There is nothing more discouraging than to arrive at a web site and not have a clue what the person is offering. Most people give up if they don’t immediately understand why they should be there – what that person can do to make their life better, their job easier, or their pain less. In order to make certain your target audience knows they are in the right place the content of your landing page must be clear and written in language they understand.
Can you clearly and passionately articulate your business? Do people immediately understand what you can do for them? Are you attracting those special people you are meant to serve?
You must be clear for them to be clear
One of the major steps I help my coaching clients take is to achieve clarity around their place of service. As entrepreneurs we are filled with tons of ideas and skills and talents. And choosing one or two above the others is often difficult. For instance, I can help people start up a new business, create a new personal brand, write content for a compelling web page and guide them in creating passive income through information products. Do you have any idea how confusing my web site was when I tried to offer all that?
You have to make a choice
When I moved from focusing on only details like web content development into a broader umbrella of creating clarity and action around their whole business, my marketing message changed, as did my target market. It got bigger. I was no longer looking for people who just wanted to create a web site; I was looking for people who wanted to build their business and get booked solid. You have to choose and define your target market in such detail that you recognize them and they can recognize themselves in your marketing message.
Know what’s in it for them
Once you are really clear about your target market you are ready to define your niche. A niche is a subset of your target market. In my overall target market of proactive entrepreneurs who want to bet booked solid, my niche is people who want to make a difference in the lives of others. That usually means a service profession – both solopreneurs and small companies.
Do you see how the subset of your niche will guide your marketing message? Only when you know who you want to serve and what they need can you speak clearly to them.
Give them what they need
What does your target community need? The needs of a person established in business are quite different from the new business developer. Where they are on their path influences where you start in the coaching process. A person who needs to identify their target market and develop their "who and do what" statement has to create that foundation. Someone further along the path may be ready to expand their writing strategy or their web strategy. See where I’m going with this? Give them what they need when they need it.
Once you see their problem show how you can help them
What part of your passion do you want to share? You can expand it later but for the purpose of your initial positioning make a choice. Early in my coaching practice I focused on helping people develop content for their web site and create a profitable presence on the internet. But what I kept finding was that people had not done their basic marketing work. They didn’t know their target audience or their niche. And that was vital before we could create their web presence. I often found myself coaching them on the specific services and products they would offer because those foundational decisions had not yet been made. So that’s what we did. We started where they needed to start and created the foundation for their business. Now I have repositioned my business to help people get booked solid and the web content is simply one of the steps.
Tell them how things will change after they work with you
People are looking for what’s in it for them. You need to identify the problem they have that you can solve and tell them, not how you will solve it, but how they will feel and be after you help them. And do it with a positive approach. Would you rather hear, "Do you know how your knees hurt going down the stairs every morning?" Or "Would you love to be able to take a long walk with your dog on a bright sunny day?" You can address the underlying problem in a positive fashion and people will respond to the hope you bring them. Create an emotional connection between what they need and desire and what you offer.
You message becomes the results they will achieve with your work
Keep your message brief. Keep it results oriented. Write your “who and do what” statement for your business. It will be structured along the lines of "I work with (type of people) who (need) so that (results)." Mine is "I help proactive entrepreneurs move their passion from vision to venue and attract that people they are meant to serve."
Whether you are in a conversation, writing a landing page or sending an email, talk from your heart, keep their well-being in mind and stay deeply in service. Then the perfect people will find you.
© 2011 Cara Lumen
