If you think that your message is clear, but you aren’t attracting the clients you desire…
…providing enough of your prospective clients are actually seeing it…
…then your message probably isn’t as clear as you think.
(If you’re just starting your business, your message won’t be crystal clear yet because you don’t know exactly what you do and who you want to help. That’s okay. Keep going! I’m addressing those who’ve been at this for a little while.)
Many experts talk about creating a clear message, and they make valuable points. But there’s something I see missing that leads to misaligned offers and weak messaging.
Your message needs to have these things:
#1 – CLARITY
The clearer you are about the experience you create or the results you deliver, the more powerful your message will be for the people who desire it.
This means being clear about:
- Who it’s for and who it’s not for
- Results your clients get and/or the experience they’ll have with you
- How you do it (your process or unique methodology)
- Connecting those results to the magical thing you do
So far, I’m on the same page with the experts.
But being clear doesn’t mean simply being specific in terms of your customer avatar, niche and the tangible results you get.
The clarity begins in YOU.
What is it you desire to create?
What experience would you love to create with clients? (Not simply based on what you’ve done before, but what you’re creating NOW.)
Who is it that you’d like to work with?
And how specific would you like to be?
Most messaging experts will tell you that you need to be more specific to communicate your value, and there’s good sense here, because it tends to be clearer when people see your content and can identify easily whether it’s for them or not.
But you can also deliberately create a clear message with a non-specific “results may vary” disclaimer.
Clarity starts INSIDE YOU, and (in my opinion) most marketing experts aren’t skilled at getting you to dig deep enough to uncover what you really desire. They prematurely push you for specificity, and miss the opportunity to create something even better.
Clarity comes from inside you, not from the specificity of your offer. A clear offer is simply the result of inner clarity.
So you can get to clarity with exercises or courses that force you to focus on your “ideal client” age, background, dreams and the books on their nightstand…
…but it can create a specific offer that’s misaligned if you aren’t clear about what you truly desire first.
And forcing yourself to be specific before the right time limits the possibilities you’re willing to see.
That brings me to the other thing marketing coaches often leave out that’s necessary for a potent, effective offer.
#2 – ALIVENESS
Aliveness is what’s moving through you right now. It’s where you’re inspired or curious or wondering.
It’s different from inspiration, because sometimes aliveness might feel irritating or uncomfortable, but it’s always rich, flowing and alive.
Your aliveness is a truer guide than any expert coach or proven formula.
Aliveness can transform a technically “flawed” offer into one that sells.
It gets better results!
When you follow what’s alive, it’s more fun. It’s easier to be playful and you enjoy it more.
When you enjoy it more, you take more actions.
When you take more actions, you get more results.
And it feels a hell of a lot better than forcing yourself to conform to rules and formulas that don’t fit.
While it’s important to connect with your audience on their current situation and concerns — that’s just smart communication — if you don’t allow your business and marketing to be about what’s alive for you first, it’s easy to be knocked off course.
So it isn’t always about being more specific; it’s about having the level of specificity necessary for the clarity you desire.
It doesn’t always look like focusing on tangible results; it’s being clear about the experience, which may or may not include tangibles.
A coach of mine once told me, “People don’t buy the intangible. They buy systems and processes that get results. They don’t buy experience.”
Oh, fudge bucket hogwash!
While I lacked the courage for dissent in that moment, I knew this is only part of the story.
The old way of marketing teaches us that we have to sell results and proven systems because it appeals to the mind and emotions.
In the new way, we engage on a deeper level of aliveness. It’s what people FEEL in your message, whether they can articulate it or not. It includes the mind and emotions, but reaches people on the deeper level of knowing whether your invitation is for them or not.
This is what I help my client-playmates do.
Get clear on what you’d really like to create and your most joyful way of sharing it.
Connect to what’s alive in you — beyond what your mind sees as possible — so you can play the game of changing the world in business.
Right now I have 2 spaces left in 2020 for experienced coaches, healers or wellness practitioners to join me 1:1 for a six month coaching and messaging journey to connect to your inner wisdom and create your business outside (or upside, downside or beyond-side) the box.
We’ll craft irresistible messaging woven with your deep purpose and genius gifts to attract your soulmate clients, and discover your authentic way of reaching them with joyful un-marketing. No hype or endless social media posting required.
This is for good writers and/or speakers who love sharing what they know, and who are ready to create something BIG. It’s currently priced at the mid-four figures, with monthly payment options.
Contact me here if this sounds like you and we’ll have a chat to see what emerges.
Yours in creative play,
Steph
