Three ways to build more trust and engagement in your business messaging
On the intake form that we have with businesses, there’s a box that asks: What do you need to work on? One box that is almost always ‘ticked’ is business messaging. Most people feel that they could be clearer about what they do, and how they talk about it.
It’s a fair call.
Usually though, it isn’t a ‘messaging’ problem.
Or, put another way, we find that messaging problems are usually business story problems.
If you’re clear on the business story, the messaging takes care of itself.
The words come easily.
Anyway, in a more saturated market, when the business story or messaging is off, the business can be flat, and marketing can fall on deaf ears. When the business story and messaging is clear, you can build trust and engagement over time.
People see you as a guide that can take them to a particular destination.
So to tweak our messaging to build engagement and trust, we’re really shifting the business story. Or the overarching way that we communicate what we do, and how it fits into the changing world of our clients.
There are three little tips that can be helpful here.
1 - Switch out claims for success stories
What is a claim, or claims based marketing?
When you see a gym that advertises they will help you lose five kilos, in three months, that’s a claim.
When we have a marketer tell you they will double XX leads or whatever, that is a claim.
When a yoga studio says they have the best community, or the best teachers, that’s also a claim.
In an unsaturated market, this is fine. But in a land of a million people doing a similar thing, it falls on deaf ears. Not just because a lot of claims are empty promises. But because when everyone is making claims, how are you going to stand out?
Now, while it’s true that we might always have some element of claims if we drill down enough, one way you can build more trust, is to adjust the message to focus on what you can control with the client.
For example.
Let’s say you start a strength gym. You could have three levels of ‘claim’, or mission for the buyer:
“Build incredible strength and confidence in all areas of life”
“Build full body strength”
“Get started in the gym with a custom program”
Which is the right line?
Most people will shoot for the first one. It’s more aspirational. And they’ll say, don’t tell people what you do, tell them what you do for them. And it sounds more compelling. And while I agree, it’s also vague. And, we all know that not everyone who starts at a gym, becomes a confident superhero.
Personally, while I’m the first to say that all purchases are made emotionally, the more we shift into the trust economy, the more I find the third option more attractive.
However, if there ain’t any bold claims, how do we pull at the heart strings and create compelling vision?
We showcase client results, and provide success stories that are way over and above the claim (‘super success stories’).
So we might get people started with training.
But then we show people who have had strong transformations, and tell the stories of the quests they have gone on, which show the confidence.
Each business has a particular balance here. But the focus is to ‘show not tell’.
2 - Be careful telling the client they have a problem
Seems like every few weeks there’s a new problem that we face in the world, that the news media blasts out to us around the clock.
When that problem is new, or when we sense that there’s a change happening, we pay more attention.
But when that situation stops changing? We start to ignore it.
This is because change drives attention more than a static problem. And so it is with business.
When we come out guns blazing as a service provider, and tell the customer that they have a problem with distraction, a problem with motivation, or a problem with their tax, or health, or whatever, they can go into defence mode.
This is the root of a lot of copywriting frameworks.
And while they’re designed to get under the skin, they can raise the defence mechanism of the reader, or shift the whole thing into the ‘I’ll worry about it later” basket.
Instead, we can focus on the change going on around them, and tell the story of how this is creating winners and losers.
(Those who embrace the change and use the new methods, or those who don’t).
This allows them to recognise that they may have a problem.
Types of change we can focus on?
Internal:
Ageing
Health
Strength
Growing our business
Meeting someone
Moving houses
Et cetera
External:
Shifting trends
Changes in customer behaviour (B2B)
Changes in technology
Changes in environment
Social changes
Changes in what a ‘leader’, ‘parent’, ‘husband’ et cetera now looks like…
And more.
To start with, a ‘change’ captures attention. So when you point out a change, then you can raise the stakes by showing how this change is already impacting the culture.
Some are losing. Some are adapting to the change, and winning.
3 - Sell the game, not the offer
This comes from Richard Garriott, who was one of the big inventors of online gaming. And what he did was, he created the Ultima online games, and found that once people were playing the game, they wanted to spend more money in there. And there was all kinds of opportunities for market places, and ‘offers’. But they had to be playing the game first.
And so it is with business.
Say we stick to the gym example. Well, there’s a lot of different kinds of gyms.
There are movement gyms. Strength gyms, et cetera.
So your game might be ‘bodyweight strength’ at your gym.
Well, selling the game means you’re an evangelist for that game. You want as many people playing that game as possible as a primary goal. Then they purchase your offer because it’s a stepping stone that helps them to win the game.
Now, instead of positioning as a self-serving marketer trying to make a sale…
You’re someone who’s leading a change that you want to make, and inviting people to come along.
Summary
Trust is built slowly, and, can evaporate quickly. And relies on everything from our vision all the way down to our day to day behaviour.
But the start of all of it, is in our perspective. How can we communicate our business and offer in a way that elevates our clients and where they want to go, ahead of money in our bank?
It might feel like you won’t get paid as quickly. And, that may be true to an extent.
But the opposite is you make bolder and stronger claims, they’re ignored, and, you don’t get paid at all.
Something to think about.
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