Three Ways to Fulfill The Great Expectations of Your Customers

April 3, 2017 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

For content marketers, the phrase “Know, Like and Trust” is a common objective. Companies and brands wants to achieve this goal by establishing a benchmark of familiarity with their audience, based on common values and reliability.

And it’s paying off.

These days, more people who see ads believe the ads are honest, according to this survey. In other words, 11% more people are likely to trust an ad they see today than the percentage of people in a similar survey just a few years ago.

What’s going on here? Everyone knows that advertisers try to get your attention in order to sell you something, and people don’t like to be sold to, right?

Not necessarily. Consumers don’t want to be “sold to,” but they do like to buy, especially when they’re confident they have all the information they need to make a decision.

Consumers expect nothing less than to know, like, and trust the brands they buy and the companies they do business with; and advertisers are rising to the occasion to meet consumers when and where they they’re needed. They’re also placing ads where viewers expect, tolerate, and maybe even welcome them.

Most importantly, advertisers are supporting those ads with appropriate content.

I believe this is a testament to the efforts of content creators and marketers to provide their readers with valuable content. Since useful content builds trust, the payoff multiplies for companies that run ads in conjunction with good content. They earn their customers’ trust and trust in their brand grows over time.

Ironically, institutions that used to enjoy the benefits of blind trust have fallen from grace in the eyes of the average person. Is it any surprise that the three top losers in this poll — those whose perceived honesty plummeted — are government, which doesn’t advertise except in the case of isolated and, ideally, nonpartisan public service announcements; religion, an entrenched institution whose reputation precedes advertising; and the media, which is undergoing the most disastrous fall from grace since the public’s mainstream addiction to it.

Now it’s not institutions, but rather companies and organizations that people hold to higher trust standards. People go online for an experience that quickly validates and satisfies their expectations.

Because your audience’s expectations are high, you too must send messages that complement and seamlessly integrate with your short-term goals, your users’ or customers’ engagement levels, and your overall brand objectives.

How do you satisfy your audience’s expectations of honesty in advertising? Let’s look at some companies and organizations that place ads that cultivate familiarity, likability and trust, and find out what they have in common. People EXPECT their favorite brands and people to do the following.

Send a consistent message.

Make an effort to keep your content coffers full and on schedule with the help of a content calendar like CoSchedule. If you blog, set a schedule with content topics that predict and speak to your audience’s inquiries. If you host podcasts, roundtables, or Twitter Chats, make sure you keep to a set schedule and format. Make use of the online tools available and fold them into your routine.
Consistency is actually easier to achieve when you allow your content themes to breathe. Some people fear they’ll lose their main audience if they stray from their core topic, but I prefer to think of content as an opportunity to play variations on a theme, like a jazz orchestra might take turns noodling around a tune. A diverse variety of messages within a theme enables you to connect with people in different ways, which goes a long way toward growing a diverse audience with a common interest.
Speaking of diversity, remember that people prefer to consume content in different forms. Your audience is comprised of readers, listeners, and viewers. Consistency doesn’t mean static. Try to provide content that satisfies all the ways people learn: auditory, visual, and sensory. Advertisers that offer a range of content in the form of images, videos, podcast, and blogs reach more eyeballs.
Invite others to weigh in. The voices of fellow experts, loyal partners, users, fans and influencers can make for pretty awesome content. A content manager at Blackbaud, Madeline Turner, asks nonprofit experts to chime in on using technology to further their mission, and pulls off a useful and interesting article for the company’s community of software users. It’s also a great opportunity to ask for their input, too.

Understand your audience.

Data and analytics: The topic of privacy is on many advertisers’ and marketers’ minds this week as old FCC privacy rules are likely to stay in effect for the time being. For some, this means that that it’s possible to cross over from trying to understand an audience to almost (ok, literally) spying on them. Internet service providers with access to consumers’ browsing habits will be able to sell that data to advertisers. That’s edging in on creepy (albeit inevitable) if you ask me, but it’s not what I’m talking about here. For many marketers, a worthy goal is attracting the right people, re-engaging current customers and staying relevant in their eyes.
- One way to transparently keep your finger on your customer’s pulse is to have an opt-in process in place and a reason to monitor and engage with your audience’s actions. Willing participation translates into natural trust. If your community already knows that you operate above a certain self-imposed level, then there are no surprises when they see your ads. Simply asking for permission reaps great returns in trust.
- Another increasingly common trust building practice is to notify your audience of how your collect data. Most websites use cookies and hidden pixels to track where their readers have been and what they are looking for on your website. Some sites go the extra mile to notify their visitors. You’ve seen the bar across the bottom a your screen telling you ‘This site uses cookies to improve your browsing experience,” or similar verbiage. That company cares about transparency and values your trust.

Feedback: Getting and giving feedback is difficult. At least it doesn’t come naturally for most of us who were taught to “be nice,” says Kim Scott, author of the book Radical Candor. If processing personal feedback is confusing, how much more so for a large company with multiple products, services and features! Making sense of hundreds of incoming opinions and questions can overwhelm a service team and muddy their efforts to deliver a great experience. In Evernote’s Taking Note podcast, Gerald Hastie shares how the company manages feedback from its community of users. Practices include surveys, user groups, and community questions and answers. All that information is useless if you don’t use it to improve your users’ experience. Asking is better than guessing when your goal is to fulfill the expectations of your customers. Trust grows when you ask and follow through with knowledge gleaned from hard-earned feedback.

Accessibility: Sometimes the best content is happening right now. If you’re not around, you’ll miss it completely. You’re able now to have real time conversations on social media. Anyone with a phone can host a get together. Storytelling on Facebook Live, Instagram, and SnapChat allows you to meet your audience and instantly harvest feedback on topics your audience favors. Watch a couple minutes of Mari Smith and a roomful of Social Media Marketing world attendees geeking out on Facebook Live with Facebook training. Then imagine how you (or someone in your group who’s a natural like Mari!) could put this easy-to-use technology to work for your company or organization.

Be human.

Effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.

~ Brian Solis

If you want humans to engage with you, then you have to act like a human. Some say the quickest way to gain trust is through vulnerability. While you don’t have to spill your coffee on yourself to show you’re human, you might share where you’ve learned a lesson, let people know you have a life outside of work, or even act a little goofy sometimes.

Authenticity sets you apart. Don’t try to be something you’re not. One of my favorite cartoons shows a dog in 1994 telling another dog, “Hey look, Roger, on the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog.” The next frame show the same dog, many years later saying, “Hey look, Roger, on the Internet, everyone knows you’re a dog.” You can fool some people some of the time, but if you neglect the first two trust builders (and the great expectations of your audience), you’re sure not going to fool them for long!

Own up to mistakes. The sad truth is that eventually you are going to trip up. Most of us humans fail in a less public way, but the shame we feel is huge. Maybe you’ll never release a sucky version of your software (Windows XP), hand someone the wrong envelope (Price Waterhouse), or make too-thin yoga pants and charge $98 for them (Lululemon). But a mistake you’re personally invested in probably feels just as buzzworthy.

Coming back from failures, even really dismal ones, feeds the fertile ground of growth. It actually makes us strong and brave.

In your personal AND professional life, there are times — and it may feel like years — when you’re facing into a strong wind. Remember that everyone gets their share of trouble. In the world of content marketing, braving mistakes is a great way to build connections with your best, most loyal fans.

If you’re taking chances and developing just outside of your comfort zone, then criticism is inevitable. How you handle your critics makes you memorable in the eyes of your audience (because they’re all watching, you know). Jay Baer is a proponent of “embracing your haters to keep your customers.” A bad experience shared online can unravel years of positive work and appreciation. Publicly setting things right with calm, humor, and even a degree of urgency, you’ll probably rebound with integrity and resilience; possibly even winning increased loyalty from your customers. Most people want to cheer a comeback than watch a house of cards fall.

Share your wins and strengths as well as your challenges. Even in good times, the head-spinning immediacy and publicity of social media may make you want to sit out for a spell. But your audience expects your presence.

Try to stay in the moment, and don’t overthink transparency. The sooner you deal with reality the better. A fortress is a dangerous place. When all eyes are on you and you’re advocating for yourself or your company, avoid telling your version of the story. Focus instead on what you learned. Never forget that while people may be curious about how a blunder went down, your customer mainly wants to find out what’s in it for him.

Relax. Breathe. Shake it out. Lose the uppity voice, the jargon, and inclination to pontificate. Not that you’re guilty of any of that, of course!

One easy way to develop a natural, human voice in your content is to read your content out loud, preferably to another human. (Dogs don’t count.)

It’s a process, but it’s one you can easily get good at, if you strive to know, like and trust your customers the same way you want them to know, like and trust you.

Remember your objective. To earn your customer’s trust and fulfill their expectations, you first have to be there, with consistency and an understanding of their needs and desires.

In the end, content marketing is a two-way street.

How To Reverse Engineer The Ultimate Buyer Persona

November 9, 2016 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

Wouldn’t it be great to find the right customers every time?

Can you imagine how simple your marketing would be if you figured out a way to lead the perfect match down your sales funnel each time you wanted more business?

If you are a solo-preneur or someone re-branding yourself as the expert in your field, your content is always quietly working to attract and conversely, to repel certain types of people.

Some with click with you. Others will literally click away.

That’s why it’s so important to spend some time developing a few “buyer personas” to easily attract more of those ideal customers you like working with, and who enjoy your style, too.

You want the ones who click with you!

When you get your buyer personas right, not only are you able to describe in words and pictures your ideal client, but your communication with that person will feel more natural. A huge fringe benefit of developing accurate buyer personas is lower frustration spending time working with the wrong clients.

See, it goes both ways. Knowing who your ideal customer is and defining him or her within a buyer persona framework also prevents the wrong people from squandering their resources and peace of mind, too.

A mismatch is bad for everyone, yet almost everyone I know has made this mistake at some point.

It’s understandable, especially if you’re just starting a new business, working on branding yourself and your business, or striking out alone after years working in another job.

In addition to the challenge of getting it “just right,” a lot of new business owners are happy to do business with just about anyone with a pulse and a credit card. Because you need the business, you take on any and all new clients, only to discover after awhile that there are just some people you don’t serve well.

Working with the wrong customers sucks the life out of your business.

Maybe your values clash, or they ask you to change the way you do something to suite them, even though you know it means you won’t be able to deliver your best work within the efficient system you’ve created. Maybe they constantly find fault with your products or services, or they fail to communicate with you before they post their complaints on all their social media sites. Maybe the wrong customers are costing you a small fortune in chargebacks and returns.

The fallout is real; the wrong customer slows you down, prevents your best work, and usually sucks resources away from the very people who form the soul of your business… the right customers.

The process of finding these people – the right customers – is equal parts choice and discovery.

As a small business owner or entrepreneur, you get to paint the picture of the person who is most likely to respond positively to your marketing efforts and become the exact match to the person you’re in business to serve.

Once you know this person — and are able to describe him or her to someone else — effective content will easy to create and you’ll know where to place it to find your next customer.

It’s time to create or re-evaluate one or two buyer personas.

As I discussed previously in this post, think of a buyer persona as an archetype of the customer that your business serves best. Buyer personas are more than demographics or a general “types.” A comprehensive and detailed portrait of your buyer persona includes many characteristics: personal, professional, social, physical, even spiritual dimensions of your happiest, most successful customer. You need to consider the whole person.

Traditional Buyer Persona Creation

There are many ways to go about creating a buyer persona description.

You can gather your team together and brainstorm all the possible qualities of your ideal customer.
You can do a thorough investigation into your markets, your customers, people who have heard of you and your brand.
You can study leads that have chosen NOT to do business with you.
You can conduct surveys from possible buyers.
You can put out questionnaires.
You can request exit interviews from past customers and clients.
You can even construct a buyer persona from a pool of interested leads who “intend” to purchase at some point in the future.

Or you can take a simpler approach that’s almost always accurate… Look to the real, flesh-and-blood person you’ve already helped. Look to your ideal customer…so far.

Then just step back to get a better view.

How to Reverse Engineer the Buyer Persona Identification Process

Based on the experiences you’ve already had with your customers, you can create a buyer persona by simply reverse engineering your (very real) ideal customer.

First, start with a very specific image of that person you’ve already served and who loves your work. How do you know who that is? Any one of the following descriptions indicates a possible ideal customer. (Let’s say, for ease of discussion, that person is a woman.)

Your ideal client is probably one of your star clients or most satisfied customers.
This person could be the one who’s come furthest, thanks to you, and refers you to everyone she meets.
She’s taken what you’ve given, implemented it, and found success.
Her “receiving” style and your “giving” style match perfectly.
If it was a client relationship or a B2B contact, working together was smooth sailing from day one.
If she was a consumer of a product, this person is the one who buys everything you produce, shares it, and tells all her friends.
She’s an advocate and a champion, and probably active on social media.

You know who that person is. Just close your eyes for a second and think about it.

First, zoom in.

For this next part, you may know the answers or you may have to make your best guess. That should be easy, since you already know her.

Identify her specific goals and values, witness her behaviors, job title, family situation, mannerisms, and lifestyle. What was the situation that person was dealing with the day you first met? Where did you meet or how did this customer find you? What social sites does she use? What part of town does this person live in? What type of vacations does she take? What is her education level? Do you know her favorite expressions, biggest career concerns, political leanings? List everything you can reasonably know about this person in detail.

Once you have a complete picture you can start to create your first buyer persona.

Let’s keep going.

Next, pan out.

Where you initially focused your attention, now it’s time to pan out to get a higher view. Pay attention now…as you pull back, you may find some similarities with other clients you serve, or whom you would like the opportunity to serve.

At this point, other identifying characteristics may emerge that you could determine to be more important or relevant, while other details don’t seem to matter so much. Income, occupation, health, gender and even points of view all come into play.

As you pull pack to get a more general view of your ideal customer, you may begin to notice and eliminate unnecessary distinctions that have no bearing on your ability or desire to serve this qualified group.

Where will you discern these generalities?

Within businesses, for example if you’re a B2B business, you may note commonalities between geography, seniority, function, industry, or company size. Among consumers you may notice the important factors affecting a successful sale hinge on geography, age, profession, income, or family size.

The Buyer Persona Comes Into Focus

It’s exciting to begin to see an archetype of your ideal client come into focus!

She may not be the exact person you were thinking of in the first step, but someone similar who shares general important traits.

The similarities are important because this is the area where you’ll be able to create the best content for the most people. Individual details fall away and larger trends take precedence.

As this article shows you can even start to accommodate fluctuations and areas of urgency based on changing shifts in industries, geographical concerns or newsworthy trends.

You buyer personas may change according to the season, current events, or other fluctuating factors. No matter what market your business serves, it’s important to stay flexible. You don’t want to carve a buyer persona in stone and then forget about it.

Fluid, lively content is content that meets your customer where she is – and in some cases, her circumstances can change a lot over a short period of time!

If you are a new business owner, don’t start creating content until you’ve identified at least one or two buyer personas. After that, you can begin to walk through their decision-making processes and points where they will be most open to your message.

You don’t need a committee of smart interviewers and surveys to find out who needs your services. You really can paint a picture of your best customer on your own.

Start with this process and see where it takes you. Note that it’s the opposite of what a lot of entrepreneurs do, starting with a theoretical buyer profile, based on assumptions — a skeletal frame upon which they build a persona by laying in details and adding color.

I’m proposing doing the opposite.

Begin with a picture of your actual customer. Forget all about those disaster clients and unhappy customers. Just let them go.) Then work backwards.

You’ll get a bird’s-eye view of your best customer, which allows you to see similarities with others who share characteristics with those in your target niche.

Just pinpoint the one whose world you rocked in the past and you’ll have a pretty good idea of the one you must connect with today. Your content will speak directly to her.

As tempting as it is to stay flexible and work with lots of different types of people, you’re better off identifying one ideal buyer persona, crafting content to answer her questions and calm her concerns, then pleasing that customer with your best work.

While you may not want to refuse anyone at first as you are building your business, at least you will attract fewer of the wrong customers when you use a marketing strategy based on clear buyer personas. That’s a win-win for you and your ideal clients.

You know whom you serve best. Small business people need to take an efficient and economical approach to their marketing. When content marketing blogs advise a complicated method for creating buyer personas that will engage with your content and eventually convert, most small businesses immediately think they need to hang on to their wallets. so reverse engineering that ideal client will result in your first (and probably best) buyer persona.

The ultimate buyer persona is right in front of you.

One Insanely Predictable But Effective Move For Business Building Success

April 17, 2015 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

In early February I saw a Facebook post written by an acquaintance that read something like, “OMG, I am simply beside myself with a great idea, can’t sleep, so excited, etc.” While others were congratulating her, I felt pity.

I felt her pain because I know she is in the throes of business building. You know how it is when you’re molding your business. The ups and downs are part of the landscape. If you’re like most, your restless, creative mind brings disorder as well as inspiration.

The Curse of Creativity

Don’t you wish it would stop? There are times I’ve thought, “If one more great idea comes furiously flapping in my face like a bat looking for food on a moonless night, I just might go crazy. While I’m grateful for sparks of creativity, my left brain is thinking, “No thank you very much to new ideas. Can we all just get back to work?”

For the past few years, I’ve made it my New Year’s tradition to choose two words to frame the coming year. It’s April already, and they’re still firmly stuck to my steering wheel and framed on my desk, so I haven’t given up. But I tell you, these are hard words to live by when you’re prone to great ideas.

The theory behind the year’s word choice is this: I force myself to choose two exclusive words, one to internalize and one that inspires action (sometimes a very specific action). Just seeing the two words one on top of the other, reminds me of the brutal importance of editing.

Editing, cutting things out, saying “No” to stuff… is not easy.

If you want to accomplish anything in twelve months, you must say no to a lot of alluring prospects. If you’re honest, you probably have some excellent choices on your table. The trick is choosing whom to listen to, and what to build. Editing is more difficult than writing. Just ask any writer.

I was stymied the whole month of January, I admit. Hogtied and buzzing with new ideas after a professional, spiritual and personal shake-up mid month, I knew this was Officially Not Good. While the self-created upheaval provided an exhilarating start to the new year, I realized I had been hoping and expecting a different kind of year. You know, the kind where you’re just pedaling consistently hard; not having too much fun, not pinching yourself with disbelief, just plodding forward. It’s why I chose these strong words in the first place. Listen. Build. Ugh.

What happened, right at the get-go, was a bit of a boondoggle of my own making. “Uh oh,” I thought for a second, “Maybe I could change my words to ‘Play’ and ‘Pray.’” I quickly decided it’s no fair changing my Words of the Year. That would be a sign of drama, which I’ve sworn off for good. If I were to see these words bear any fruit, I would have to buckle down and quit changing channels.

And anyway, they were already on my steering wheel.

So I’m (still) committed. The lightning strikes of creativity are beginning to lose their power over me. This doesn’t mean I did not act on some of these ideas raining down. But I didn’t run in every direction trying to catch them all, either. Instead I continued doing my usual work, while allowing them to fall to the ground.

My commitment to listen meant that I had to personally “check in” when something made an impression, but not lift a finger or move in its direction until I had bounced it up against these 15 decision-making guidelines and talked it over with a friend or colleague.

All that patient listening will have an impact on the “building” part of it, which will be coming right along in Q2. I can feel it.

pouncing on a great idea — Red Fox hunting on Prince Edward Island, Canada

Creativity’s Evil Twin: Your “Next Best Move”

Entrepreneurs often kid themselves into thinking that every creative impulse could be defined as their Next Best Move.

This happens a lot when the work that got you to where you are now isn’t new anymore. The fun part was beginning it; now the finish line is nowhere in sight. In fact, you can’t even imagine being in the same place this time next year. It must be time to do something different, bold, daring!

Whenever I feel like things aren’t happening as fast and dramatically as I would like, I start falling prey to the “Next Best Moves” trap. Most creative types love to imagine and discuss NBMs with their team, their masterminds or their friends. We imagine this new project, product, addition of skillsets, etc. will fill in for whatever excitement (and potential new revenue) is missing in our business.

Have you ever felt that desire urging you away from your beaten path? Like a fox, you stop, prick up your ears, and dart toward it. NBMs are significant and “game-changing.” They are not what you’ve done in the past. They are moves about which you’ll look back and say (for surely someone will ask about the time the big transformation occurred), “Now, that was a good move.”

In your imagination, that NBM is a turning point, the year you finally hit a specific goal because you’ll have finally deviated from the common and fruitless path you were once on.

Except that’s where the whole house of cards comes crashing down.

The hard truth is that many times your next best move is indecipherable from that move you just made.

Most likely, your next best move is boring.

It looks a lot like last month’s move, and the move before that. Your next best move may actually be no more than a mere, small adjustment that folds easily into the direction you’re already moving:

Adding a tool that makes you more productive
Asking your prospect what they need to move forward
Asking a current customer for a referral, or a repeat order
Redesigning your home page of your website so that it’s clearer to your buyer personas

It could be something that’s not nearly as fun as developing something band new, but flows in the direction of the moves you’ve already set in place to get you this far.

Predictability means staying on track, and doing the work. But it also frequently defines your next best move. It may not be the most exciting NBM you could take today, but chances are it will allow your business to gain momentum that results in success. The day you realize you’re pretty predictable, and also productive, is a day to rejoice, because you’re doing the thing that defines a successful business.

The Power of Predictable Moves

In the business classic Good to Great, Jim Collins describes the flywheel, a large, heavy, horizontal disk you must turn to bring up to speed. One dogged revolution at a time; the wheel slowly makes one turn on its axis, then another, then another. Eventually, it takes on a life of its own, its weight and momentum creating a force that easily revolves by its own weight and momentum.

Can you identify which move contributed the most to this flywheel’s energy? No, all the pushes to get it up to speed were important, and they all were nearly identical. It was the succession of simple, repetitive, boring moves them that got the wheel moving so fast.

If the flywheel theory makes perfect sense to you, you may already own the title of Chief Buzzkill on your team. While everyone else is falling in love with the latest new idea, you’re shooting holes in it.

Stick with it.

This shiny new idea, as James Chartrand describes here, will own you if you let it. Like a faceted rubber ball ricocheting off its own energy, the dynamics and enthusiasm of your team for this shiny new thing can be difficult to rein in. Before you spend too much time on it, make sure this NBR is a genuine contribution to the overall goal, and not just a diversion from work that’s lost its luster. Failed sparks of genius take a huge toll on a business (in time, energy and motivation) if they don’t produce results.

If you’ve listened and qualified a particularly good idea, maybe you’ve decided that you really do have an idea worth exploring. The next step is deciding how to move in on it. Will you pounce or will you quietly sneak up on it? Maybe you’ll get some outside help to research or establish preliminary steps.

When you do decide to take action and build on it, make sure it contributes to your core competencies, your talents and skills. You don’t want to undo work that got you this far by chasing something new.

With the responsibility to edit your life and business to ensure progress, comes responsibility for your own happiness. If you try to fit thirteen hours of joy into eight hours, you’ll make yourself miserable.

If you chase after every creative jot and wiggle your brilliant mind can dream up you may satisfy that inner creator who always likes to feel busy, but you’ll also feel like you’re always missing something just out of reach. (I know this because I’m all to familiar with this tendency.) The only thing you’ll really be missing is the opportunity to grow and develop a sense of purpose that’s the hallmark of a well-lived life.

If the grass is always greener, go peek over that fence over there. It has bare patches and weeds, maybe even more than your own patch of sod. What a relief, then, to get back to your real business at hand and build it big. Build it steadily, one revolution at a time.

What’s your best, predictable move that got you where you are today?

Content Creation For Difficult People

August 1, 2013 by jennifer mcgahan 4 Comments

Writing web and email content can sometimes push you right to the edge of your comfort zone — if you’re doing it right.

When I was selling semiconductor equipment in Silicon Valley, I’ll never forget the time a potential customer asked me why my company chose to outsource a specific component instead of create a unified piece of hardware all under one roof.

Knowing that our competition proudly built this particular part in-house (and probably used it as a selling point), I felt that this customer was implying that outsourcing made for a weaker system.

I braced myself and answered the truth, which was that our supplier was world-famous for this particular piece of engineering…why re-invent the wheel when it was flawlessly manufactured elsewhere? It was made by the best and it worked perfectly with our software.

Well, that wasn’t the end of it. He needed convincing by some of our top engineers, but at least his question moved the discussion forward!

Seek out people who challenge you — and write better content and marketing copy.

Ever notice how the most challenging questions are the ones that push you furthest? Most of the time the people who ask them are not hostile, they are just people who are driven to mobilize a decision or solution fast.

When you write copy and create content, you may find it challenging to answer the tough questions these “mobilizers” might ask. It helps to know what makes them tick.

According to this illuminating HBR article about solution selling, sales people who sell B2B are often taught to gravitate to the very people who are least equipped to influence a purchase. They are friendly, yes. They are talkers, yes. They are informative “people persons” who can tell you all about their company. All well and good. Every organization needs people like this.

But are they the ones who drive change, or make risky decisions? No. The following personalities do, though. If you’re in the business of content creation, recognize these people and keep them in mind as you write.

“Difficult people” and the thrill of helping them meet their goals

Go-Getters: These people are action oriented people who don’t care where the good idea comes from, as long as it moves the company or their business forward. Their energy sizzles and zaps with ambition.

Teachers: They are as passionate about finding answers as they are about sharing them. People often consult them for their insights and take their advice if they recommend a specific course of action. They know what they’re talking about and how to translate it to others. They are proud of their status as a “go-to” resource.

Skeptics: They’re the ones who demand simple, clear, concise solutions. They put up roadblocks if a course of action is confusing, has too many steps, or is too large to get their arms around. Even if they appreciate the destination, they need to know and understand each measured step, every inch of the way.

The difference between personas and personalities

When we talk about buyer personas, we’re referring more to demographics like the physical and professional attributes of someone who is very likely to be a customer of yours.

When addressing potential clients and customers, either in person or in your content creation, remember that their personalities can be totally different. For example, if your ideal client is a bookkeeper, she probably shares personality traits with other bookkeepers, like attention to detail and an aptitude for math. But don’t assume that all bookkeepers are, well, “bookish.” They may be warm and easy-going or fiercely resistant to change; slow to make decisions or quick to test something new. You just never know.

Keep an open mind and don’t be afraid of the tough rebuttals and questions you encounter. Producing content for your audience moves the wheels of a sale forward. And that means kicking up a little mud now and then.

Tell me, have you ever had to answer a tough question that illuminated something more? something better? Please share!

Photo credit: Flickr CC, Witco.gmbh

“Use what You Have” Marketing For The Small Business Owner

June 4, 2013 by jennifer mcgahan Leave a Comment

It just doesn’t have to be that hard. Marketing your small business, I mean.

You get your message in front of the (generally) “right” group of people and then keep getting in front of those most likely to desire or need what you offer.

Over a period of time, you establish trust by revealing how you can serve your customer.

It begins to get “personal” when your ideal customers understand how you help them reach their goals or solve a problem.

And finally, your marketing pays off. You make a sale.

That’s how marketing works, basically.

Unfortunately a lot of marketing-speak sends the small business person into a tailspin, thinking you have to do everything all the time. You’re convinced you must attract the attention of millions of people every day, when maybe all you really need are a few new clients each month.

Have you ever seen those home improvement shows where they take a high end designer room and show you less expensive options for each element of the room? The handmade designer lamp is replaced with a similar looking one from Target. The furniture arrangement is replicated exactly so the space is used the same way. The palette and style is kept similar across both the high and low ends. The look and feel of both rooms are almost indistinguishable from each other.

If you don’t have a huge marketing budget, look at your marketing strategy with the same eye. “Splurge” on the stuff that gets a big result, and cut costs elsewhere.

Marketers can get pretty wonky. Sometimes when I start thinking about marketing as some big complicated animal, I take a step back. I hate to think that a busy entrepreneur or small business owner could start buying into the idea that before you can start to tell people what you do…

first you must research
then survey
then study
then get everything lined up just perfectly
then come up with a HUGE budget — before you can truly connect with the people who have money and inclination to purchase something from you!

That’s just not true.

“Use What You Have” Marketing

The best way to start is to just use what you have.

Here’s what set me off today. See, I’ve been learning about buyer personas. More than a profile or a demographic, a buyer persona tells a story about the specific customer who would be most likely to buy from you and benefit from your products.

It’s kind of like a fictional character development an author might do. Just like fleshing out a character, creating a buyer persona requires you to you fill in details until you have a detailed picture of who your ideal customer is.

Most of the information you’ll find about buyer personas involves getting input from scads of sources: people who somehow fall into the market you serve, your current customers, even the people who don’t like your product. Only when you’ve pulled enough information out of all these diverse people will you start to see some similarities among your most likely customers and how to present your offer to them.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it?

One slide show I viewed about buyer personas even went so far as to suggest that creating them should be the exclusive practice of certain professionals: “This poses a real dilemma for senior executives to choose the right people to be involved in buyer persona development efforts with the intent to inform strategy and one they must get right.”

Does that mean you need highly qualified and trained people to ask these questions? In other words, “Don’t try this yourself at home.” Yikes!

I don’t know about you, but as a self employed small businessperson, I’m as highly trained to ask questions as the next guy. So are you, especially if you’re the one standing behind your services. You just decide what you genuinely want to know, and you’ll figure out a way to ask the right questions.

That’s just how micro-entrepreneurs and small biz folks roll…we jump in. Sink or swim. Try again.

You probably already have what you need to market your small business on an effective (but small) scale.

One thing to remember about marketing online: A lot of information is geared to larger businesses where part of the challenge is getting messaging right across a lot of departments, from the top down. But a marketing process for a large company probably doesn’t make sense for the small business or entrepreneur.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t take advice and learn all you can from marketing professionals. Just that you don’t have to stand in one place if your budget is small.

Here are FOUR marketing elements a small business can rely on:

Establish goals — that’s crucial. Decide what you want: 100 new followers on Facebook next week, or 50 new sign-ups to your email list, or 10% more traffic to your shop, for example.
Follow your intuition, based on your experience; always a great guide, at first.
Identify trends that others are using, especially in a similar business. If you’re in direct sales, watch what successful leaders are doing, even outside of your company. If you’re in the retail fashion business, follow your competitors successes and failures. Envision similar marketing tactics for your business. If you think it might apply, try it.
Test what you just tried against something similar. If you spend $100 on Facebook ads, try $100 on Google Ads. If something isn’t working, change it up. If it delivers, try to improve on it by tweaking one small thing.

Just don’t let anyone tell you a marketing tool or strategy is beyond your means. Use what you have and start there.