Getting Your Message to “Click” Quickly
Lately, I’ve been able to take a step back from my business to spend time with my family. Something I’ve really grown attached to are the outings we’ve been able to enjoy around Calgary. We spend the day out walking, biking, and exploring all the different nooks and crannies of our beautiful city. Even in family time, I still find that there are great business and marketing lessons to be learned from every facet of life – whether I’m looking out for them or not! My recent one was about making your message click.
Staying Beside the Grass
Recently, we were enjoying the winding, wooded pathways of Fish Creek Park. I found myself getting a little frustrated with my son, Lucas. He’d been having close encounters with oncoming bike traffic all morning. I couldn’t understand why he seemed to be refusing to listen to my instructions to keep out of the way. I’d lost count how many times I’d asked him to stay on his side of the trail. He just kept wandering over to the left, directly in the path of anyone approaching from the other direction. I told him to stick to the right, to stay out of people’s way, to stay close to me, but nothing I said seemed to have any effect.
Finally, exasperatedly, I said “Lucas, stay beside the grass!” Just like that, he got what I was saying. To paint a bit of a picture, the right side of the path we were on was lined with grass while the right resulted in him running into oncoming traffic. Lucas wasn’t purposefully rebelling against me. I just wasn’t delivering my message to him in a language that he understood. When I finally framed my instructions in a manner that made sense to him, my message “clicked”. We were able to understand one another – and avoid a head-on child/cyclist collision in the process!
The Message that Click
Once again, I found myself learning a valuable marketing lesson from my five-year-old. Sometimes, it’s important to take a step backward and re-evaluate how we’re attempting to communicate our message. A big part of this re-thinking process is taking some time to know precisely who your target audience is. Also, ensure you’ve got a thorough grasp on your intended message before attempting to communicate it to the world. If you’re not 100% clear and confident when it comes to what you’re trying to say, there’s no way your audience will be able to follow along!
Identify Your Target Audience
Once you’ve nailed down your target audience, take a look at the group of people you’re trying to speak to. Consider their life experiences, their education level, and how they like to speak. Be sure all of these details and particulars align not only with your brand but also with the voice you’re using to communicate your message. This is important because if you’re not speaking to your target audience in a manner that is appealing and familiar to them, you’ll run into the same problem I encountered with Lucas: your message just won’t “click” as it should!
Both your message and your branding voice should resonate with your target audience. You need to deliver the information they want to hear, framed in a manner that they want to hear it. Of course, as with everything else in marketing, this is much easier said than done. Even if you know who your target audience is, you’ll find yourself going nowhere fast unless you learn exactly how to speak to them in a way that “clicks”.
Identify Your Branding Voice
If you are confident you know who you’re trying to talk to, but they just don’t seem to hear what you’re saying, take some time to work on developing your branding voice. Once you speak in a voice that aligns with your brand and target audience, you’ll be amazed at how swiftly they’ll respond to you. It will “click” as it did with Lucas listened to me in Fish Creek. I finally framed my message to him in a way that “clicked” that beautiful afternoon.
If you need help getting your message to “click”, give us a call!
