55: 3 Essential Questions to Answer for Better Marketing
Welcome back to Making Good, the podcast for small businesses who want to make a big impact.
I’m your host, Lauren Tilden, and this is episode 55.
Today we are going to be talking about 3 questions you should answer to make your marketing as strong as possible. This is a super important conversation and I can’t wait to get into it!
Before we dig in, though, I have an invitation for you.
I invite you to join other values-driven small business owners for inspiration, accountability and lots of business and marketing inspiration. That all takes place in the free Facebook community for this podcast, the Good Business Community. The link will be in the show notes, or you can go to makinggoodpodcast.com/community to be redirected.
I also thought I’d give a bit of a personal update before we dig into the content. This episode releases on Tuesday, March 30, which is 26 days before the due date of our baby! That’s right, my partner Kate is pregnant with our first kid.
Things aren’t totally going to plan…. We’re in the middle of a remodel of our house that is seriously delayed and so we won’t be back in our house when the baby arrives. I have a LOT to do still before the baby comes and I’m hoping to be able to take a little bit of time off. And of course, COVID is still very much a thing.
But it’s a fun time. Our house is filling up with gear that I have no idea how to use and the cutest little baby outfits. We’re cluelessly watching a lot of Youtube videos. We are telling our wolfy sidekick, Puff, that she needs to be a very nice big sister.
So, big changes are coming, and I promise to keep you in the loop! But as far as it relates to this podcast, my PLAN is to get content recorded and all set up in advance so that I don’t need to take any weeks off of releasing episodes. No promises, but that’s the plan! More coming in the next few weeks on that.
Okay, all that said -- let’s get into this week’s episode, which is about the 3 questions you need to answer in order to do clear, strong marketing.
The first question is:
Who is your ideal customer?
When our ideal customer comes across our brand, we want them to say to themselves, “wow… you really understand me.”
Your ideal customer is the person you create your products and goods for. It’s important to get REALLY REALLY clear on who this person is before you spend too much time marketing.
Look at who i s most attracted to your product, and who you like working with. A great way to do this is if you have a customer you’ve worked with in the past that just LOVES what you create, and you wish you could clone her… maybe she is your ideal customer. Or maybe this is a fictional set of traits.
After we’ve identified generally who this person is, it’s time to really dig in and get to know them.
What are their values? What do they care about? How old are they? Do they have kids? Are they married? What magazines or blogs do they read? Who do they follow on social media? What’s the first app they open when they grab their phone in the morning? Where do they want to go on vacation? What stresses them out? What makes them feel good about themselves? What do they struggle with? What books are they reading? What are their hobbies? What does a good Friday night sound like to them?
So *HOW* do you get the answers to these questions? Well, you find them, ask them, and listen to what they have to say.
For example, find where they are hanging out online and observe. What questions are they asking? What do they need help with? What do they have in common? Good places for this are online forums, Facebook groups, Clubhouse.
Or, consider asking them directly: Ask specific questions on your Instagram stories and use engagement tools. Or create a survey and find ways to get it in front of your ideal customer. You could even conduct some ideal customer interviews (phone or zoom calls) -- a quick Google search will bring up some ideas on how to do this.
The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to getting to know your ideal customer, is that it’s critical that you get really really specific here. Someone who comes across your product and marketing should know IMMEDIATELY whether they are the right fit.
Spending the time to get clear on who your ideal customer is just plain efficient. If we don’t get this right, we’ll be creating products and marketing that aren’t designed for the person we are hoping buys them… and we’ll spend a lot of time spinning our wheels.
The better we know our target customer, the better we will be able to communicate in a way that resonates with them and, more importantly, the better we will be able to create products that are designed to solve their pain points.
Speaking of pain points. This is a bit of an aside, but you will sometimes hear marketing experts suggest that you “agitate your customers pain points” as a way of convincing them how much they need your product. Please don’t do this. There will be more content around ethical marketing coming soon on this podcast, but just know that you can still help someone solve their problems without stirring up painful emotions in them.
I would also encourage you to listen to episode 52 of this podcast, How to Build Your Business Around Your Customer with Nataley Shepherd, which has some great information about how to really deeply get to know your ideal customer.
Okay, the second question to get super clear on in order to do better marketing is:
Why should someone buy from you?
What do you have to offer? This may seem obvious, but it’s really important to get it right.
When someone comes across your marketing and your products, they should easily be able to figure out what’s in it for them -- WHY they should buy from you.
In Marketing Land, we call this a value proposition, which is defined on Wikipedia as: A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered, communicated, and acknowledged.
Steve Blank, a former Google employee who runs the Lean Startup Circle, has created a simple formula you can use to work this out for your business:
I help _____X____ do _____Y______ by doing ____Z_______.
Where X is your ideal customer, Y is what benefit you offer your customer, and Z is how you do it.
If it’s helpful, and particularly if you’re a product-based business, you could think about a slightly different formula, something like this:
I make ____A____ for _____B____ so they can ____C____.
Where A is what is unique about your product, B is your ideal customer, and C is the benefit your product brings to your customers’ lives.
For example, I’ve written a value proposition for this podcast, Making Good, in each of these formats.
Option A:
I help values-driven small business owners do better marketing and more good in the world by offering weekly educational podcast episodes and a supportive online community.
Option B:
I create weekly educational podcasts and a supportive community for values-driven small business owners so they can do better marketing and more good in the world.
Note that a value proposition isn’t necessarily meant to be communicated directly to your ideal customer -- they are more meant to be a one-sentence, foundational statement that guides all of your marketing efforts.
It’s something you need to be crystal clear on, and use as a starting point for the marketing you write.
Finally, let’s move on to the third question.
And that is:
What makes you different?
Ready for some more nerdy marketing jargon? In Marketing Land, we call this a USP, which stands for your Unique Selling Proposition.
Your USP is what makes you different from the competition.
You all know that I LOVE marketing, and one of my favorite things about it is this: In marketing, our JOB is to explain how we’re different from everyone else.
This inspires me. We live in a world where many of us spend a lot of our lives just trying to fit in. But marketing has really shown me the power of being YOU. Of not trying to be like anyone else. In fact, of working hard to show how we’re different from others.
There are some formulas you can look up around USPs. Usually they are 1 to 2 sentences, and explain what your product is, who it’s for, and how it’s different from your competition.
Let me illustrate this with my paper goods business, Good Sheila. For some details up front, Good Sheila was my first small business, and I make greeting cards, art prints, and vinyl stickers.
My key differentiator for Good Sheila is that my greeting cards are meant to be both a card and a piece of art. Many of them are sized 5” x 7” intentionally so that they can be mailed, framed, or ideally both!
Here’s a USP for Good Sheila:
Good Sheila offers plant-inspired greeting cards, vinyl stickers and art prints for nature lovers so they can bring the color and vibrance of the outdoors into their homes. Unlike other greeting card companies, our cards are designed to live a second life as art, minimizing waste and maximizing beauty in your home!
Again, this statement isn’t necessarily meant to be the writing on the front of my website or Instagram bio, but it should be a clear, guiding force behind what I say in my marketing.
Okay, so! To review, these are the three questions you need to answer on for strong marketing:
Who is your ideal customer?
Why should someone buy from you?
What makes you different from everyone else? (USP)
Now, what do you do with these afterward?
You make sure to remember them and keep them top of mind when you write content for your business. Maybe you could print them out and put them next to your computer. Maybe you use Canva to make them into a graphic that is the background on your computer. Maybe you set a reminder for once a week to review. Whatever it is, make sure that you have a way to keep your answers to these questions top of mind and fresh when you are preparing marketing material.
PEP TALK
ALSO! I also want to give you a bit of a pep talk.
The first thing I want to say is this:
As small business owners, there is SO MUCH TO DO, that often we find ourselves doing the urgent, time-sensitive tasks first... and never really getting the chance to sit down and do the more strategic work… like really thinking through the answers to the questions we talked about today.
But think about this strategic work as the foundation of your marketing. If you’re building your house on a weak, crumbling foundation, it doesn’t matter how beautiful of a house you build… it’s still not going to get you very far.
It is worth spending the time upfront to answer these questions. When you have thoughtful, clear answers to them, your marketing will be SO. MUCH. STRONGER.
The second piece of my pep talk is to get specific. Don’t be afraid to be super, super specific in your answers to these questions about who you serve, what you offer, and what sets you apart. My friend and fellow marketing expert Micah Larsen introduced me to the idea of “concreteness” in marketing, which is essentially: Make it so clear that we can visualize it in our heads.
But you won’t be able to do concrete, specific marketing for your ideal customer if you haven’t gotten clear on what you sell and who you serve first.
Finally, give yourself permission for your answers to these questions to evolve. You may not get it “exactly right” the first time… in fact you most certainly won’t.
I would encourage you to make asking these questions a routine in your business. Our businesses change, and as time goes on, we’ll get to know our industry and customers better. In turn, we’ll have better, more specific answers to these questions, which will make our marketing better and better.
Alright, that is the episode for today, friends!
To sum up the episode very quickly, I would strongly encourage you to spend some time answering these 3 questions about your business:
Who is your ideal customer?
Why should someone buy from you?
What makes you different from everyone else? (USP)
If you got value out of this episode, I’d *LOVE* for you to share it on your Instagram stories! Take a screenshot from your podcast player, and tag me @laurentilden so I can say hello!
You can find the full details from this episode over at the show notes page at makinggoodpodcast.com/55.
One of my favorite places to hang out lately has been the private (free!) Facebook group for this community. I’d love to have you join us, over at: facebook.com/groups/goodbusinesspeople (or head to makinggoodpodcast.com/community to be redirected)
Thank you for being here, and for focusing on making a difference with your small business!
Talk to you next time.