The three marketing tools every small business needs to master.
What are the three things that every business owner should embrace? And how does this threesome form the basis of good marketing?
Most small businesses’ success is about mastering three basic principles: a message (what you want to say), media (the means/channel through which the message can be delivered) and a market (the target audience to receive the message).
People often say these three components are like the three legs on a stool, meaning no one component can function effectively in isolation. Each principle feeds the other and they exist in what psychologists would call a codependent relationship.
But this is a codependent relationship you want.
“Knowing what the program or publication covers before you prepare your pitch is vital.”
When you master this threesome, you will see a dramatic turnaround in your ROI and an improvement in the effectiveness of your marketing more broadly.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the players in our business threesome.
Message
Most SMEs know how to pitch to their customers. It’s business 101 to know what hot buttons your prospective client will respond to, what their pain points are and how you can frame up what you offer in a way that demonstrates you can solve/ease their pain points.
These messages and pain points permeate (or should permeate) your website copy, your marketing collateral, and the words you choose when speaking with a potential customer.
However, many messages fall into the ‘one size fits all’ category – which means the business tries to be all things to all people, rather than tailoring its message to suit segments of the market, their database, or new visitors to the website vs returning visitors (good back-end analytics here will help you with refining website messages).
The other risk with the one-size-fits-all messaging is that when pitching to someone (or an organisation) who is not a potential customer, the wheels can really fall off quickly.
Take sponsorship as one example. The one thing potential sponsors are interested in is the classic WIIFM (what’s in it for me?). If they are handing over thousands of dollars to sponsor something you are doing in your business, they don’t really care what the benefits of the product or service are to your customers, they only care about whether these thousands of dollars they are giving you will yield a return for them. So, the message for them needs to be significantly different than that you wheel out to potential customers.
The same is true if you are pitching to the media – as in actual journalists. The great irony of media coverage is that it’s not the journalists’ job to promote your business.
Please read that again: It is not the journalists’ job to promote your business.
That’s usually the biggest thing for SMEs generating their own free media to get their heads around. But once you get it, it’s a gamechanger for your publicity results.
At our Meet The Press MasterClasses, the biggest error we see when businesses are formulating their pitch to 10-12 of the country’s top journos is that they focus too much on their product or service, rather than tailoring the message to the journalist (who is a different audience – or a different market).
So, when preparing messages for the media, it’s really about finding what’s newsworthy in your business – something that highlights the need for what you do, rather than showcasing what you actually do. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but after 30 years of playing the media game, I know that getting the message right for the journalists is critical to success.
Market
In essence, the market is whom we want to speak to – it really is as simple as that. Understanding the who makes the message much easier to formulate. We want to get the attention of our market with the right message. See how these things are starting to work together? Knowing the who (the market) will help to clarify the message.
Usually, when SMEs are crafting messages, they have an idea of the who; their potential customers are the market. But many do not. I often hear businesses, especially those in the ‘coaching’ space, say they can help everyone. Here’s the thing: In my view, if your coaching helps everyone, it’s actually helping no one. I know this sounds harsh but let me explain.
When potential customers are searching for a coaching problem to their solution, they want to know that you ‘get’ them, that you understand their pain and frustrations, that you perhaps have even walked in their shoes (although this is not necessary to be able to relate to and connect with your target market). So, when they land on your website, which is where they’ll probably land as part of their search, it’s important they feel like they’ve come home – that you ‘get’ them and have the skills to be able to help them.
The only way to demonstrate this is to know your market. Lots of people talk ‘avatar’. This doesn’t really do it for me. The best copywriters, like Pete Godfrey (look him up if you haven’t heard of him), will tell you that to write copy for clients, he dives deep into their offerings, but more importantly into the pain points of his clients’ potential customers. He gets to know them and their challenges intimately – this is what you need to do as well to really know your target market.
This is also true when you are pitching to the media – knowing what the program or publication covers before you prepare your pitch is vital. I remember when BRW was still around and one of their senior journos kept getting pitches for new organic baby onesies. His head would fall into his hands every time. It was clear from the pitches that the PR person had no idea of the market for BRW. So, do your homework to drill into whom the market is for each and every piece of marketing you create.
Media
When we choose and use media (and media can include your website, brochures, social channels and the actual mainstream media), it is vital to understand whom you are trying to reach, attract, interest and persuade.
The choice of media will obviously vary from business to business. When you think of media, ask yourself, “Who am I trying to reach and where do they hang out?” Be curious about whether or not the market (target audience you are trying to reach) pays attention and responds to the type of media you are contemplating.
I once spoke with a woman who wanted to run winery tours for retirees. Not on weekends mind you, only during the week. I asked her where she was promoting it, and she said on Instagram. Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t see many retirees hanging around on Insta posting pics of their latest bowls or bridge games! The media she was using was a total mismatch for her message and the market she wanted to attract.
Carefully choosing your channel or platform is crucial. The best crafted message will always fail in the wrong media environment.
So, the interconnected trio of message, market and media is a threesome worth embracing.
This article first appeared in issue 44 of the Inside Small Business quarterly magazine
