Is Your Message Really Clear?
Gain Confidence & Really SAY Something in Your Marketing
Our dog, Edison, is a pretty good communicator.
He’s a mutt, but he obviously has some herding instincts.
He often leads us to what he wants by cuing us to follow.
“Mom! Follow me!” he says with his soulful eyes. Then he walks over to his bowl and back to his food bin and stares until he knows I understand he’s hungry. 😂
He’ll lean against the door when he wants a walk. If we don’t pay attention the first time, he’ll disappear into another room — say, the bathroom — only to re-emerge and repeat the cue, so he’s sure we’ve seen it.
So, as far as dogs go, Edison is good at getting his point across.
But I always wonder: what if he could tell us what kind of walk he wanted? What if he could make requests? Does he prefer duck over pork? Does he miss his grandpa when we’re not in Jersey?
There’s a difference between hinting and cuing and BEING CLEAR with your messaging.
Are you marketing with clarity? Or are you just leaning against the door, hoping someone will notice?
Something I teach in my marketing fundamentals video series is how to perfect “your pitch.” It’s a formula that combines the what, who and how that make your business unique and meet your ideal client’s needs.
If you say “your pitch” out loud, add it to captions on Instagram, include it in your bio on LinkedIn… you’ll start to feel more comfortable clearly declaring what it is you sell, what it is you want and what your client needs to know.
Have you taken my Marketing Groundwork series? It walks you through the no-frills basics you need to begin establishing trust (and practicing clarity!) with your best-fit audience online.
There are many ways you can communicate with your audience — gestures, sound, expression, design…
But make sure you’ve zeroed in on what your message really is, at its core, so that you’re not just hinting vaguely at what you stand for.
Are you bringing your personal values and stories into your marketing?
You should!
That’s why we created 5 creative prompts for coaches, creatives & consultants to write, produce and share compelling stories in your emails, on social and more. These are the stories that make you stand out in a crowd.
Amy Jacobus is an online marketing strategist who still sends handwritten thank yous. She’s obsessed with helping service providers, entrepreneurs and mission-based business owners increase their impact with smart, human marketing online. Amy teaches workshops and leads programs full of simple, apply-it-now strategies for your website, email and social media, including her signature program, Confident + Consistent Marketing. She has designed courses, facilitated workshops and participated in panel discussions for University of Denver, LEAP at St. Mary’s College, Barnard College, New York Foundation for the Arts, Gibney Dance, The Artist Co-op and Pentacle, among others. Learn more about Amy and her work at amyjacobus.marketing and follow her at @amyjacobus on Instagram.
This article was originally published on her blog, where she shares weekly marketing advice for creatives and entrepreneurs.
