Every effective marketing strategy lives and dies by the ability to capture and communicate the strategies core point of differentiation in a simple, yet compelling, manner.
When your market can actually understand and perhaps even feel how your business is different from every other business that says it does what you do, then you have a recipe for both greater business and greater profit.
Lacking this, you have a recipe to compete on price, plain and simple.
Today’s post in part three of a three-part series on marketing strategy. In the first post, we talked about finding your ideal client. In post number two we talked about finding your core point of difference. Today we are going to cover a tactic that will help you turn your point of difference into a simple core message or something I call your Talking Logo.
The Talking Logo Explained.
Like a traditional printed logo, a talking logo is a tool that allows you to communicate verbally the single greatest benefit of doing business with your firm. A talking logo is a short statement that quickly communicates your firm’s position and ideally forces the listener to want to know more.
The talking logo is generally played in response to the comment, “So, tell me about your firm.” Everyone has attended a networking event or Chamber of Commerce breakfast where you are given a minute to describe your firm – this a great place to whip out the Talking Logo.
When asked, the typical response for many is to list their title or industry . . . “I’m in the insurance business, I’m an architect, I’m a painting contractor or I’m a computer repair specialist.” The only thing this type of response will get you is, “That’s nice” A creative talking logo excites and tells more about what’s in it for the listener than labeling what you do.
Consider these two examples: “So, Bill, what do you do for a living?” I’m a registered architect” or [Talking Logo] “I show contractors how to get paid faster.” Now, which do you think is more compelling? If you’re a contractor, you definitely want to know more about that second answer, don’t you?
Your talking logo is created in two distinct parts. Part 1 addresses your target market, and Part 2 zeroes in on a problem, frustration or want that market has. Download our free Talking Logo template here.
You know you have a great talking logo when a person hears you deliver it and immediately says, “Really, how do you do that?”
Here’s the pattern for getting started creating your Talking Logo: Action verb, (I show, I teach, I help) target market, (business owners, homeowners, teachers, divorced women, Fortune 500 companies) how to xxxx = solve a problem, get a result or meet a need.
A powerful Talking Logo alone can get you appointments, especially when most businesses who are looking for new business simply ask to meet so they can sell something. Who would you see, someone who wants to sell you his work or someone who wants to show you how to make more money?
In order to make your Talking Logo truly powerful, you’ll need to have a complimentary statement that tells them just how you deliver on your promise when the listener inevitably asks to know more.
So let’s return to our architect above to explain – “We have developed relationships with every zoning board in the metro area and by applying our zoning adjustment process we can make sure that projects don’t get hung up by red tape, and that our clients get to that first pay request faster.”
By starting from this very simple point you can expand and grow a core message that can be used in every possible setting and every form of communication.
