Chapter Twenty Nine - Fiddle With What To Say Before Where To Play - Mike Schuster

"We Wish We Had Known - Everyday Tips from Consultants to Grow Your Business"

#Marketing
#Public Relations

Fiddle With What To Say Before Where To Play

Mike Schuster

FiddleSmart Marketing, LLC
Creator. Explorer. Optimist.
FiddleSmartMarketing.com / info@fiddlesmart.com

     There’s no shortage of marketing tactics consultants and entrepreneurs can use to build awareness, get new customers and grow a business. Social media. Email. E-books. Video. Direct mail. Paid search. Digital marketing. Webinars. Trade shows. Website content. The list goes on.

       And yet, after spending countless hours (and sometimes dollars) on marketing, business owners feel deflated when they get lackluster results. Convinced, by themselves or an agency, the tactic they tried was the wrong one for their business, they move onto the next … only to get a similar result.

      Is marketing wrong for their business? Perhaps. But most often business owners get caught in the trap of chasing tactics. They get so focused on the channels (where to play), they forget to spend time on marketing’s strategic side and the most important part of their marketing … the message (what to say).

      The market’s crowded. It’s now estimated people are barraged by 6,000 to 10,000 marketing messages a day. And competitors are only a click away. Some studies suggest you have no more than four seconds to capture a person’s attention and establish relevance before they move on. 

      To cut through the clutter, businesses try to be creative. But, in the pursuit of creativity, they sacrifice clarity. Without clarity, people get confused. And, when people get confused, they don’t act.

      So, what can you do? Choose clarity over creativity. And remember, what you say and how you say it will always be more important than how creatively or where you say it.

To create a marketing message that works

Answer the following questions:

• Who is the person you are you talking to?
• What problem or challenge are they facing that you help them solve?
• What product or service do you offer?
• What’s in it for them if they take the next step?
• What’s the next step? What do you want them to do? Don’t assume people know.

• Avoid alphabet soup and industry jargon. Using acronyms and jargon can be dangerous. The longer you’ve done something, the more you assume people know and understand what you do. They don’t. Abbreviations don’t always mean the same thing to every person. If you find people asking you what something means, you’re not speaking their language.
• Banish buzzwords and meaningless phrases. What does it look like to own an integrated solution or improve your omnichannel marketing strategies? Messages are stronger when people can visualize the product or service you want them to buy.
• Be conversational. Look at your ad or website. Ask yourself, would someone struggling with this problem or using your service talk about it the same way to their friends or neighbors? If not, what words would they use? How would they say it? (Hint: If you have testimonials from customers or clients, read through them to get ideas.)
• Keep it short. Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Less than 25 words per sentence. Three sentences per paragraph. Not every sentence needs to be a grammatically correct, full sentence.

MIKE SCHUSTER

Most business owners spend countless hours marketing their business only to feel deflated when they get lackluster results. As a strategist, coach and consultant, Mike works side-by-side with them to create marketing that actually works so they can reach, keep and serve more customers.

An accredited small business consultant, Mike believes we make better decisions and create stronger marketing when focused on the customer. His broad experience includes working in specialty, niche-focused markets including crafts, collectibles, specialty retail, gifts, the performing arts, professional speakers and consultants. 

Before founding FiddleSmart Marketing, he spent 25 years on the client-side, leading teams and innovating marketing programs for family-owned businesses. In these roles, he learned strategies, goals and decisions focused on the customer most often led to the best results.

He earned his MBA in marketing from Villanova University and holds a degree in public relations from Western Michigan University. When you get a chance, ask him about his Ducktorate Degree from Disney University. After all, how cool is it to have a degree signed by Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck?