Focused Messaging Wins More Hearts and Followers

If you’ve been posting online consistently without generating quality leads, it may be time to step back and re-evaluate your approach.

A great place to start is to think carefully about the following three questions:

1. What problem(s) do I solve?

2. Who do I solve the problem(s) for?

3. What makes my solution unique?

Being crystal clear on these three points will help you reach people who are in the market for your services and ensure they understand how you can help them better than anyone else.

1. What Problems Do I Solve?

Let’s face it. If you’re not solving a problem or fulfilling a need, you don’t have a sustainable business model.

People don’t part with their hard-earned dollars without expecting some form of value in return. That value could be in the form of a physical product or service that solves a specific problem. Alternatively, it could provide emotional value such as happiness, comfort or inspiration. It could enhance one’s social status, improve knowledge or skills, provide a memorable experience, save time, deliver convenience, contribute to physical or mental well-being, and so on.

So, think about what problems or needs you solve for people and how doing so will make their lives better. That should be the starting point for your focused messaging strategy. In other words, don’t talk about what your offer includes, but rather how it helps people.

2. Who Do I Solve The Problem(s) For?

You might be able to solve a problem that’s shared by a wide group of people, but narrowing down your target audience can make it easier to speak directly to them. Often, if your posts are generic enough to apply to everyone, you risk speaking to no one and having your message get lost in the sea of Internet noise.

So think carefully about the portion of your audience you believe your message will resonate best with, and the type of person you would be happiest selling to and working with. If you’re happy to work with anyone and everyone, is there a specific audience demographic that will be easier for you to reach and convert? If so, consider them your target audience for content marketing purposes and formulate your content to speak directly to them.

That doesn’t mean your content won’t attract people from outside that target group or that you would refuse to work with them if it did. That’s not at all what I’m suggesting.  The point I’m trying to make is that it makes strategic sense to focus your messaging resources on that portion of your potential buyers you believe you can most successfully sell to.

You can always widen your message to reach a larger demographic as you continue to scale your business, if and when it makes strategic sense to do so.

3. What Makes My Solution Unique?

What is the specific value you provide to your target audience that sets you apart from the competition? Why should your target audience choose your solution over competing solutions?

Is there something distinct about your product or service that can’t be easily replicated by your competitors? Do you have proprietary processes and methods that lead to a higher quality product and/or faster results? Do you use superior technology or innovative approaches? Do you and your team have greater expertise/experience? Does your customer service or technical support team go above and beyond to support customers?

Most likely there are a combination of factors that set you apart from your competition, but which are the most important to your target market? These are the ones you should be addressing as part of your focused messaging strategy.

Why These Questions Are Important

Reflecting carefully on these three simple but vitally important questions will help you craft a messaging strategy that resonates with the people you want to do business with and makes them curious to learn more about how you can help them improve their current situation.

Being crystal clear on the answers to these questions gives you valuable insight into who your target audience actually is and how to capture their attention by speaking directly to the problems they’re experiencing.

When you can describe someone’s problem in detail, it shows them you truly understand what they’re going through. And the better you demonstrate how well you understand their problem, the more inclined they are to believe you can help them solve it.

In addition, the clarity obtained through answering these questions is a great confidence builder. When you’re confident you know what problems you solve and why your solution is best, you’ll speak authentically and with greater authority. Your passion for what you do will shine through your posts, and your audience will see how you stand for something they can also get behind.

All of this further increases credibility and trust with your audience, and gets them excited about the possibility of doing business with you.

The Bottom Line...

Being clear about who you are, who you serve and how you serve them differently will attract people who are in the market for your services and, over time, transform them into a tribe of loyal followers.