How Clarity Rules When It Comes to Business
by Paula Satow, Managing Member, Satow Strategies
Spring has sprung and it’s time for a little spring cleaning. Sure, you can vacuum out your car and straighten up your office but that’s not really what I meant. I am referring to your company’s messaging. Just like your home and work life can always be improved when you get rid of the clutter and focus on organizing things, so, too, your bottom line can be enhanced when you simplify your key messages and get to the point when it comes to making new customers and influencing them to buy your products and try your services. The world’s best companies know that clear, crisp messages can be the keys to the kingdom of success.
Here are a few quick tips on how to spiff up your key points and capture your market’s imagination:
TIP One: Keep It Simple.
Be sure you start with a simple, solid messaging foundation that is easy to understand, no matter who the audience. For instance, when preparing your “About Us” section on your webpage, begin with a positioning statement that says exactly who you are and why that’s important to your target audience. For instance: “XYZ, Inc. is the Arizona-based plastics manufacturer that delivers high-quality widgets and services to the auto industry at a discounted price.” One sentence says it all.
TIP Two: Take It From The Top.
Organize your messages from the top down, focusing on your corporate brand first. Then, work your way down to your products, services and the unique differentiators they deliver. For instance, when writing a boilerplate – the summary paragraph about your organization that consistently appears at the end of your company’s press releases – always start with your corporate messaging followed by a description of the products and services you offer along with their key feature and benefit.
TIP Three: Remove Clutter.
Your key messages cannot by effectively conveyed when they’re surrounded by the clutter of contradictory, outdated and/or unfocused information. Peel back the onion on your marketing collateral and determine when the information was created and whether or not it is still relevant to your business and important to making sales. If not, it’s time to update your communications suite. Instead of helping you grow your business, it might be actually be working against you, confusing your customers and fueling your competitors’ “FUD Power” – the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that they tell prospects about your offering.
TIP Four: Try It On For Size.
Before you charge ahead to change the world, or at least your little corner of it, try to test your new messages out with prospects, customers, employees and partners to see how they fly. You can do formerly with some market research and/or informally through a small trial balloon, perhaps through a flyer at a trade show or a simple direct mail piece. But, more often than not, this vantage will prove invaluable in honing and prioritizing your final messages.
Visit http://www.satowstrategies.com/ to learn more about getting your messages more on track and your business on target for success through organized messaging techniques. Email info@satowstrategies.com to get started on your Message Spring Cleaning.
(c) 2007 Satow Strategies, LLC
