Messaging

This is the 5th and final part of a series to help you clarify your website messaging

In part 4 we got clear on how to be a mentor to your customers. Part 5 looks into creating a step by step guide to make it super easy for your customer to commit.

To make it easier for our Avatar to make the final commitment to work with us or buy our product, we’re going to give them a step by step plan.

It’s not easy for most people to click that Buy now button unless they know clearly what’s going to happen when they do.

By adding a step by step plan outlining very clearly and simply what the process is we will alleviate any final fears the Avatar has about clicking that button.

We want to keep the steps to 3 or 4, although you could add up to 6 steps. Any more than that will just be confusing so keep it short.

An example:

1. Book your appointment
2. Meet with one of our staff
3. We create a plan together for your success

This plan can be tailored to many different service based businesses.

A product based business might have:

1. Identify your skin tone
2. Decide on our A, B or C makeup palette
3. Order it online and get it delivered to your door in less than 3 days

Now write your own step by step guide to working with you. You can use one for the homepage to broadly explain what you do, and one for each service.

This is part 4 in a series to help you clarify your website messaging

In part 3 we talked about how to solve your customer’s problem in relation to your business. In part 4 we are delving into how to be a mentor to your customer.

As a business, you want to be a mentor; a helper; a guide to your customer.

Think about your customer as the main character, the hero, of a story. Their story. To your avatar, their life is everything. They have dreams and hopes and a fire burning inside, they are special, have untapped potential and are the most important part of their own story.

You {your business}, on the other hand, are not in that place. You’ve moved past that internal struggle to a place of wisdom, you’ve made the mistakes and travelled that journey ahead of the avatar. You can tell them about it and guide them on their way through this challenging time, on their way to fulfilling their destiny.

It might sound bizarre to be thinking this way when all you want to do is sell underpants/pens/pizza, but if we can get in the headspace of thinking about our customers as struggling heroes that need our help and guidance, the way we present ourselves/our business to our customers changes to a whole new dynamic.

Instead of feeling desperate to sell, we’re coming from a place of service.

Always focus on the success of your customer in your website copy and marketing, instead of the success of your business.

Most people, unless they are your mum 😄couldn’t care less about the yearly revenue in your business. They are not interested in helping your business grow, they are interested in getting help on their own personal journey.

Nobody goes out there looking for a cool company they can pour their hard earned money into the pockets of, they go looking for a mentor to help them with a problem.

If your business is the best at communicating this in your space, chances are they will choose you.

The mentor vs the star

The star sounds like a great role to play. Everybody wants to be the hero of the story. But if we dig a little deeper, we see that the hero is never the one who has it all together. He/she is always the one who is torn and troubled and goes through all the challenges, the one who’s fighting and unsure if he/she can really do this??

The mentor is the wise one. The one who’s been there, done that. The one with the answers and the right questions to ask. The one with authority.

Which one do you want your business to be?

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Empathy and Authority

The more empathy we can show (I understand your problem and how it makes you feel) and authority (I know how to deal with your problem and I’ve done this successfully before), the more trust and likability our businesses will grow.

Empathy:

Your business needs to use empathy to show you understand the way your Avatar is feeling about the problems they face. That’s why you’re offering the products and services you do.

Tell the Avatar you care.
We understand you and want to help you find a solution

Authority:

You want to present your authority in a way that shows you know what you’re doing, but doesn’t bring too much attention to yourself/your business. Get the balance wrong and you will be positioning your business as the star instead of your customer, and ultimately lose their trust.

On your website, you can demonstrate authority by:

• Listing testimonials from happy customers or people you’ve helped in the past
• Displaying logos of well know companies you’ve worked with, or been featured in
• Awards you’ve won
• Any statistics you have for your products and services, percentages of growth after working with you, numbers of people you’ve worked with, number of people who’ve bought your product or uses your platform etc.

Do this in an understated way, for example:

“1.570 happy customers trust our diaries to plan their daily lives”

No need to brag or use fifteen exclamation marks. Subtle but clear and strong wins the race here.

Write down the answers to the questions below, and keep in mind:

Your business is the mentor
Your customer is the star

EMPATHY

Look at your Avatar’s internal problem and complete the sentences below suitable for your business:

• Like you, we are frustrated by:
• Nobody should have to experience:
• We understand how it feels to:
• Life is too short to:
• When you X life can feel:
• X should be:
• You deserve:

You can then turn these into marketing messages by using the statements in different ways depending on what suits your business.

• Are you experiencing..?
• Are you sick of..?
• Are you frustrated by..?
• We are too
• We understand
• We offer
• We have a solution…

Write down some ideas for question and answer statements.

Here is an example of a header text and introductory text for a carpenter website I built:

Header text above the fold:
We bring the beauty of the natural world to your backyard
Quality carpentry. Natural materials. Service you can trust.

Call to action button:
CALL US TODAY

Introductory text:
Life’s too short to not enjoy your surroundings. Your home should be your sanctuary, where you feel at peace and you can relax with your friends and family. You deserve beautiful things and quality workmanship. Carpenters who live by their word and that you can trust. We’d love to show you what’s possible.

Call to action button:
CALL US TODAY

Now practice writing your own.

• Header text above the fold:
• Introductory text:
• Call to action

AUTHORITY

How can you show authority on your website? Brainstorm and write down answers to the following:

• Who can you ask for testimonials, or do you have some you can use?
• Have you won any awards?
• What statistics can you show?
• Do you have any company logos you can list?

This is part 3 in a series to help you clarify your website messaging.

In part 2 we worked out what it is deep down that drives your customer’s desire. In part 3 we will look at the problem and how to solve it.

When you market to your Avatar, keep this quote in mind:

“Sell them what they want
Give them what they need”

Humans work in mysterious ways. Often we don’t know why we’re drawn to certain things and why we buy what we buy.

Think about the problem your Avatar faces as the villain in the story. We want to make it the big bad wolf that we’re fighting with our products and services.

Some examples of problems/villains:

Headache – Panadol saves the day
Taxis are too expensive, slow and inconvenient – Uber to the rescue
Dieting is hard/Overweight – {Brand here} diet shakes makes it simple
Bacteria in the kitchen – Antibac wipes sweep in

You can probably see the ads for these in your mind, the problems being painted as villains and the solution that comes in for the rescue and makes everything ok. There’s a fine line here where you want to remember that it’s the customer/Avatar who is the hero, not your product/service, and your product or service helps on the way to success.

There are three levels to the problems you solve.

1. External – the obvious problem your business solves
2. Internal – the frustrations arising from the external problem
3. Philosophical – why is it unfair to experience this?

To give you an example, this is how it looks for my business:

Bad Guy: Crappy websites
External problem: I want a nice looking website that works
Internal frustration: I want to feel like I have it together and am in charge of my website
Philosophical: I shouldn’t have to be a web developer or pay a fortune to have a nice website

Points to remember:

• The problem is the enemy – the villain in the story.
• The external problem is the obvious problem your business solves.
• The internal problem is about the frustrations your Avatar is experiencing because of the external problem.
• The philosophical problem is about ought and shouldn’t, good vs evil.

Write down the answers to the following questions. Determine a single focus for each answer.

1. What is the enemy your business is against?
2. What external problem is the enemy causing your Avatar?
3. How is that problem making your Avatar feel / How do they want to feel?
4. Why is it not fair for your Avatar to suffer this problem?

This is part 2 in a series to help you clarify your website messaging

In part 1 we figured out who your customer Avatar is. Part 2 is about what your Avatar wants.

You may offer many products or services but first of all we want to nut out what the main desire of your Avatar is, that your business provides a solution to.

We want this to be:

• Something simple and relevant
• Have one single focus
• Be relevant to human survival

Write down the answers to the following questions:

1.  List all the things that your Avatar wants.
2. What is the overarching desire? Simplify all the Avatars wants down to one main desire.
3.  Make sure it fits within at least one main area of human survival – listed below:

• Making money / Increasing revenue
• Saving money
• Saving time
• Building community
• Status
• Giving back
• Meaning

This is part 1 in a series to help you refine your website messaging.

In order to put ourselves in our customer’s shoes, we first need to know who they are.

We’re going to become great friends with the Avatar and see the collective customer base as one awesomely friendly person that we have a great connection with.

We will map out this fictitious person, draw out their family tree and work out which finger they prefer to pick their nose with. Ok, maybe that’s a tad far. And ew.

We want to make sure we position the Avatar as the star of the whole process. The hero of the story. The reason your business exists is to help the star shine as bright as it can. It is the primary purpose of your business. The secondary purpose is for the business to create an income for you and its employees. So many businesses get this the wrong way around.

Your business is the mentor for the star, the calm, sturdy voice in the back of the star’s mind reassuring it that it can overcome any obstacles and that it’s got what it takes to succeed. More about this in a later lesson.

Make up a name for your Avatar, and find a picture of someone you feel fits. It will help personify the Avatar and give you someone to speak to in your marketing.

It can help to picture an actual customer or client, if you’ve had the pleasure of experiencing a perfect match in your business in the past.

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Write down the answers to the following questions.

1. Fictitious name
2. What gender are they?
3. What age are they?
4. What are their interests and hobbies?
5. What do they do for a living?
6. Where do they live?
7. Where do they shop? (Certain stores, high end, op shop etc)
8. How do they prefer to shop? (Online, in person etc)
9. What kind of income do they have?
10. What level of education do they have?
11. What are their values?
12. What social platforms are they on?