Title: How To Craft Your Ideal Marketing Message – **1PMP Series**
Guest: Chris Goldman
Peter: I am super excited about our conversation today. We are with Chris Goldman, who is a business coach and marketing strategist with Biz Marketing. He is also a messaging expert. He’s been crafting messages for decades, literally decades, and most recently with Biz Marketing as our marketing strategist and messaging expert, helping businesses craft their messages. So today, it’s appropriate for me to interview Chris.
How are doing today, Chris?
Chris Goldman: Doing good. It’s fun to talk about this because it is my passion in life.
Peter: Well, let me give a little setup for today’s conversation. So this is part of our continuing series on the one page marketing plan. And if you missed the other episodes about this topic, you can just look in our podcast list and see them there. We did one on business and marketing goals and how your business goals should drive your your marketing goals and marketing investment, and then figuring out who your target market is. And today, the topic is crafting your message.
So just to put it in context, this is from Alan Dibbs’ book, The one Page Marketing Plan. This is what he calls act one, the before phase, meaning before the potential customer knows who you are. And in his book, chapter one is selecting your target market, chapter two is crafting your message, and then chapter three is reaching your prospects with advertising media. So before you lift a finger to create any ads, you obviously have to select your target market and you have to craft a message. Just a little more context before we get started here, Chris.
The couple of the resources that we lean on for the work we do, one is the narrative gym by Park Howell and Randy Olson. It talks about the and, but, therefore statement, which is a messaging framework, so to speak, that is very powerful and used a lot in many successful messaging campaigns. And then, of course, Donald Miller with StoryBrand, which you’ve been StoryBrand certified in the past. Then, of course, one page marketing plan from Alan Dibbs. So so where do we start this conversation, Chris, with respect to crafting your message?
Chris Goldman: Well, mine begins with a story.
Peter: Okay.
Chris Goldman: Going into communications class in my college experience, my university experience, and walking in and wondering, you know, I’m a communicator, what can I possibly learn about communication, but I was excited too? And the teacher began, the professor began by asking a question. Can you define communication? And the class all began giving ideas. Well, it’s, you know, when you exchange information.
And what was interesting, the more and more we gave out definitions, the more she said, nope. That’s not it. And, eventually, the tension built until she said, communication does not happen until you have shared meaning, until you share the meaning of something. And communication is, I believe, the most difficult challenge human beings face. That’s true globally, internationally.
It’s true in the marketplace. It’s true in marriage. It’s true in every relationship. Communication is tough. So, Pete, for a simple example, if I were to say, hey.
I know you enjoy skiing. You wanna get together and go for you know, let’s go skiing for a day here in the next month or so. What would you respond about your love of skiing?
Peter: Yeah. I’d say, have been up several times this year already. I generally get a season’s pass. We’ve gone up to Whistler, got a chance to go to Colorado and ski in Vail and Beaver Creek this season, and it’s just been phenomenal. It’s been a great season.
So love to go up. I think they’re closing around the April 20, so we’re gonna have to hustle. But, yeah, it’d be great.
Chris Goldman: There you go. Well, I lived in, Folsom, California, Northern California for a lot of years. And what was interesting there, if you said, hey. Do wanna go skiing? If it was any time before really June or July, the question is, wait.
Are you talking about snow skiing, or are you talking about water skiing? See, in our context right now, if I say you wanna go skiing, there’s not even a question. Seattle, Washington, we’re there’s no water skiing going on right now. But in Northern California, you could be in May and go water skiing one day and hop up to Tahoe and go snow skiing the next day. So you get the exact same word that has completely different meaning.
So you don’t have shared meaning. So here’s the challenge. You wanna be clear and authentic before you get cute and clever.
Peter: Okay.
Chris Goldman: But a lot of companies try to get cute and clever before they’re clear and authentic. A good a good example of this is a a I believe the brand out because I don’t wanna throw anybody under the bus, but there was a thin pretzel chip maker, that was advertising some time ago, and they used this language that backfired on them. You can never be too thin. It tastes as good as skinny feels. Now that language, which they’re doing a crisp and thin pretzel chip, may work to describe it and get people’s attention, but a lot of the attention it got was negative because it came across as body shaming.
That marketing campaign would never even be seen or heard or make it out of a discussion in our current setting because we now know how offensive it is. So the question is how do you get clear and authentic for your company and for your business?
Peter: So we’re talk just to put it in the context of what we’re talking about, it’s the message that represents your company, your brand to the market. It’s what you stand for. It’s when people think of you, they think of what or what is what are you putting out to them? What actually, when people think of your company, they’re probably not necessarily gonna think about the words. They’re gonna think about how interacting with your company makes them feel.
Chris Goldman: Yes.
Peter: Right? Right? So this is but this is in terms of marketing, we’re pushing messages out to folks. We’re sending them out, and we’re getting ready to craft advertising and other media to get it out in front of who may not know who we are. So that’s really the context of what we’re talking about today.
Okay. Sorry. I didn’t mean to cut you off there.
Chris Goldman: No. That’s good. And, Pete, it’s also important for me to make this this point here. There are items that you’re gonna have in communication that you’re gonna use over and over and over. And maybe it’s your tagline, like Nike, just do it.
It’s gonna be everywhere. Right? Mhmm. Then there are going to be core pieces of information that you convey that are maybe two or three sentence things that you’ll be using over and over and over. Mhmm.
Then there will be pieces like newsletters that you write one a week, and it goes out to your people. And next week, you’re gonna create something new. So the more repeated an item is gonna be, the more refined that language needs to be. And the more disposable, if you will, that your communication’s gonna be Yep. The less time you have to sweat about it.
So how do you get it? Well, you need to start with those clear, authentic, small pieces that are gonna convey who you are, what you do. So we use a proven platform that we walk through in our strategy session with businesses that begins with understanding your customer. We want to understand who your customer is first, and then we wanna understand your company. Right?
Because your company really is not only shaped by the products and services you sell. Mhmm. It’s shaped by the customers you’re going after. So if I were to ask you, what clients do you go after as a company at biz marketing versus the ones you don’t go after? Do you know who you are?
Peter: We prefer not to work with startups, so we prefer to work with established businesses. We don’t work with retail businesses. For the most part, we don’t work with restaurants. We don’t work with real estate. So we’ve spoken in the past about who we don’t work with.
We primarily work with service businesses that have a relation you know, either a high ticket relationship with a customer or an ongoing relationship. It might not be a massive amount, but over time, it can be a lot of money.
Chris Goldman: Yeah. And the way I describe those companies we work with most is they’re companies that are usually privately owned. They’re small to medium businesses. They have done very well in competing in the marketplace, but their owners know we have a fantastic product or service. We have a great staff.
We can serve even more people better, but we’ve kind of plateaued. Yep. How do we get to that next level? And they want to move forward. Right?
So understanding who your customer is helps you understand who your company is trying to reach and what your company does. And then this big one, and I give kudos to Donald Miller for this one, you need to define what is the problem you solve for your customers. You need to really understand what is the problem you solve. Now Allan Dib, all of them have different language for this piece of the puzzle, but understanding the problem you solve for your customers is key. What’s the clear path to do business with you?
And then what is a direct call to action that is simple? And I can’t tell you how many companies overlook this. So here’s what Alan Dib says. Let me read you from his book, one Page Marketing Plan. He says you need to be clear about what they should do next and what they will get in return.
Also, give them multiple ways to take action. For example, if the call to action is to order your product, give them the ability to do it online, over the phone, or even via mail mail in coupon. Different people have different preferences when it comes to the modality of communication. Give them multiple means of response so that they can choose the one that they’re most comfortable with. Now I wanna modify that a little bit.
You wanna have all these different streams by which people can respond to you. But I also wanna know from companies and company owners what is your authentic preferred way to communicate with future customers. And what I find with the companies we work with most, when it comes down to one thing that separates them from the rest, is we want to have an actual conversation with the businesses and people and customers that we’re gonna serve because we believe in authentic relationship. Yeah. So figuring that out in your bandwidth is very important.
Peter: One of the things that we had a conversation with a customer about recently was part of the reason why people will ask pricing and just focus on pricing is because you haven’t given them anything else to think about. Or you haven’t given them anything to think about except the product. You’ve just focused on, like for a roofing company, for example. Isn’t a roof a roof a roof? I mean, aren’t they aren’t they all the same?
And then we dig in and find out, actually not. They’re a lot different. My point is this, if you don’t present a coherent message about what you are offering, what problem you’re solving, the customer is going to fill in the void for themselves. And the void is usually filled with price. What’s the price?
Chris Goldman: Exactly. And so part of that piece is understanding the benefit of working with your company versus working with other options they could go with. Let me use an example from fencing companies. We’re working with this fencing company, and they were making a a pretty big deal that they’re local and they’ve been in business for about fifteen to seventeen years in the area. And I said, you keep emphasizing that.
Why is that important? They said, oh, there’s a lot of fencing companies out there. Almost all of them take 50% of the quote, in advance, and then you pay the other 50% when it’s done. So so we run into a lot of fencing companies that pop up, they go out, they bid low, they get 50%, they put in posts, and then they just disappear. I remember that.
Yeah. Yeah. Here’s these families that have paid, you know, maybe $5 down, half the cost of the fence, and all they end up with are posts in a company that no longer exists. So they said it’s important because we’ve been here and we’re gonna be here. Now a lot of business owners say, well, yeah, that’s true.
Do we really need to say that? Yes. You need to let people know you can depend on us to be here. So the benefit of working with you and the consequences of choosing different path. And then, really, at the end of the day, what I like to ask company owners is what’s the transformation you want to see in the lives of your customers?
How do you wanna see just simply by doing business with you that their lives are transformed, they’re better, they’re having more enjoyment, maybe they’re getting time back. We start out big, we get all this information, and then we wanna come down to let’s, in five to eight keywords, define through a tagline what it is you do and how you help your customers win. Right? So my favorite is I’m a little biased here. Biz Marketing.
Bizmarketing.com. What’s the tagline, Pete?
Peter: We help businesses win online.
Chris Goldman: Yeah. So the first time I heard that when Pete shared it with me before I was working with biz marketing, here’s what I heard immediately. He’s here to help other businesses win in the digital marketplace, the online marketplace. In five words, I knew exactly what biz marketing did. One of our favorites is college movers that we worked with, local college students moving the community for less.
It just tells you local college students, like in our area, UW students would be part of those local college students that are helping you move, saving you money, and helping the community build great relationships. A lot in those words. We have some friends doing the roofing business, Four Seasons Roofing. And do you remember their tagline?
Peter: Your roof done right, backed by our shield of protection. The cool thing about the shield of protection is their logo is actually a shield. They had this logo before we started working with them, and they had talked about the shield of protection, but they hadn’t necessarily put it together in that way. Your roof done right, backed by our shield of protection.
Chris Goldman: Exactly. Now some of you are thinking right now, oh, great. So all we gotta do is come up with a tagline. No. A tagline is extremely refined messaging because you’re gonna repeat it over and over.
It’s gonna be on your business cards. It’s gonna be on your website. It’s gonna be everywhere. Now from that, we’re gonna create anywhere from five to 12 blocks of copy of core messaging that you’ll use in your various marketing platforms, whether it’s social media or it’s your newsletter, and also so you have the core of who you are and what you’re about in marketing for any onboarding of employees. Now Alan Dib also says this, you can’t bore people into buying.
Listen to this great quote. He says most marketing messages are boring, timid, and ineffective. So I wanna pause there. When you hear us saying, you have to be clear and authentic before you’re cute and clever, it doesn’t mean you can’t be clever. It doesn’t mean you can’t say things like local college students moving the community for less.
Your roof done right, backed by our shoulder protection. Yes. We wanna be clever and we wanna be catchy, but only after we get clear and authentic. So he says, most marketing messages are boring, timid, and ineffective. To stand out from the crowd, you need to craft a compelling message that grabs the attention of your target market.
Once you have their attention, the goal of your message is to compel them to respond. And how do you compel people to respond? Data has been done. Studies have been done. The data upholds it.
You use story to compel when you’re working on your marketing messaging. So this is why when we are looking at commercials, if you actually look at commercials anymore, if you are online, I do a lot of streaming of radio shows and radio programs that the ads that are there almost always do what? They tell a story that compels you to call and say, hey. I heard about your roofing services and your shield of protection. Tell us about that.
Hey. My family and I are moving across town. I understand that you’re in our local community. Do you have college students that could help us, do this move, save some money, but also help the college students? Mhmm.
And on and on it goes.
Peter: Well, and you you have a good illustration that you use talking about story and what people remember. If I came home from the office and sat down with my spouse and she said, you know, what’d you do today? And I pulled out my day timer and or my calendar, just started reading off, meeting at, you know, pickleball at six. Then I had a meeting with Chris at, you know, 07:30. Then I had a meeting with Emily at nine.
You know, there’s just nothing to get there’s nothing for my brain or her brain to really log on to. But if I you know, just to to remember, but if it’s like, yeah, you know, got together with the boys, played pickleball, you know, was really sucking. And then I had, like, three great shots in a row. It was just so awesome. You know?
It’s just gonna remember that.
Chris Goldman: Yeah. And she’s gonna ask questions about it. Right? And that’s
Peter: part of what
Chris Goldman: good communication does. It it creates communication. It compels you to have communication. So for example
Peter: And it sticks in your brain.
Chris Goldman: Yeah. Sticks in your brain. Today, my story when I’m, you know, closing the day later talking to my spouse, She asked me to tell you about the day, and I would say, hey. Got in the office. I have a great staff meeting.
All of a sudden, my phone just started going crazy. My phone was blowing up. And I looked at it. I had a delivery that I had to be at the house to receive, and they told me between ten and noon, and it was 09:27. I was like, what are you doing?
So I hopped on to my video doorbell, and I began talking to the delivery guy. He said, I can be there in seven minutes. They said, we’ll wait. I pulled in. They were right by my garage door ready to take it inside.
And I looked at them and I said, I head down I’m so sorry. I head down between ten and noon. They said, yeah. We’re running early today. And I said, can I ask you a question?
When have delivery people ever been early? And he smiled and laughed. He said, we take pride in being there before or at the exact moment of the window that we said we would. And so we were glad to wait. Not a problem.
They took it inside. It’s all ready to go. Now if I just said, oh, yeah. I went home and received a delivery at 10AM. Nobody wants to hear that.
We communicate through story, and we’re drawn into story. So if you wanna work on great messaging, we begin with the story that you’re telling and the story that your customers are hearing, compelling them to say, I wanna be in business with this company.
Peter: One of the things in Donald Miller’s thing, this concept about if you position your company as the hero in the story, so the customer has a story they they wanna be part of. If you’re positioning yourself as like, we’re number one, we’re the best, there’s really nothing in it for the customer to relate to. If you’re looking at their needs and their desires, it just completely that’s probably the biggest takeaway I took from StoryBrand was that concept. So always be thinking about what’s in it for them, not what’s in it for you or making you look the best to the top and all that. You can do that in very subtle ways.
It’s amazing how if you just turn on some empathy, how your brand can resonate with potential customers so much more than saying we’re number one.
Chris Goldman: Absolutely. So, to maybe requote Donald Miller, reparaphrase a little bit, his his point is this. Every story has a hero, but you’re not the hero of the story. Your customer is. You’re the guide helping the hero win the day.
And the second you understand that and you develop your messaging around that, you become completely customer focused by nature. We are here, for example, biz marketing to help businesses win online. That’s what we do. And when we don’t accomplish that, we don’t have that euphoric feeling we have, then when we see a company do really well and their leads take off and their business take off, and we get to be a small part of that helping with their marketing messaging and their marketing ad buys and their strategies. And that’s when we celebrate because they’re celebrating.
They’re the hero. You’re the hero of our story Yep. At biz marketing. Yeah. And your message is where it all begins.
So, Pete, that’s what I would say about messaging when it comes to marketing. And just tell people, if you haven’t sat down in a strategy session to really look at your core messaging, you’re missing out on one of the critical steps that Alan did really puts out there when you’re talking about a one page marketing plan. As soon as you understand who your customer is, you’ve got to lock in your messaging, and that’s before you start doing ad buys. So
Peter: yeah. Exactly. So I’d like to offer our listeners a free copy of the one Page Marketing Plan book. We’ve got 25 copies that are available. So the first 25 folks who send an email to free@bizmktg.com will receive a an actual physical copy of the book, The one Page Marketing Plan by Alan Dib.
And he has a chapter dedicated to crafting your message. Now, in addition to Alan’s book, we’re not gonna give him away, but we highly recommend folks read Donald Miller’s book, Building a Story Brand Yep. Which came out in about 2018. There’s certainly some overlap in what Alan Dibbs says and Donald Miller. But Donald Miller is that book, Building a Story Brand, is just 100% about messaging rather than the whole marketing
Chris Goldman: Yes.
Peter: Path. And then the other book, which I think is just fascinating, is the narrative Jim by Park Howell and Randy Olson. And do you would you mind just giving us a little taste of what that is about?
Chris Goldman: Absolutely. First of all, I love the way they open it. They talk about that this book is 70 pages long. And the reason is most business people will read the first 70 pages of a book, and then they’re done. So they decided just to start writing 70 page books for business owners.
And so you can get through it literally during your lunch break one day. But they talk about the most powerful word in the English language is the word but. Because when you add the word but into something, it causes a pivot moment. Right? Mhmm.
Everything you said before is put into different context, and you’re gonna have a spin of information that’s gonna take place. For example, I could say something like this, and I apologize. This is off the top of my head. You have built your company and your successful team to a point where you are competing at a high level, but you know you could be doing more. That’s why biz marketing is committed to helping businesses win online.
And so that three sentence statement, that structure is something that they go through and show throughout history, including the Gettysburg Address, is fashioned around that formula, and, but, and therefore. And if you don’t if you do your own copywriting, your writing of copy for marketing and for ads, you absolutely need to read that book. But if you are also working with a copywriter, then you need to make sure that they are in tune with that so that they can use that incredible tool. It’s very simple. And once you get to where you can craft it, you can start crafting it really well to communicate, and it grabs people’s attention.
What’s funny is
Peter: after reading Narrative Jim and listening to some of the podcasts, I started seeing the ABT everywhere.
Chris Goldman: Yeah.
Peter: You start recognizing it everywhere because you’ve got the and which is really the agreement statement. You’re saying things that people will agree with, but so now you’re throwing out this, you know, one eighty, and now you’re giving them the answer, therefore. Very compelling, very sophisticated, but simple. It makes perfect sense. And some of the best ideas are like that.
They just they’re easy to understand and simple to apply.
Chris Goldman: Yep. And, by the way, everybody should know that there’s a narrative gem for just regular people, and there’s a narrative gem for businesses. And so I recommend you read both of them because it’ll help you communicate in your one on one relationships, in your interpersonal relationships, but then read it also for business as you’re trying to make sure that you have the best business marketing collateral going out there into the community. Yeah. Be clear and authentic before you’re cute and clever.
That’s my advice.
Peter: Coming up, we’re going to be talking about something that I’m really interested in. I’m interested in all of this, but reaching prospects with advertising media, which is chapter three in act one, the before phase in the one page marketing plan. And don’t forget that we are giving away 25 copies of the one page marketing plan. I just need to receive an email from you. Free at biz m k t g dot com.
And if you’re one of the first 25 people to respond, you will get a free copy. Thanks for listening to this episode of Biz and Life Done Well with Peter Wilson. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most of the other popular podcast platforms. Please tell your friends about us and leave us a review so even more people will find out about us. Thanks again.
We’ll see you soon.
