience. These will be your key differentiators. The rest can be leveraged as supporting points. Feature your top differentiators in your marketing efforts. Use the supporting ones to seal the deal with customers who care about them.
Come up with your tag line.
Use your mission and vision, along with your top three differentiators, to come up with a “headline” or “tagline” for your company. It should capture the essence of your business and what makes it unique. Some of the best-known taglines are the ones that truly capture the essence of a company.
- Nike: Just Do It
- Apple: Think Different
- BMW: The Ultimate Driving Machine
Ideally, you should try to create a tagline that is:
- Short, typically five words or less.
- Intriguing, to get people to check out your business.
- Memorable, making buyers think of your business when they’re ready to make a purchase.
- Unique, so your company won’t be mistaken for any other business.
- Emotional, because it’s important to get people to have positive feelings about your company.
- Beneficial, because the only way someone will do business with you is if they understand what’s in it for them.
Not every tag line will include all these attributes, but the best ones come close.
Come up with at least ten tagline ideas. Shop them around to customers and people in your target market. Use an online survey to get feedback on them. After doing this research, one of your sample tag lines should rise above the rest. That’s the winner you move ahead with.
Create an elevator pitch.
An elevator pitch is a short statement that gets someone to do business with you within the time it takes to complete an elevator ride.
Considering this scenario, your elevator pitch should:
- Make sense to strangers who know nothing about your company.
- Be short, typically less than 60 words and deliverable in about 30 seconds.
- Explain your brand and what your company does in a clear way.
- Be compelling and memorable so people want to learn more about your business as soon as possible.
Here are some elevator speeches from complex companies that are clear and compelling — and brief.
- Our company takes a multidisciplinary approach to engineering. We are proven experts at designing and building perfect prototypes for the aerospace and defense industries, on-time and on-budget.
- We transition how businesses sell products in traditional brick and mortar locations to virtual online stores. Our services are proven to increase revenue as the sales process moves to the digital realm.
- My company creates customized sales enablement solutions for small and mid-sized businesses that are cost effective and proven to improve marketing and sales results.
Once you come up with an elevator pitch, ask several people to say it out loud. Will your sales reps actually say the words? If not, keep working on it until you come up with something that‘s effective.
Write your “about your business” copy.
This content is an expansion on your elevator pitch and is typically used on your business website.
Your “about” content provides all the key information buyers need to know about your business:
- Who you serve.
- What issues you solve for them and how your products and services improve their lives.
- How you conduct business.
- A brief history of your organization.
- Your key differentiators.
You may want to test several variations of your “about” statement on your website to figure out which is most engaging to potential customers and generates the best results.
Finally…
You’ll want to train your sales team on how to use your new messaging and provide them with sales content that reflects this new positioning. Mobile Locker’s app makes doing this simple and easy. Check us out online to find out how.
