Our marketing plan’s immense tables, detailed charts, and thorough KPIs received pleasant murmurs and silent nodding.
35 pages (plus appendices), printed on premium paper, shuffling through the hands of a room full of important business executives.
The CEO thumbed through it all and finally announced, “This is good. Better than we even expected.”
We left the room, high-fived in the elevator, and returned to our office relieved.
Because we’d been worried, heading into the meeting. Something didn’t feel quite right about the plan. It was so thoughtful, so effortful, and yet... something was missing.
Turns out, we were right.
We’d given them a list of things to do, which they never did do.
Someone could have used that plan, but they weren’t able to.
It was a recipe, not a meal. We’d given them a to-do list, instead of the actual words to say in every situation.
That plan was good. It was detailed. We spent weeks pouring everything we had into it.
But value is in the eye of the beholder. Utility is determined by the user.
And that particular client, at that particular point in time, couldn’t use what we’d done. They didn’t have the team or structure in place to turn a list of tactics into actual phrases, into actual marketing artifacts put out into the world.
Last week, we did a 3.5 hour working session with the founders of a software startup.
We asked our questions, we poked and prodded at their value. We showed them the principles of demonstrating value at a distance, and we helped them see who their ideal customer is and what to say to them to bring them one step closer.
At the end of the session, one of the founders was visibly giddy, announcing he was about to rush off to start writing.
We almost had to hold him back.
Because we gave them the actual words to use in their marketing. And we gave them the thinking tools to find even more, on their own and over time.
Our 35-page plan gave that boardroom of executives a chore to tend to.
Our working session gave our client the words he needed and wanted to say.
So, when you go to write your marketing content, keep this lesson in mind:
Value is not the time you spend on it. It’s not the effort you put into it.
It’s what the person on the other end of it gets from it that counts.
So share your stories, your unique insights. Share what sets you apart based on what you do differently.
And your prospects will see that you can help them.
Because, in sharing what you know, you already have.
Kelford Inc. are content marketers for expert advisors. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract your ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.