Stop Skipping Stating The Obvious In Your Messaging
A surprising number of businesses skip over their most obvious selling points in their marketing.
“This is a service by and for gay & trans people. Your whole session will be focused on you, not educating us on queer culture.”
“We’re already onboarded. We have nearly 20 years of experience partnering with this unique, high-profile sector. So, with us, you’re only paying for deliverables, not for getting us up-to-speed.”
“Pain is a warning your brain sends you when it perceives a current or imminent threat to your tissues. Chronic pain often represents a malfunctioning warning system. When we address the danger your brain thinks it’s protecting you from, the pain often goes away. That’s why this approach will work when 30 allopathic doctors didn’t.”
These sound good, right?
These are all variations of messaging I’ve helped clients hammer out… Messaging that wasn’t being clearly stated in their marketing before. Messaging that wasn’t showing up in ad headlines or page headers. Messaging that was absent from sales pages, “about us” blurbs, and posts about the offer.
It took me pulling together a full messaging framework for them to start putting their most important selling points front & center in their marketing and watch their sales & conversion rates climb.
Now, this is not an uncommon scenario. It’s a strange phenomenon that businesses of all sizes struggle to put their main selling points front and center.
Odder still, this usually isn’t because they’re unaware of these selling points. They just seem to have difficulty repeating and hammering home the obvious.
Just because it’s obvious to you, doesn’t mean it’s obvious to them.
What’s obvious to you about your business and your offer is often not obvious to new customers and visitors happening across your brand for the first time.
Especially if you’re not talking about your obvious selling points in your marketing!
It’s also important to remember that if your aligned customers are any sort of marginalized group that has historically been unwelcome in mainstream systems & institutions- they’re not going to assume they’re welcome to your event, your store, your program, etc.
They need a specific invitation.
Obvious Doesn’t Mean Boring
You might be getting tired of saying similar things over and over again across multiple channels.
But remember, only a fraction of your audience sees any one thing you post anyway.
Plus, they need to encounter the message at least 7 times to have built enough know, like, and trust with your brand to feel safe investing in it.
Reminding them what they will get out of it is essential to effective marketing. So, even your most obvious selling points absolutely bear repeating. A lot.
Of course, do play with the way you say it so you hone your best messaging.
Connect The Dots So They Don’t Have To
We want to remove as much friction & effort as possible on the road to check out.
Which means, rather than expecting them to do a ton of research and mental jumps all on their own, we should lay out the important info for them. Say the obvious part, spell out the benefits, connect those benefits to their desires.
Also, please, spell out who it’s for!!! Most people won’t just assume it’s relevant to them.
Let’s go further with a couple of the examples I shared at the beginning.
Why does nearly two decades of institutional knowledge make a difference? Whereas you might have to spend significant time getting a competing agency up-to-speed on your institutional context, with us, we’re already in your system. We can just start doing the work. Talk about saving time, energy, and money.
Why does it matter to have a business made by & for queer and trans people? Well, there is so much of your context that you won’t have to explain to folks who share lived experiences with you. It removes the burden of having to educate the practitioner about the culture and keeps the focus of your sessions on you. It results in way less emotional labor on your part, and way more enjoying the benefits of the service.
Spell it out even if it’s obvious to you. It’s often not as obvious to them.
Keeping It 101 In Your Messaging
I often ask business leaders to check whether they’re speaking at a 400 level when brand-new customers would need them to speak at a 100 level to understand.
This doesn’t apply to everyone’s aligned customers, but if the whole reason they’re coming to you is for your expertise in a subject they are not knowledgeable in… you gotta keep it 101 in your messaging.
You don’t need to demonstrate your expertise with complex, jargon-laced messaging. That will just go right over your people’s heads.
You gotta speak to their current level of knowledge and awareness.
Back It Up
You can & should reinforce the power of your messaging by showing your receipts.
Receipts can come in many forms like:
🥭Testimonials & Reviews
🥭Client logos
🥭Case Studies
🥭Portfolios
🥭Free resources that allow folks to access the transformative experience of working with you
🥭Impressive Stats- like how many similar projects you’ve completed, average ROI, number of clients served, etc.
Your receipts prove the obviousness of the benefit. Which is what we want.
We want the benefit of working with you to be obvious to other people too.
Not sure what your main selling point is? Or how to state the obvious in an appealing way? You’re going to want The Brand Storytelling Package.
