Melanie
The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.
Esther
And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves. Welcome back to another episode of The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, we're talking about reframing your intro. What does that mean?
Melanie
Well, where we're going with this is how we introduce ourselves. It doesn't matter whether we're a brand new business or even if we are a long established business. I find people, especially when they're start-ups, will say they're a start-up, they're a new business. They've only opened their doors for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. But most people, and I'm speaking most generally, most people, even though their business may be five minutes old, don't have five minutes worth of knowledge. So I think I've come across a few companies who've got some 15, 20 years of experience working with other people or working for somebody. They're going to business for themselves, and then they say they're a start-up. And that just gives the wrong perception straight away. So I think going into business for yourself after 20 years of experience is much better than saying you're a start-up because it just instantly makes people feel that you're tenuous at best to work with.
Esther
I remember going to a networking event and this guy would always stand up and the first thing he would always say was how long he had left the bank that he used to work in. So he used to work in one of the local branches of the banks and then went into business for himself with financial advice, etc. Everything goes. But it was one thing that always stood up out for me, and everyone always waited with anticipation to hear how long it had been at the next one. So 14 years, 320 days and 5 hours since I left my corporate job of 18 years. So things like that stand out as well. And you're going, okay, so we've got the 14 years that he's left, but also the years that he was there. And it was something that just always... It was different. And that's what we're getting at in this isn't it? Don't fall into the hole of saying exactly what everyone else in your industry says. So if you make candles don't just go, oh, well, I'm a candle maker. Okay, that's nice. And so pick a pain-point that you solve for people. So it could be, I brighten up your living room with organic scents and natural beeswax candles.
Melanie
Do you know what? You sound like you've done marketing before.
Esther
It's always easier to do it for other people, isn't it?
Melanie
Isn't it? It's completely true. The amount of times I've sat in events or even trainings and come up with some amazing business names and these one liners, and I can't flippin and do it for myself.
Esther
It's one of those great mysteries of the world as to how we can help so many other people and not ourselves.
Melanie
So how would you reframe what you do, Esther? I mean, a lot of us been listening to this podcast, our award winning podcast for a while now. So how would you reframe yourself if you went to a new network?
Esther
So for those of you who are new listening to us, what I would have said in the past is I'm Esther and I run a digital marketing agency, but these days most people do. So what I've recently reframed to saying is we help you be seen online. So whether you need a revamped website or refreshed logo and then go into a few specifics there, but don't tell them everything, including A-I-V-A, sorry, V-R-A-R, rhyming off all the letters to them. They're going, Huh? Yeah, just list out the alphabet and people will fall asleep. But if you give them something to go, I need to be seen better online. I need to be seen by more people. I need what she's selling, whatever it is, whatever magic potion this person has, then they're more likely to come and talk to you. What about you, Melanie?
Melanie
I think the reframing only becomes easier after you've hit a few roadblocks. One of the things I mentioned to people during mentoring is when you go to network and it's so much easier to reframe your response when you're the second person speaking, because then you know who you're in front of. And over time, I think that's what's helped me change my marketing message because I'm beginning to better understand the people that actually respond to my messaging. And so I think reframing is something that you do over a period of time and it never stops or it shouldn't stop.
Esther
Agreed.
Melanie
It doesn't matter how long you're in business, it should be refreshed. And I think some of the best ways to do that is to do your SWOT. Now I know I talk about this a lot, but I think just doing your SWOT helps you appreciate that there are new strengths that you're bringing to the fore on a regular basis. And maybe you've got new knowledge, new qualifications, maybe a new member of staff, such as yourself with your agency, Esther. So you may have got a new person in who's got this particular knowledge and that becomes your new marketing message for a while.
So reframing doesn't have to be you completely changing your brand. It's just you sounding more competent and more confident in what you currently do.
Esther
Yeah, it's a little tweak. Like you said, it's following on from what someone else has said. So again, another guy that stands out at some of the local networking is a hypnotist, and you think, Hypnotist. This is just somebody who's going to make me clock like a chicken thing. But he reframes it for every session or every meeting is different. And he knows now in the room that there are mothers with small children. And he will say, I can help children with exam anxiety or bed-wetting. Or if he's looking at a room of executives, I can help you stop smoking, lose weight, stop grinding your teeth at night from the stress of your job, things like that that he knows is going to click with somebody, and it's going to be, didn't actually know that, that was included in the whole hypnosis thing. So let's give it a try.
Melanie
I guess that's just the pure art of marketing yourself properly, isn't it? Is understanding who your ideal audience is and tweaking the message for each audience.
Esther
Yeah, but it's also one of those you and I are more generalists, so we haven't really niche down into a specific category or into a specific person. So if somebody came to me and asked for a big massive e-commerce website, we could do that. But we can also do a little tiny brochure website. It doesn't matter if they're a coach or hypnotist selling Ferraris, we can cater to all those industries. So the message doesn't have to be the same for everyone. The message can be, yes, we build websites would be the general message, but the each individual pain-point of sick of your website being so slow, sick of having to update 20,000, what are those things called in the back-end of WordPress sites?
Melanie
Plug-ins.
Esther
Plug-ins, yeah. Sick of plug-ins not talking to each other. Because the sites we build don't use those, then that's a pain-point we use to convert people. At the end of the day, a website. Google is going to rank a website based on what's on the website, not based on where it's built.
Melanie
Well, yeah. Where are we trying to go with this is for you to get a better understanding of how to put yourself across not just at networks, but on your socials, in your newsletters, really anywhere, even when you're standing... Because I know for a fact, the first few months that you're in business, people will corner you at the local groceries or outside the school gates and you don't even realise you're doing it. You're giving away all your value for free because you're just chatting and giving samples and all that stuff for free because it's something you're passionate and excited about. But it's down to confidence, I think, isn't it, Esther? I think the more confident you feel and the better you understand who your audience is, the easier it is to convey the pain-points that you're solving, that you're helping. And then you can stop talking about, Well, I'm four weeks in now and I'm really excited and all that. And you've got 20 years experience. It's confidence, I think.
Esther
It is. And it's one of those things that will come with time and through all of those different avenues that you mentioned about in-person networking, online networking, talking to people through your socials, putting the message out through your email list. All of those are valuable places and also places that you can receive feedback, especially in-person. If you're looking at the person and you're saying what you do and they just get this glaze over their eyes, you know your message hasn't hit them. So you can tweak it for the next time and the next time they might go, oh, I didn't realise you do that. I remember what we must have been in business here about five years and someone that I'd known for those entire five years went, I didn't know you built websites. How could you have known me for all this time not know what I do? So I have done something wrong along the line with that person that they didn't know that we did X, Y and Z.
Melanie
See a lot of this is down to the fact we assume people know what we do. I mean-.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
In fairness, Esther, I'm called STOMP Social Media Training, and I just assume a lot of people know what I do, but not everybody reads the whole logo, and a lot of people just see stomp.
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
So sometimes we just have to assume people don't know what we do.
Esther
Yeah, and go back to basics if and when it's needed. Even if you have been at the same place and talk to the same people for the last 10 years, go and tell them again because unless people are in a position that they need your services or know of someone else who needs exactly what you're talking about, they won't retain the information and that's not on them. There's so many other things going on within people's lives that they don't need to retain the information about what you do as well. So always be reframing and changing that from always be closing A-B-C to A-B-R. Always be reframing what you say, who you say it to, how you say it because the way that you act with your body language, your pose, whether you're smiling or serious can also be a huge factor in what people take away. So that's it for today, guys. Go and think about how to reframe your message, how to reframe your intro specifically, because people will remember, or should remember your intro, but you always get a second chance at introducing yourself. So we'll be back next week with more Monday Morning Marketing. Until then, bye-bye.
Melanie
Have a great week, everyone.
