Does Your Core Marketing Message Resonate?

Rate Your Value to Your Customer

People love ratings and rankings. Look at the popularity of various websites that allow you to rate hotels, airlines, restaurants, stores, fast food joints, whatever. Recently a random sample of Americans were asked if they believed they were above average, average, or below average as a person. There weren’t any particular qualifiers, just all things being equal how would they rate themselves. Not surprisingly 85% of the survey group said they were above average. 85%! Above average! Really?

Lest you think companies are any different, the consulting firm Bain and Company asked 362 companies if they believed they offered a superior value and experience to their clients. Similar to the personal question mentioned above 80% of the 362 companies (I’ll do the math for you, that’s 290 companies!) believed they offered a superior value and experience. Here’s the reality check – When Bain surveyed the customers of these companies only 8% of their customers agreed. That’s a huge disconnect! Where would your company fall?

Check Your Core Marketing Message

Chances are there is something similar happening at your company. Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you think there might be a similar disconnect with your business.

Do we really know who our target audience is? Do you have a concise and well-defined statement as to who you ideal customer is? Does everyone in your company know it? If your idea of an ideal customer is anyone who has a pulse and money, you have a problem.
Assume for a moment that at least 8% of your current customers think that you offer a superior value and experience. Do you know exactly why they feel that way? Have you asked them why they do business with you instead of someone else? Don’t let them get away with saying that you simply have good service. Ask them to tell you a couple of stories that illustrated what that service looked like. Dig deep and ask a lot of questions to get some real good examples of why they do business with you.
Do you have a core marketing message that is based on why your customers buy from you? Is it based on reality, or some marketing fiction that sounds good? If you go through the exercise in #2 above you will have a good idea of how your core marketing message should sound. If it’s based on what your customers say about you, it should resonate well with your potential prospects.
Do your marketing materials educate your prospects on how to solve their problems, or do they simply tell them how great you are? Once you have a core message you need to back it up with lots and lots of good content that speaks clearly to your prospects about how to solve their problems. Only after you educate them can they know, like, and trust you enough to consider trying or buying your product.

If you want to break free of the pack of companies that all sound way too similar to your prospects, you need to give them a good reason to trust your company. The four points outlined above will give you a good start. But, it’s only a start.

If you have questions or comments please post them below. You may find yourself featured in a future blog post.