Many German bakers (the great original sourdough masters) make new bread starters from scratch every six months or so to keep them fresh.
You may not be a German baker, and you’ve probably already created your website and other marketing materials, but it wouldn’t hurt you to take a look at this starter recipe to get a fresh approach to your marketing messages.
Now if you’re working with your great-grandmother’s starter, or one that has traveled the Oregon Trail, (and if it’s making great bread for you), don’t throw it out!
But if you feel like your marketing is just not hitting the mark, go through these steps and before you know it, you’ll have yourself a solid outline you can use online or in person.
Here’s the thing: Before you write one word of the copy in your marketing, you must first:
- Know your objective
- Know your target audience
- Know your product or service
Your objective: What are you trying to accomplish with your website? or with any of your marketing pieces for that matter? Direct sales? Lead generation? What response are you trying to get? Your objective might not be to make a sale, but rather to get your reader to send for free information or to sign up for your mailing list. But yes, sometimes your objective is to go right for the sale!
Your target audience: The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be for you speak their language — and for them to see and understand that they need your product or service. The more specific your knowledge of them is, the better. Let’s say you’re selling a night out on the town. Your target audience could be many things – but in this case you choose to target couples. And you might fine-tune that to target people whose jobs are stressful and who really need some R and R. What do they want in their heart-of-hearts? What is their life like outside of the problem you solve for them?
I could write an entire course just on how to research and choose a particular target market. If you haven’t figured this out yet, drop me a line and let’s see if we can work on it together.
Your product or service: After identifying your audience, it’s essential to know your product or service. Just because this is YOUR product or service, doesn’t mean you can succinctly talk about its features and benefits. Believe me, I’ve seen lots of folks struggle with this one.
We’ll take some time and immerse you now in these three topics…
Assignment #5: Using your Ingredients in Everyday Life
Imagine for a moment that you're at a party. In walks a business acquaintance named Roberta, a personal development coach. Roberta's an expert at conversations that get to the heart of how she helps folks. She's approached by a third woman, who we don't know. Let's...
Assignment #4: Embellishing on Your Starter Recipe Answers
To Review...the last 3 steps had you finding your own particular marketing ingredients: My customer’s # 1 problem/desire Why they haven't been able to solve/attain it Picture of the world for them when I solve it Why I'm uniquely suited to make that happen for them...
Assignment #3: Complete Your Starter Recipe
Ingredient 2 of the Starter Recipe: Why hasn't the Problem been Solved? Or the Desire Fulfilled? Extending the doctor metaphor, this is where you further identify the history of the problem, predicament, or pain that your target market has experienced up to now. What...
Assignment #2 :: Your First Ingredient
The challenge of crafting every marketing message (copy AND content) you'll ever need has been distilled here into five simple questions. These questions make the task of writing copy as easy as baking bread – and tasty, too. Each step in the recipe takes the form of...
Assignment #1: Answer these questions
Take out a sheet (or 2) of paper and answer the following questions: What is the product or service I'm selling? What is it made of? (these are its features) Why was it developed? (what problems does it solve? These are the benefits) Where did it originate? When was...