Having clarity around your message and what you speak about all the time really does make life (and marketing!) easier.
What are you known for? Really truly think about that for a moment. It’s a tough question for many speakers, authors & coaches as you often have too many strings to your bow & often find it hard to give clarity around your message and what you really stand for.
It’s so important to be able to identify and share your 3 core messages. It’s one of the first things we do when we work with someone. Honing down actually helps. We promise! Before we share how to hone them, let’s get you clear on just how it will help you:
- Define yourself before someone else does
If you set out your stall, others simply have to listen to what you do, rather than try to understand what that is. People tend to believe what we say, so when you say what you do in your words, they will start thinking of you that way too, and if they like and align with it, they’ll start sharing about you, in your words.
2. Have consistency around your content & marketing
When you know your core messages, everything you put ‘out there’ and publish will have a coherence. It will be easier for people to choose you because you say the same thing over and over and so when people are looking for X and see that you the X is one of the core things you do, it makes it easier for them to trust that you do know your stuff about ‘X’.
3. Easy to explain yourself when networking
If you’ve ever fumbled your way through that 60 second pitch virtually or in person, you’ll know that the confidence to share what you do and how you do it with ease and simplicity is the key thing that makes people want to talk to you. Getting clear on your core messages and sharing from those makes that happen.
4. Attract your ideal clients to you
Finally, we all want the chance to have people lining up to use our services and buy our products. The more clear you are in your messaging, the easier it is for your audience to say ‘yes’ that’s the person for me because they have exactly what I need!
The 3 key questions that will let you know what you stand for.
We always suggest you get consistency around what you stand for. A good technique is to have 3 core messages that you talk about all the time. You get to those by answering these three questions:
- What’s the BIG problem that you or your company solve?
- What do you offer that no-one else does? Why You?
- Why does your avatar need to work with you — what result do you promise?
To give you an example, below are our 3 core messages. Notice how they all come at what we do a little differently. Every ideal client or prospect will resonate with ONE of these.
The first question tackles the biggest and most general headache that ‘your’ people have, the thing that’s likely driving them nuts just now and that they can’t see beyond.
The second one helps them to resonate and trust you more, because you are providing context for why you do what you do, and what sets you apart.
And the third really lets them tap into the (sometimes secretly held and never spoken out loud) dream or desired outcome for themselves and/or their business.
If you are a speaker, author or coach, you will likely resonate and find yourself nodding as you read our core messages:
- We help you to stand out whilst earning predictable consistent income.
- We’ve been both sides — the industry professionals and the author, speaker, coach and we help you run a strategic business rather than just a bunch of tactics joined with sticky tape.
- We help you build a business that makes a difference and money, ON YOUR TERMS, and not with a cookie cutter approach.
Positioning is everything — and your core messages are the foundation to that.
Identifying your 3 core message is a great place to start to help with your positioning. It will make it so much easier to ‘show up’ and ‘stand out’. From this start, you will be able to establish key themes which are different to your core messages. For example, the key themes of ours would be ‘know your avatar’, ‘you are at the heart of your business’, ‘create the foundations in your business first’… which again make it so much easier for you to create your content, design your marketing and develop your products.
Please do share your 3 core messages. You might not know them yet, so go do some work on them and come back to this blog and share what they are in the comments. Or join us inside our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheConnectionHub where you can get some live feedback on them from all the other speakers, authors and coaches in there.