Your customers won't buy what you sell
You're spending money on marketing, updating your website, posting on LinkedIn and wondering why enquiries aren't where they should be.
You’re not getting an ROI on your marketing, so you keep throwing more time, effort and money at it.
The problem usually isn't your product or service. It's your message.
Most businesses talk about what they do because that’s what they sell. Customers don't buy what you do. They buy what they want.
In my experience, most buying decisions are driven by one of three things:
A solution
Convenience
An experience
If your marketing doesn't convince people you're delivering one of those, you're making life much harder than it needs to be.
People buy solutions because they want a problem to disappear. More profit. Less stress. Better health. Greater confidence. Peace of mind. They're not buying the service; they're buying a better outcome.
People buy convenience because life is busy - they want things faster or easier. Amazon didn't become one of the world's biggest businesses because its products were unique. It became successful because buying is effortless. The easier you make it for customers to buy from you, the more valuable you become.
People buy experiences because they remember how you make them feel. The more emotional the experience, the more they will pay. That’s why people happily pay hundreds or thousands of pounds for a luxury hotel when they could stay somewhere much cheaper. The experience becomes part of what they're buying.
Here's where many businesses get it wrong. They spend thousands telling people how long they've been trading, how passionate they are or how many awards they've won. Nobody cares.
Your customers don't wake up wondering how many years you've been in business. They wake up wondering how to solve their problem and improve their life or business.
The more you can help customers articulate both the financial gap and the emotional gap between where they are today and where they want to be, the easier it becomes for them to see the value of investing in your solution.
Your marketing and branding have one job: convince your ideal customer that you solve a problem they care about, make their life easier or create an experience worth paying for. Then show them why you're the best choice and the value they'll receive from choosing you.
If your marketing isn't answering the question… "Why should I choose you?"... don't spend more money on more marketing. Fix your message first.
Here's a challenge for you.
Look at your homepage, your LinkedIn profile or your latest marketing campaign and ask yourself one question. Does it explain what you do... or does it explain why your ideal customer should buy from you?
If it's the former, you've probably found the reason your marketing isn't delivering the return you expected.
If you'd like a fresh pair of eyes on your message, let's have a conversation.
Sometimes a few small changes to your positioning can make a remarkable difference to your results.