Help The Community
- Cardinal Group Marketing
- Apr 8, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 10, 2020
Adjusted blogs by Wix and a COVID UPDATE
Here are 7 tips for simplifying your marketing, so you can strengthen the value you offer and prepare for a recession:
Focus on benefits, not features
Speak about customers, not about yourself
Focus on what you do best
Don’t compete, partner up
Be relevant
Keep it consistent
Create a more streamlined experience
1. Focus on benefits, not features
Every product or service has features and benefits. The features are what they actually offer. The benefits are how they enhance the user’s experience. At the end of the day, people care more about what they can do with a product, not all the nuts and bolts that go into it.
Here’s a quick example:
Feature: Phone with 24 hours of battery life.
Benefit: Never worry about charging your phone throughout the day. See the difference?
You need to reshape the way you think about your services, then rewrite the way you communicate, because customers don’t buy fancy features. They buy something that adds value to their life. As the American economist, Theodore Levit would say, “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole!”
2. Speak about customers, not about yourself
To be blunt, customers don’t care about you. They want to know what you can do for them. When you make it about yourself, your brand comes off as self-centered and uncaring, but if you make some minor messaging changes, you’ll start seeing more leads.
This is best exemplified by your website’s homepage value proposition. And one of our favorite examples is Airbnb’s: “Book unique places to stay and things to do."
This value proposition is simple and focuses directly on what their target audience wants. Airbnb knows that their users aren’t looking for run-of-the-mill hotel stays, so they drive value at the forefront of their site (along with the immediate ability to start searching).
pply this:
Use words like “you” and “yourself” to speak directly to your audience.
For example:
Company-based: “We have the best marketing services in town.”
Customer-based: “Get the best marketing services to grow your business.”
3. Focus on what you do best
In uncertain times, it’s best to cut out any services that aren’t at the core of what you offer. Whether it be website building, SEO services, or marketing, most (if not all) of your time should be spent on pumping out great results—even if that means taking on smaller budget clients. You’ll continue honing your skill and more importantly, gain valuable clients that will speak highly of you to others. Apply this: Strip down to your essential services so you can focus on what you do best.
4. Don’t compete, partner up
Join a professional community where you can meet other agencies and freelancers. Then work with them to create a partnership that allows both of you to benefit. Let them know you’re in this together and that you’re willing to send clients their way, if they are to do the same for your services.
Tip: We’ve found that this works much better when referrals are rewarded with an ongoing 10% finders fee. This keeps everyone happy if one partner refers more than the other.
In our case, we don’t offer direct SEO and ad services, so we partnered with a local agency named Highforge that we trust to deliver our standards. And vice versa, when their clients are looking for specific website functionality, they reach out to us. This way, we both have each others’ backs in supporting local small businesses.
5. Be relevant
So you’ve got your newly shaped value-based services. It’s time to let your target audience know. According to CoSchedule’s marketing stats, marketers with a documented strategy are 313% more likely to report success.
Build a marketing strategy that’s relevant and consistent. We can’t stress enough how important this is. Without it, you’ll create confusion that pushes away possible leads.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think about where and how they would like to learn about the services you offer.
The idea is to create a marketing bubble. One in which your target audience sees you as THE resource in your industry.
In our case, we found the email to be one of the most relevant marketing tools for our audience. We use email to create powerful, well-designed content that speaks to our client base.
Our email topics include:
Why you need an SSL certificate for your site
Why your site should be mobile-friendly
Why understanding marketing campaigns is important
Why you should consider starting a TikTok account
Apply this:
Focus your marketing messaging and efforts to communicate with your target audience in the places (social, email, etc.) they use the most.
6. Keep it consistent
Consistency is just as important as relevancy. The basic idea is ongoing promotion because if you only post or share your services once, your target audience will certainly forget about it.
As mentioned above, you’ll want to find the avenues your audience uses the most and consistently share through them. You want your customers to experience the frequency illusion. The more prospective clients see your brand, the more likely they are to think of you when it comes to purchasing your services. Essentially, you’re nurturing your lead until they convert.
As an example, we recently had a lead reach out after first making contact with us over a year ago. The reason? They received an email that was relevant to their current needs. They’re now an ongoing client with our web and email services.
7. Create a more streamlined experience
In uncertain times, you need to complete projects faster and more efficiently, because faster turnaround means more time to complete more projects and earn more revenue. Don’t get stuck in old habits (apps or services) just because you’ve been using them for years.
Consider the service you use for CRM, payments, site building, email, etc. and see if there’s a better tool you can utilize instead. In our case, we needed to optimize our web building process. And if we’re being honest, we didn’t like using Wix when we first got our hands on it years ago (that was during the Flash Editor days).
Since then, it’s been a revelation of technology and we haven’t looked back!
Local resources
COVID-19 Update We aren't waiting! Get Started click here "I know you are hurting as a small business. I know its hard to get funding to keep the doors open. Starting today Friday, April 10th. We are not charging to get your project started. If you are a restaurant owner who has been impacted by the Coronavirus we are making special provisions for you. " Call Directly 980-666-6991! You can beat this virus and you will. Chief Executive Officer Rodney L. Bonner
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