Why you know too much – how to communicate your brand effectively.
Every founder needs a good USP, a compelling elevator pitch, and a Product-Market Fit. This gets you your investment, sure. But your investors aren’t the only people who need clarity about your offer. If you want to sell anything, then you need to know how to communicate your brand effectively to your potential customers.
Even if you know exactly:
- what you offer (and how it hits your customer’s pain points),
- how it works,
- the customer journey (every single step they go through),
- your brand values (why you make the decisions you do), and
- your target audience (who you’re talking to)…
That’s not the end of the story.
Because while you’re the expert on your company…your ideal consumer isn’t.
“Why does that matter, Peta?” I hear you cry, “I can still talk to them!”
And you can. But you’re going to find it a lot harder to put aside all your expert knowledge, the hours you’ve spent obsessing over the meaning behind your brand logo, or the particular reason you chose this app layout.
Why being an expert on your business is a problem for your marketing
Ok, so maybe that’s not quite what I mean.
Obviously, knowing the ins and outs of your business, being an expert at what you do, and having the skills and information you need to help your ideal customer are super important.
But, all this prior knowledge stops you from putting yourself in your ideal customer’s shoes – inside their brain – and communicating your brand from where they are. What they know NOW.
You need to take these complicated ideas and make them accessible.
Not in a dumbing down “you’re too stupid to understand this so let me explain it with lego” way. But in such a way that, even without all your background knowledge, your ideal customer will grasp why your offer is so groundbreaking and be able to relate to your brand.
Whether it’s about:
- shedding light on the benefits of your product,
- giving an example of why you’re a better bet than your competitors,
- talking about nuances of different sustainability options, or
- breaking down a complicated tech or scientific concept to show how it helps you in real life
Your messaging needs to do all that without overloading them with information, or making them feel like they need to put down the playdoh and head to the nap corner.
And that’s hard for you, as the resident expert, to do.
How to speak to noobs – how to communicate your brand to the people who need it
“But Peta! I know exactly what my customers need, because I’ve spent hours, days, weeks, years of my life developing the perfect product/service/offer for them!
I’ve researched and honed and gone through beta testing. I’ve got a comprehensive breakdown of why it’s excellent and how it helps. I’m all set!”
But do you know how you’re going to start explaining all that to someone who knows nothing about your brand?
Do you know how to talk to a noob? (there is a LOT of Minecraft talk going on in my house, and some of it was bound to sink in!)
Here’s something to ruminate on:
Your customer isn’t stupid (but they know less than you)
A few months ago, I wrote a lead magnet for a Tech Security firm (yes, I am THAT versatile). Framed as a checklist, it outlined the things you needed to do to make sure your business was safe and secure. The audience was companies with 25-250 employees, who didn’t have their own IT departments.
Now, I’m not a tech security expert (surprisingly), so I needed to rely on the client’s knowledge of what businesses should do to stay safe and secure.
He sent me a document outlining the most common risks when it came to The Cloud, data storage, etc.
And it. Was. Dense.
No personality. No real way to make a connection or build trust. No compelling brand story.
There was no way that the majority of his ideal customers were going to get their heads around any of it, let alone work out why they should care. This was not a sensible brand communication strategy.
And so I got to work.
This is why you hire a copywriter (well, one of the many reasons – we’re pretty useful people to have around!).
You have a wealth of expertise and knowledge. But your ideal customer probably doesn’t. A copywriter bridges the gap between you. Explaining your concepts from the position of a non-expert. Helping them see why it matters to them. Showing them how you can help them.
Without overwhelming them with jargon, or being patronising.
It’s a fine line. But it’s a line I’m very good at staying on the right side of.
Why a copywriter is your secret weapon:
Have you gone too far down the rabbit hole of your brand messaging and can’t figure out a way to communicate anything to your audience? Then you need a copywriter.
A good copywriter and messaging strategist (so, someone like me, perhaps) will be able to bring the following invaluable skills to the table:
An outsider’s perspective
You know when you’re doing a jigsaw, and you’ve been sitting there for ages, staring and stuck? And then your mum/partner/4-year-old child prodigy nephew wanders over, picks up a piece and immediately puts it in the right place?
Yes – it is very annoying.
But you know how they did it? They looked at the problem from a different angle.
I bet you’ve spent days going over the problems in your messaging. Trying to find a content strategy that your ideal customer will relate to. Trying to strike the right tone between “buy my stuff because it’s, like, really cool!!” and “Here are 17 pages on our company culture, sales channels, and why this product is so amazing!”
Pulling in an outsider, someone who is probably learning about your offer too, means you benefit from a different perspective. You get someone who will see things you don’t, and make sense of it from the perspective of your customers, because you’ve been looking at the puzzle pieces for too long.
A strategic overview
Getting lost in the weeds of your messaging means missing things that might be even more important.
A good copywriter leads you away from the tiny piece of wonky bark on the sycamore in front of you, hikes with you up the nearest hill, and shows you just how far the forest reaches, the impact it has, and how many things it touches.
And then you are better placed to be able to communicate that impact to your audience, with clarity.
A window into the brain of your ideal customer
Not only is a good copywriter great at getting to the bottom of what it is you offer, and why it’s so great, but they also excel at getting into the minds of your perfect customer.
Copywriting isn’t just the writing bit – it’s a whole mess of research before we even put pen to paper (or fingers to crumb-covered keyboard). Taking the time to get to know the people you’re trying to reach, working out what problems they have, and why they’re looking for your solution. All these things are integral to crafting a message that will make an emotional connection with the people you want to speak to, get them to buy from you, and build customer loyalty.
A bridge between your knowledge and your customer’s understanding
And then we have the final piece. Where a good copywriter will take the storage unit of stuff that you know about your brand and your offer, pop it over a bunsen burner, and distil the chemicals that will make the most potent message possible. Ready for you to put out on your website, slosh all over your social media channels, and even help you craft your brand’s visual identity.
We’re the scientists bottling the perfume that will draw your perfect customer towards you.
We’re also pretty good with the words, too…
How I can help you communicate your brand
Yes, you have your pitch deck (if not, we can talk about that as well).
But a good pitch deck does not make a good brand message. Especially a brand message that your future loyal customers identify with.
My Brand Guides are the blueprint to your brand identity, your messaging, your content strategy, your go-to-market plans, your website copy, and even your packaging (if that’s your thing). It’s one (meaty) document that becomes the Bible for all your brand communications.
I take the expertise in your brain and make it relatable to your audience. And it’s just as relevant for a start-up as it is for product-based small businesses, or a personal brand.
If you’re serious about what you offer. And you want the world to understand how it can help them. Then you need a Brand Guide.
One client said:
“This is so what I needed to move forward. You have totally banged the nail on the head!”
