Ok, let’s get this out of the way straight away:
“No one cares about your journey.”
If you’ve been in business less than 10 years and you’re not making millions of pounds a year, then you’re not a guru yet. Stop acting like you’re a Guru and perhaps most importantly stop writing your marketing content like one. No one cares. I don’t want to see pictures of you looking contemplatively out of a window and neither do your clients. When creating marketing content that works in business to business, all people want to know is if you can answer these 2 simple questions:
‘Will it save me time?’ And if not; ‘Will it save me money?’
It’s really that simple. At Shareable we work with tonnes of entrepreneurs, micro, and small businesses. Our advice is always the same:
‘What questions are your customers asking and how will your marketing answer them’
So let’s break this down with some examples as that’s always a good place to start. If you’re a service provider like an events photographer, then you need to be telling your potential clients what it is that makes you a kick-ass events photographer. And why hiring you for their events photography job is either going to save them time or make/save them money – this is marketing content that works. This can be done in various ways. You could, for instance, tell them that your insane levels of experience mean they’re not going to have to brief you much or hold your hand. You’re really experienced, you know what they want and they can rely on you to get the job done – at a cost that could potentially be more than other quotes they’ve had. If you’re not super experienced and you do require thorough briefing and hand-holding whilst at the event, then your prices better be lower than the other quotes they’ve had (saving them money).
Marketing content that works: The Value Proposition
In marketing and other business terms, this forms part of the value proposition. In simple terms, the less well known your company is, the better the value proposition you need. When we review a new clients’ website or content, it is nearly always a missing or poor value proposition that is the most common shortcoming. Your website and other digital marketing collateral need a value proposition. This is a promise of value to be delivered. It’s the primary reason a prospect should buy from you.
In a nutshell, a value proposition is a clear statement that:
- explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (relevancy),
- delivers specific benefits (quantified value),
- tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (unique differentiation).
You don’t have to present your value proposition on your homepage, but it should be visible in all major entry points of the site. It is important to remember that businesses don’t make decisions. People do. So your value proposition has to be something real humans can understand immediately. They shouldn’t have to think about it.
The key takeaway here is that you need to consider what it is about what you do, or how you do it, that makes you different to your competition. How can you save your ideal client either time or money? If you can’t answer that then you need to rethink your approach so that you can get to this situation. The good news is that a decent marketing agency (Like Shareable) can help you here. We like to get a granular understanding of what it is that makes our clients tick. We get ‘under the bonnet’ and have a good look at how things work. Then we make our recommendations. Once these are agreed we start building a content strategy that fulfills the value proposition for our client.
