The Marketing Plaza

What excites you about your business?
What is exciting about your business?
What would make a client excited about your business?

These are three similar but very different questions.  If you can’t answer them, you’re not ready to market your business. Let’s take them in order.

1. What excites you about your business is your passion. This should be “why” you’re in business and has only a little to do with marketing.  A great marketing person can take your passion and turn it into a campaign, but that would be a residual bonus.  Your passion is your reason for being in business. Don’t confuse it with a marketing message. If you choose to make it part of a marketing message, do it consciously and for a good marketing reason.
2. What is exciting about your business is the value add it provides to your customers, consumers or clients.  It’s why they want to do business with you.  This should be a key part of your marketing message, but not a headline. This is a key benefit that people receive for being aligned with you.
3. What would make a client excited about your business?  Well, now we’re into serious marketing — how to reach a prospect and turn him or her into a client!  This takes some research, listening, intuitive understanding of how customers engage with you, and pure objectivity.  Here’s where Voice of the Customer research can really be beneficial.  You may think that a customer values your on-time delivery, when what they really value is your special sauce (if you’re a pizza place), your special gloss coating (if you’re a photo house), or your local take on the news (if you’re a regional newspaper).  In each case, I can guarantee that on-time delivery is important, but it may not be the key reason current clients do business with you, would recommend you to others, or future clients might be inclined to give you a first or second look.

Don’t wait to ponder these three questions.  Start asking employees, key customers, and anyone else you happen to meet during the course of the next day what they find exciting about what they do, what you do, and what they think others would value in doing business with you.  You might be surprised by some of the answers.

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