Marketing Insights

Bad ROI on Marketing? Your messaging might suck – but it doesn’t have to

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Your Midweek Marketing Morsel is a series of short articles for small and medium businesses and non-profits to help them gain better ROI on marketing efforts

If you and your organization have tried different marketing and sales outreach initiatives but they never seem to deliver ROI (you’re not closing more sales, getting more donations, etc.), there is a reason.

Marketing works. Bad marketing doesn’t.

One of the biggest issues I see with new clients is often their messaging—how they communicate the “What” and the “Why” to their prospects.

Often, this happens because they haven’t really figured out who the “Who” actually is or what that “Who” cares about.

In marketing, it’s easy—and common—to unconsciously assume that others are just like us: that they share the same attitudes, and most dangerously, the same knowledge.

This assumption, though unintentional, can seriously derail your marketing and sales processes.

Too often, I encounter companies whose messaging is perfectly clear to them but means nothing—or worse, confuses—their prospects. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves and drives me bananas.

For instance:

  • You might focus on being the cheapest in your category, but your prospects care more about dependability.
  • You think your solution’s speed is the main selling point, but your prospects value ease of use.

And you can’t determine these things in-house. If you make what you sell – you’re too close.

Large corporations have entire departments dedicated to gathering this key data. If you’re part of a small team, you’ll need an outside perspective. Sorry, there’s no way around it.

How to find the messages that will help you close your sale:

1 Understand your prospect’s buying process
Identify who influences them, where they go for information, and—most importantly—who makes the decisions at each stage to reach the final decision-maker.

2 Determine what resonates to each decision-maker
Figure out what is important to each decision-maker, and what kind of language (plain or inside industry jargon) resonates with them.

3 Craft tailored messages
Create messaging that works for each type of decision-maker. This means developing different messages for your website, cold emails, lapsed clients, etc.

And you’ll need to set up testing to make sure that step three works the way you think/hope it will.

If this feels overwhelming, that’s okay—because it is.

So work with a professional who can guide you through this process.

The good news? Once you’ve done this work, you can use the insights you’ve gained for years to come.

One last thing: not every professional or agency will be a great match for you. If you’re working with one that isn’t delivering ROI, don’t be afraid to find a better fit.

It’s okay. It happens.

#startups #sales #management

Phil Emery is a marketing consultant, writer, musician, and podcaster. He’s the brains behind Focused Creative, a boutique marketing and creative practice serving B2B and non-profit clients across North America. He has played in bands across Toronto and is the co-host and co-founder of the Song Talk Radio Podcast, a show about the inner workings of songwriting, now entering its 11th year of weekly broadcasts. Song Talk Radio also broadcasts on 1280AM Toronto.

Originally from Toronto, he now lives in St. John’s with his wife and four cats. You can learn more about Phil’s personal projects at PhilEmery.ca.