How Explainable Is Your Work?

by | Oct 10, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

I confess. sometimes it’s hard to explain what I do.  I am in a BNI Chapter and every week we have 45 seconds to stand up and tell the guests and members who we are, what we do and who we would like to connect with as a referral.

How explainable is your work?formula_for_success

If you are a realtor, you buy and sell houses.

If you are a dentist, you take care of peoples teeth.

If you are an engineer, well, I have no idea what you do except it’s important.

When you are marketing your business, you and I need to be able to communicate to others what we do and sometimes it can’t be done easily.

But just because it isn’t easy to explain your work, doesn’t mean all is lost.

Perhaps the big picture of what you do combined with a personal uniqueness is the key.

Like, “I’m the dentist who loves kids so much we just had our 7th baby”.  I have an advertising partner that has a bunch, maybe only 5 or 6. But that sure makes an impression right?

I went through this exercise several years ago with a realtor and found out that of the THOUSANDS of Real Estate Agents in our area, she was the 2nd best or 3rd best in several categories so we had to dig deeper and find out why her clients liked her and we came up with an easy way to explain her work when we were done.

By the way, my simple way of explaining my work is, “I help businesses invite people to become their customers.”  I still need to tweak that some more because the long version is about 5 minutes.  I shared it the other day, but if you missed it, click here.

Another by the way… When I am helping someone determine how to explain their work, for advertising and marketing purposes, it helps me to determine which advertising options are needed and will be most effective.

Will a 60 second live endorsement ad on WOWO Radio be the most effective because we need time to explain a bit about your business?

Or…

Do we simply need to drive people to your website with shorter messages that with more frequency?

Or…

Do we need to reach people online with a Custom Audience Targeted Digital Display Campaign?

Or…

Do should we do an email campaign, or a contest, or a combination of all of the above plus a few other options?

It’s all part of determining what you really need and it begins with the ability to explain your work in such a manner that it motivates people to want to know more and then spend money with you.

Want help?  Contact me.

 

Which Personal Communication Tools Do You Use?

by | May 5, 2015 | Really? The Personal ScLoHo

We have so many ways to “talk” to someone these days.

Personal communication, not advertising type of stuff.

I’m curious, which ones do you use and why?

When I was a teenager, I could make a phone call on a landline phone.  I was there when the switch to cordless phones in a home came about.  Until that time, we had the wallphone hanging in the kitchen, a phone downstairs in the family room, one in my parents bedroom, one in my Dad’s office and even one outside.  We had more phones than people in our house.

Landline phones charged extra for long distance.  So except for special occasions, we didn’t call my grandmother in the next state.  We wrote letters.  Stuck a stamp on an envelope and a few days latter she read it. fax machine

Neighbors.  We walked next door and talked.

My parents had fax machines at work to send documents at the speed of dial up internet, but this was before the internet.  Phone lines were still in use.

Enough ancient history.

Today I can:

Call from my smartphone

Text from my phone or laptop

Tweet including direct messages privately

Facebook including their messenger app

Email

Connect via LinkedIn and send messages back and forth.

Talk face to face.

That’s about all I use how about you?