Business Messaging Strategies
Your business has a story that deserves to be told. The challenge for many small business owners and entrepreneurs lies in making it clear, concise, and compelling in a crowded market. When asked the question, “What does your business do?” a single answer (example: “We sell soap”) may not be enough. Sharing your story sets you apart from others. Your business’s story also invites people to be part of what you do, and a compelling message can attract new customers and find the best product-market fit.
Why Business Messaging Matters
Business messaging might not sound very exciting. In short, it’s how you share who you are, what problems you solve, and what it’s like to be your customer. Your messaging establishes trust, drives engagement, and impacts sales. Too often, we see businesses focus on being cutesy or being clever, and then ultimately falling short of having a clear message that inspires action and connects with customers. That’s why we help small businesses and entrepreneurs approach their messaging differently.
Clear and Consistent Messaging Creates Trust
Attention spans are short. Meaning, you’ve got limited time to capture a potential customer’s attention and share about your business, products and services. To be effective, your messages need to be clear and consistent, no matter where people connect with you.
In an effort to reach your customers, you probably have messages across many channels. You might have paid ads, social media posts, commercials, newsletters, and more! And the messages you’re sending out may not be as consistent as you think. Mixed messaging can confuse current and potential customers. For example, promoting “natural, handmade soap” on one platform and “high-end, luxury soap” on another creates ambiguity. If your goal is to offer a spa-like experience at home by addressing the lack of luxury soaps, messaging about “natural” or “handmade” products might dilute your brand and confuse your audience.
Your business can be many things at once, and it probably is! But, trying to be everything to everyone leaves people wondering what you really do. To be effective, aim to quickly and clearly share a message that is consistent and relevant to your audience. You want your audience to know what experience you create or problem you solve. When you can demonstrate your ability to deliver on an experience or provide a solution, you earn their trust.
Inspiring Action
As you earn their trust, customers want to be part of what you’re doing. That’s where your business’ story can be an effective tool to connect to customers and ultimately drive sales. Hearing a story is a familiar experience–and we are interested in them because we want to see how it ends. More than simply sharing your story, you need to build a story arc where your customer is invited to be part of it. In the story, your customer has an incredible experience or solves a problem, positioning them as the main character in the story. When a customer can visualize their success, they are more likely to take action.
You have a clear and compelling story, so now it’s time for action. Here’s what it takes to craft a story that can drive sales:
- Show customers that you understand their experience
- Paint a picture of success that they can achieve by using your product or service
- Give them a plan for next steps
- State a clear call to action
Consistent messages across your channels builds trust–and encourages people to take action because when the lightbulb goes off and they realize that you’re solving their problem, they already know what to do (thanks to your plan!). The elements of your message remain similar, even while you adjust the message for different audiences or revenue streams. Sharing what problem you solve and how people can tap into that solution needs to be crystal clear so that your customers take action.
Using Business Made Simple
You know your business better than anyone, and your passion will set you apart. That’s a good start. But if you find yourself struggling to clearly share what you do, who you serve, or what problems you solve, let us help! We often find that there’s a market for our clients’ products and services, but the reason they’re not getting traction is because of their messaging. Sharing a clear and consistent message that’s relevant to the right customers is critical to growing your business. Your story is the key to clear, consistent messaging.
At Tellwell, we use the collection of Business Made Simple Frameworks to help small businesses and entrepreneurs identify and refine how to share their stories. With this story-based foundation, we provide messaging tools to implement so that messages stay clear and consistent across all your channels. Through our coaching sessions, you’ll learn to use these tools effectively. Our goal is to help you be confident in your messaging so that you can focus on connecting with your customers instead of being worried about making the sale.
The best part? The Business Made Simple Framework at Tellwell is priced especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Learn more by signing up for a free, 30-minute call with our certified Business Made Simple coach, Annie Wood.
