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.
Melanie
Hey, everybody, and welcome to this week's podcast. I'm here on my own this week. Esther is extremely busy. So, as you can see, today's podcast is about creating your elevator pitch and maybe a business tagline as well. We tend to create an awful lot of our podcasts for people who are usually well in business or looking to change things up. But today I thought I'd do something that takes us right back to the start-ups. We didn't want to forget about you guys. So what is an elevator pitch? Well, it's a short, catchy, and hopefully memorable couple of sentences you can say to somebody for the first time. The whole point of it is it's got to have a clear call to action and hopefully illustrate what pain-point you solve. But it does need to be short. It needs to be a paragraph or so and a summary of what your business can do to help people.
Now, the whole point of your elevator pitch is to attract people who may want to become your customer, maybe your supplier or even employees, if you're looking to change things up in the future. It is something that has to change, though. It's something that evolves over time. And the elevator pitch I use today, I can't even remember what my first one was like, but I do know that it's definitely changed. And there do needs to be two types of elevator pitches. There's the one where you go first and there's the one where you respond. So today we're just assuming it's you going first, where you're forced to explain who and what you do and the pain point you solve. Now, if I could persuade you to get a sheet of paper and maybe write down, or maybe go on your laptop and write down what you would put across as an elevator pitch, and then go back over it and see how you can shorten it. One of the ways you can do it is this like a rule of thumb, where you use roughly 200 words or less, and it should take around 90 seconds or a minute and a half.
And the clearer you make it, the easier it is, because if you don't know what you're saying, you'll be umming and ahhing and you sound indecisive. And that doesn't leave people feeling very confident in your abilities, which is a shame because it's just your lack of practice. It's not because you wouldn't actually do the job you're claiming to do. So if you are going to be creating a elevator pitch from scratch, then just start thinking, how do I put across in the shortest amount of time exactly how I solve a pain-point for somebody? Maybe you can do a short story. Maybe you can say, for this one client, I did. Or, When I received an inquiry, these were the questions that were put forward to me, and this is how I resolved it. Adults love a bit of storytelling, and if that can be part and parcel of your elevator pitch, brilliant. What else can you put into your elevator pitch? Well, I suppose one of the top ways of making your elevator pitch work is to give them a direct call to action and include a way that they can contact you.
So maybe it's through a DM, maybe it's a private message, or could they just directly contact you through email or a phone call? But make it clear how they can do it. You can't just assume people know how to respond to you directly. And don't think that everybody's going to be on Instagram, let's say. Maybe the best bet is to get them to call you on the phone or maybe send you an email because most people have one or both of those. The whole point of it, though, is to explain what's in it for them. If you can outline that to make it clear, then they understand the point of your business and how you can solve it. We tend, especially at the very beginning of our business, we tend to be so focused on all the different things that we need to deliver, that we have to have business cars, we may have to buy new clothes, maybe pick a brand. And I'm saying they're all incredibly important. But we tend to think of ourselves when we deliver at the very beginning at elevator pitch, about how we can help them, but we're not really focused on the outcomes that they're looking for.
One of the best things I found when I started doing this was looking at my customer reviews, because what people were getting out of my products or services was actually not always what I was telling people they were going to get of it. I just assumed they got something else out of my time, but actually they were getting this instead of that. So even if you've only had a couple of customer reviews, it's a really great place to start with, to go over and see what people are actually taking away from your product or service. Now, I did mention just a few minutes ago that there is a general pitch that you can do, and that's where you go first. But obviously, if you go second because it's a fabulous networking tool and somebody says, so tell me about you now that you've heard about me, that can help you sculpt an elevator pitch that suits the person in front of you. And it's always easier to go second. For we know, when we actually approach somebody at a networking event or any opportunities that we can possibly sell, it could be our direct competitor in front of us.
And believe me, it happens. It's happened to me numerous times. So we need to think of adapting our responses. And I put my hand up here, and if you can see me on camera, I've definitely put my hand up here. I've done it where I've gone, Oh, this person is perfect. I need to say this, I need to say this, I need to say this, and I stop listening to what they're saying. And that's a real shame, because I've probably missed out on some enormous opportunities because I wasn't listening. But if you can understand the person in their entirety, maybe they're just coming in late because they've dropped off the kids. And all of a sudden, I've got something in common with them because I've got kids, too. So we can talk about that. And it's not just business. Because the minute people perceive that, so they want me to buy something off them or they want me to join their email list or something like that, they switch off. But if you connect with people on a on a personal level, they're more invested, and frankly, so are you. It also makes you much more memorable.
And especially when you're at a large networking event or a conference or something like that, there's a lot of people there. And their time and attention could be taken away because somebody else has spent more time with them or been more personable and personal. Now, I'm not suggesting you need to give away your life story every single time you see somebody, what would be the point in that? But it is important that you commit that time to people, and then you're both coming away with something that you both enjoy and need. Hopefully. So try and think of the different ways that you can adapt. And one thing as a top thing I would like to tell you here is, try not to be everything to everybody. You don't need to tell them about all of your products stocks and services. It's much easier to try and sell one or two things to somebody. And then once you've got them and you've maybe got them on your email list or even if you could just follow up after they've bought your product or your service from you, you can then upsell or cross-sell. It's actually a lot easier to do that than to go ramming in everything that you want to try and sell them.
Nobody likes to be sold to. Nobody, including you. So if you can make it more subtle, go you. So I'm hoping that that has given you a little bit of an insight on how you can do an elevator pitch. Now, let's talk a little bit about crafting a compelling business tagline. It's not something you absolutely need to do. I didn't really have one until a couple of years in. And it just evolved. Over time, people were saying, Nike has Just Do It, and McDonald's has I'm Loving It. So I created one that was really quite basic. And it doesn't need to be, particularly short or enormously long. It just needs to feel comfortable, something that's easy to roll off the tongue. But what it is meant to do is draw attention to your business. If you can think of a unique selling proposition or something that connects to your mission, your values, or even the pain-points, then even better. This tagline can go everywhere. It can go on your business cards, on your website, on your roll-up banner, on your tablecloths, on your flyers. It holds its own on every platform that you promote your business.
But it does need to be very brief. So your elevator pitch, as I said before, is around 200 words long, 90 seconds to say, but your elevator pitch is essentially a sentence. It's normally ranging between three to seven words. If you can do one, go you. But I expect that's probably already gone. But it's also down to not just what you say, but just exactly the same as the rest of your branding, down to color, tone, style. So all of those play an influence in how this tagline is displayed. But what makes a tagline really work is how it stands the test of time. And as I've mentioned from the two previous businesses, that's really stood the test of time. All of these businesses that we have come to love and know started just like us, small. They were just a sole trade or heck, even a small SME. But they all started somewhere. And the minute we can start placing a bit of longevity to how we're perceived by our audience, the easier it is to build and grow on that foundation. If you can think of a tagline that suits your business today, it doesn't have to stay the same.
I'm sure over the years, they've changed slightly as well for the others. But it is a foundation you can build your business on, your brand on, and your tagline on. I've been in business, at the time of recording, around 11 years, and I'm not the same business I was when I first started. And you shouldn't be. Because if you can't You could adapt and evolve with your customers, with your time of life. I had very small children, and I'd only just come back to work after the kids had gone back to school. So my circumstances are very different now. They're both in secondary school now. So we need that time to adapt and change with ourselves as well as with our customers. I really hope you found today's podcast useful. If you've got any questions regarding building a tagline or working on your elevator pitch, then it's an area I'm happy to work with you. As ever, go back and listen to the other podcasts. Don't forget, we've got an Etsy store and we do also have an email list that you may want to take part in. There's lots of tips and updates and information that are sent out.
You'll hear about our blogs that we have out every single month as well. And obviously, do visit my website as well at stomp.ie for any further information on my business. Well, that's it. I'm not going to wobble on for any longer, but I do hope you have a great week, and hopefully, I'll be back with Esther next week. Bye for now.
See, I always wave. I really do. It's just you don't normally see it.
