Marketing is often made to sound complicated. Sometimes it is. And sometimes there are simple changes you can make to your website and marketing copy that can make a big difference to your marketing results. It’s all a question of focus and value.
No doubt you’re all exhausted by the avalanche of hot marketing takes, trends and technologies you’ll simply have to embrace in 2023. Well, here’s some much simpler advice you might actually be able to use.
Before you get panic-stricken by thoughts of being left behind I’m going to offer something a little more down to earth. Something that any business can, and should do to improve their marketing results.
Spend time honing your value proposition.
What Is a Value Proposition?
Your value proposition is a simple statement of your promise to your customers. It says what you’ll deliver and how this will benefit them.
It isn’t a mission statement, which is essentially inward-facing. It’s a declaration to your market about what you will do for them.
It should be specific. Try to avoid abstract nouns like ‘innovation,’ trust’ or even ‘value’ unless you can explain how these will be experienced and why a customer would care.
Sounds simple enough. But…
Before you can define a value proposition you have to be clear about who your customers are (or who you’d like them to be).
So you’re going to have to do a bit of research and segmentation. Clarify which specific parts of your potential marketplace you want to target.
Do You and Your Customers Define Value the Same Way?
Next, the reality check. Does your definition of value match your customers’? How would you know?
When a prospect from your target segment decides to buy a product or service like yours, how closely do their needs and ambitions align with your offer?
If you can get to a coherent picture that says: ‘these are the customers we’re targeting, this is what they want and this is how we deliver it’ you’ll be in a stronger position.
And when you have a value proposition the next job is to hold it up against your website and other marketing content. Do these marketing assets tell the same story?
With a rock solid value proposition your marketing content won’t quite write itself – but most of the dots will be there for you or a professional to join up.
What Problem Do You Solve?
The second, and probably most important change, is to shift the focus from your business to your customers.
If somebody came to you for help, would you tell them all about yourself before you said what you could do for them? Hopefully not.
So why do it on your website?
The default for B2B website copy is to focus on what the company does and what it produces. I think this is a throwback to the days of printed sales brochures.
But what prospects really want to know is how you can help them. So why not structure your content around the problems you solve rather than the things you produce?
That said, there are plenty of pretentious sites – particularly in the tech and SaaS space – where even working out what the company does can be a mystery. Please don’t be one of them. In Agatha Christie novels mysteries are essential plot devices. In B2B websites it’s more likely to signify a business that’s too pleased with itself to care much about its customers.
Unravelling the mystery of what a business does and who its intended customers are isn’t something many of us have the patience for.
The Value of Simple Clarity for Better Marketing Results
But being clear about what you do is the easy part.
My typical reaction when I read a B2B website is to ask what problem the business solves. You’ve told me what you do but not why I need it.
If it’s not immediately clear to a potential customer how you can help their business, well, they have other things to do.
The biggest challenge we all have in marketing is getting attention. ‘Here’s a way to solve a problem that’s really bugging you’ is a more effective way to start.
Another technique is to focus on key decision points. Why would a business be thinking about buying a product or service like yours for the first time? Why would a business be considering switching who supplies your product or service? Tune in to these critical moments and thought processes and you can position yourself as ‘the right solution at the right time.’
This calls for a bit more thought and research – but the easy route is rarely the one that leads to a successful business outcome.
If you need help applying these basic concepts to your online marketing – I’m here to help.