Lessons

Lesson Info

Clarifying Your Marketing Message

So then I would love to hear your guys is very specific messages so what's out some of you guys what are your message roots and hand knitting patterns for sophisticated handed hers to create products as sophisticated as they are and I'm not sure that sophisticated is the word that I want ultimately but I think that's the idea that I really want maybe we can plug classic and there yeah and maybe the to create sweaters are pieces that fit them you know they say sophisticated and then you say that fit them there's the reference back to sophisticated you know that the pieces air sophisticated as well yeah you had to get up and um I make custom photo jewelry that makes a treasured gift for someone you love I like that very nice I actually have um someone left feedback that said that when she saw the bracelet and made her cry tears of joy and I would like to use that but I don't know how to say it without so how about you what do you like the phrase tears of drivers do okay so let me not mad...

e me feel fantastic because I would want to give somebody again that actually made them feel so good that they were up so how about you create that photo jury that makes gifts that elicit tears of joy you know what I mean or ok or photo jewelry that's inspired tears of joy gift receivers I mean this kind of clunky yeah and that's why we talked about all the different places you're going to use this because you're going to change it up constantly but having the beginnings of it, we're going to really help anybody else wanna share there's way have one of the chat room that just came in from on a quest for fiber and they say I make angora blended yarn for knitters and crow shares take a luxurious and practical items that's awesome I would challenge her to go deeper with senators and chris shares what kind of if she makes chunky yarns maybe they make accessories if she makes really fine yarn maybe they're lace knitters actually know herself theo uh yeah so and that's and that's the piece of it is when I say for person we want to be specific about that person is all of this today is to be so specific to speak directly to that person so it's not enough to just say one descriptive word you wantto get into who they really are you know so like you could just say girls or you could say fashion forward girls or fashion conscious or you know a punk or whatever is there whatever word is going to speak to them and trigger them last question what are the qualities of your brand? How would you go in tomorrow like I would not cross okay, so unpaid twenty two kind of the middle of the page yeah, when we talked earlier about creating a cohesive brand um we talked about it reflecting your sparkle, your product sparkle your own experiences so what I'm asking there are what are some of the words you came up with and we can put back I know that references an earlier question uh, so so if for example I talked about colorful and happy being some words around my brand that I kind of discovered through talking to people yeah, so those are the qualities that's what I mean and there's that list of qualities on page seven I had one client to this and she came up with geeky girly fun because that's the kind of designs and she's you know of a geek but she also wanted things were like girly and flirty so those words could be kind of anything once you clear on those words than you can fit them into your message the different places that you share them and maybe like if you're writing something longer like in your bio you might include a paragraph about what that means to you you know, like kind of a geek and I watch start trying keep states nine o r I really like girly thirty designs so that you kind of remember to choose words that are reflective of those qualities uh I gotta find where we ask that question but anymore yeah, we have some were coming in online so I'd love to get your critique on some of these making as they are specific enough that's what I want to dio his freshman comes from the k v I and they say I teach do it yourself handcraft workshops that inspire feelings of mastery for social explorers ready to learn something new oh, I like that so I don't know what social explorers means. So uh and she teaches d I y classes? Yeah, d I y handcraft workshops ok, so it seems like I might be knowing thiss market is or being near it since I take the iowa and craft crosses so maybe maybe social explorers speaks directly to her person but but it's not a phrase I know so I would want her to make sure that the people she's talking to knows it and if she wants to like, update us in the chat about what she means by that I'm curious great. Now we have some more in here and this one's a little bit more detailed from twin set jan they say I sell finally curated annd died and hand painted rove ings and yarns from our farm for the discerning spinner and knitter to allow them to create beautifully handcrafted items. I like that um that's good that one has more detail and I really had painted roving generally picture that right? And I think teo said she mentions her farm it's great! She mentions discerning because she's saying, who cares about things coming from your farm exactly it's not for everyone we call that back on it's finally here ah here's one from dnf and this one was tough because they were talking about books but they say I sell fantasy novels for modern day adventurers that immerse them in a detailed world in a gripping a story that's perfect wave in your description and that's one of the powerful things about your message is once you have it you can then you put it all those places I said, but it's going to give you a sense of confidence you know, we talked at the beginning of the day about marketing, being all about being comfortable talking about your work that is really just you able to describe what you d'oh and so by really narrowing down this message, you will at least you'll have it in your head. You still might be shy when somebody asks you to talk about it, but at least know the words and the great thing about being able to identify your person when you speak to someone else is that they might know you're person, so if I say yeah, I can't pull up my message off the top of my head because I need to do this work book again, but if I said that I help makers and crafters build there's a business that the love then and I say that to the guy at the coffee shop, the guy might say, oh, well, my wife just started a handmade business, so by identifying that, I hope other people help me and that is the easiest kind of marketing because you're not really having to put yourself out there in the same way and try and fail and do a bunch of stuff just by letting other people know who you help like just by saying bridal like now, when your friends and family meet people who are getting married, they're gonna be like, oh, you might want to check this out and so so being really specific about that and then making sure that when you tell anyone else what you d'oh, even if you don't talk about the benefit slash need, it fills just mentioning the person it's for so instead of saying I write books and classes saying I write books and classes for makers and artists that makes it easier for people to remember easier for them to put their finger on saying that you make a sophisticated knitting designs for maybe advanced emitters that immediately puts me in mind oh, I know in advance senator who was looking for really heard shaul she wanted something to challenge her. So I'm curious about yours if you're willing to share is venture an artist I know there lots of artist watching this would help. I would I sell works of art to adorn your well leave that off. I still works of art. Uh, let's see what I say that makes your quirk in is ok. I have that yeah, so are, like and another way of, like, if you were going toe specifically identify the person in sports you might say, like for the quirky or for the people who are quirky and okay with it, so it does think of the the the hierarchy of needs and the connection I did not feel alone and that may be, but maybe just using that word right is strong enough to start there help you embrace your court you know what I mean? Like, if there's a way celebrate way? Absolutely and that if you you know you've got all these words that might not go in just one sentence, but in your paragraph where you're talking about what you do, you can hit on all those pieces, and when you describe it to the guy, the coffee shop, you can just say I'm a cart for quirky people you know and then he's going to be like oh as opposed to thinking you make like moonies water lilies he'll get in mind that it's quirkier than that yeah um for mind since I don't just do scarfs and I do crow shea but we were kind of pulling away from um the in depth and it's of like the croce so for mine what I do I make intriguing modern crow shaped pieces or scarfs like would I pull away from the putting crow she and anything I continue absolutely say kershaw scarves ok especially pending on who you're talking to when it's on your website you know definitely say that because that's one of the or if it's in your fc shop put that in the title because it is maybe something somebody's going to search for but but yeah when you're describing it maybe and a craft show application you just say accessories okay? And it really like it depends on the audience what word you're going to use and so feel free to interchange them though and to see what makes sense and you might find you're more comfortable not saying crow shea since so many people go oh, I don't know the difference between that netting you know, if you're if you're having conversation with one of those people, you could just say I make the blood block accessories whereas if you're you know talking to someone who might buy it. You'd say they're kirsch aid in hand, sewn with pieces of lace gotcha is not going to just play around and see with what works and what gets more of a response. Absolutely, absolutely! We're going to talk concession three about experiments that's my absolute favorite because the fact is, we don't know any of this for sure until you start applying it so your message could be the very first thing you start experimenting with you and go and changed on your twitter profile, your instagram profile, your website and see what happens. I mean, a lot of times in social media you don't know who's clicking through you don't know what's happening people's reaction to it, but you can also try it face to face conversations, and you can even practice on each other to get comfortable saying it again and again, and and that will, uh, make you more comfortable when it's, a stranger on that you can also just experiment with the reactions that you get. There's um, some blood post I was reading online and he said hey tested the difference between saying I'm a writer versus and I'm an author, and when you say your writer, people assume you just like in your pjs at home doing nothing but when you say you're a published author meaning like people get like you're a real person for the real job and so and I've tried that myself when I realized it makes all the difference between like sometimes I would say I'm a writer and teacher and people here teacher and the kindergarten teacher on so now I don't say that were a teacher I might say I write books and workshops because workshops isn't the same as you know like classrooms you know and that makes people's brain go down a different path and when you say that we're teacher you know or crafter were talking earlier about people who don't value oh your little crafty little hobby you want to stay away from those words that trigger people tio disregard it how about the word professional what do you need to use like professional author are brighter professional artist can commentating there's been a sale or I mean that's yeah yeah I mean that's usually the word to distinguish between getting paid for it not getting paid for but I think it depends on you like if you would feel comfortable using the word professional but I mean a professional artist I like the sound of that professional writer for me just makes you feel funny yeah you know um but a professional artist for sure if you're comfortable with that you could also I also think the word artist is is different than writer because people artist has like some mystery around it right now I think with artist people assume you're not making any money from it the whole starving artist thing but also that you're like having some mystery and mystique because being an artist is such a thing I don't know do you find that you tell people you're an artist I'm just starting to think I feel better about that yeah professional doesn't mean to me it accommodates that I'm putting that I'm really serious about it right just not just a hobby dabbling in you know painting yeah I love that and if that's how it makes you feel and you find that you get the reaction you want absolutely is it for sure it is all about just finding the words that will work for you and for your people so that when you say it they go oh she makes what I need do you have some messages from the chat room or questions to wrap up well we just had one that came in speaking of artist this one comes from michelle hill and they say I entwined bits and pieces of courage and love from women all over the world into my accessories that are created with the artist in mine okay you got to see that one again yeah this one's got a lot going on e twine bits and pieces of courage and love from women all over the world into my accessories that are created with the artist in mind that's interesting I like that I like that the thing that tripped me up was the artist in mind it makes you wonder if it's if it's for the receiver with a receiver in mind with uh I'm assuming that they are accessories that air created for artists but I'm not specifically sure why yeah, we'll have to get a clarification on absolutely but no all the other parts made me so super intrigued questions like what accessories it makes me wonder wait, we want to learn more we want to get some tell us where we get way also have people coming in about the word professional and chris with the cases that I use professional otherwise people assume that I'm in my jammies contemplating the darkness and the wholeness of being, you know, it's it's really more of an actual profession I think when you use that so it seems like people people like the way professional chat room yeah that's good and that's why I say it said I use the word maker instead of crafter because you might do something that's a traditional craft and but by saying maker actually I find a lot of people in the outside world don't really I don't really even think about it really or playing creator I like that too I mean it depends on if you like it that doesn't really trigger anything for me other than you, people are also saying business owner, the business owner in your businesses are right. That's definitely true if I think that that's a good way to shut down the other person, like if if you don't want to have the conversation about your products by saying you're a business owner, it just tells them what you do with your time. Whereas if you want to actually engage them and move them to be telling other people about your work, or you be selling your work to that person, you want to be super specific about your business. You're saying, like I'm the creator of love sparkle pretty yes. Should I say that or say on the business owner or and write a curator I love I love creator in that sense and see what you did just there, though, is you told us what you d'oh like what your job title is versus kind of what we're talking about with your message is how you communicate, um, what your marketing messages when you go to tell people in the world so that they buy your stuff. How you're going to communicate that this goes back to like different messages in different places so the guy at the coffee shop asked you what you d'oh you could say that or or like when you introduce yourself here because we all knew that were makers and so then you explain what love sparkle pretty does so that was a great way of like putting those two things together but what you want to get across in all of your marketing on all your social media profiles and your craft for applications is I make this thing for this person so hey, these people come and buy it you know like check me out further if you said I'm the greater love sparkle pretty which I see all the time in people's twitter profiles on the creator of inter business name that means nothing to me you didn't all communicate in a space where you had to communicate like you could have communicated with me more but if you said I make brettell adornments all that under wonderful stuff, you say then when I read it I'm gonna be like, oh, I get what you do and I think in your instagram profile that's what you say more about what you make and that's what we're really talking about here with your message is changing the way you put things out there so that the right people confined you and come what we got so specific about who they are so that we're talking directly to them again and again and everything we dio because you can't call it marketing if you spend a lot of time on social media but you don't tell those people on social media what you d'oh that's just fun times that's not actually marketing for your business and that's something we'll get into a little bit in the next two days because it's very easy to waste your time and if you don't have a clear marketing message none of the things you do we're going to communicate it you'll just you're wasting your time so chris, uh, any follow up questions you know, I think that we're good right now, okay? Chat room any other questions from guys here? I don't know, I guess with, um like what kayleigh was saying are you were saying about kayla on her description? Social media put such a limit on your descriptions that it's nice that we were able to sit here and pick words out and to make a description yeah, I'm going change that instead of just saying I'm the creator of this charming pieces they can already see that my name is latest charming pieces they they want to know more about it yeah, it was kind of neat that we have the opportunity to sit here and once put it in a sentence that we could apply see if it works and if people don't respond to crow she then I can switch it to accessory yeah, absolutely it's kind of cool to write down the the different words in tow apply it that's awesome I'm so glad that was helpful and that's really what I wanted to get it so tied into what we dio no yachts really hard to figure out what someone looking and on the crazy is actually seeing think feedback from just online and people in the workshop really helps when you sit down and do it I often to like when I think of marketing I think of like you advertise here this social media like don't do this this this but rather like now we're looking at what we're doing, why we're doing it who were doing it for and in turn were able to really create a message that people are going to understand right what we dio and not just by this by this and I'm glad to hear that well, because that's the thing is like I said, you could waste all of your time just thinking I should advertise here I should be on the social platform, but until you've thought about wait, what do I sell? I mean, like you guys were even saying, like, I've never really sat down and described what I sell so none of those marketing platforms would do anything for you because you can't if you haven't thought about what yourself, then you're definitely not communicating it clearly, and then and then knowing who that person is so that you can figure out should be on pop, this platform shot, advertise here and then with a message just now you have something, you know, and we can expand on this, you can what I often assigned clients to d'oh, and I think I'll make that your own work to do is to we do we have a sentence, but how would you make this a paragraph like, you know, three to eight sentences paragraph about your message so that you can put in all those other words we didn't get to make intriguing and crush a and but, you know, your multiple people that you serve, you know, your paragraph could be your message for brides, your message for, uh, you know, girls, your message for new moms and that in that paragraph describe what it is that you make and you know, the thing that came up, I think, is an important distinction, and we kind of just glanced at it when the person said business owner there's a big distinction between that whole what is your job question and your marketing message? Because you're marking message is aimed at people who want to buy your thing, but what is your job? Question is just like one of those where you from questions, so figuring that out is hard enough on its own, but the actual marketing message is going to be when you're talking about your work with people who wanted and like we said, not it's, not for everybody, so you don't have to use it all the time. You did not have to answer your uncle at thanksgiving with your marketing message. You can just say, yeah, I have a business e thanks, you know you don't want to get into it, but, um, and as part of feeling comfortable about your marketing is getting a very protective about when you do put yourself out there, you'll be a lot more comfortable if you don't feel like you have tio what shouted to the rooftops, you'll only have to talk to this amount of people who were gonna love what you make. You do not have to share your marketing message everywhere you go. You do not have to give it to the uncle at thanksgiving. You just have to aim it at the people who really want to hear it because you know they want to hear it because they have that need they have that problem and you now have the benefit that benefit is a solution to their problem, so when you express all that it's going to speak directly to them, you can feel comfortable because you're not saying, hey, buy my thing hand being self promotional you're saying here's who you are here's the situation you're in here is the benefit and that's being useful and what I always tell people who are uncomfortable is that your marketing is a way for you to serve your customer you are offering them the thing that they want so it's an active service it's not self promotional it's not self serving your business will grow from it, but what you're doing is providing benefits to people's lives people want benefits, they want their needs filled, they want to have beauty and self expression and feel gorgeous and feel fashionable. They want to have those qualities in their life like they have their own north stars that they're searching to get fulfilled and if your thing does that it's a service to them your marketing message is just you being in service of your people you already want to be in service of them because already making your thing for them you already have some care for them in your heart so so we think about it like that going forward and it's a lot less stressful it's a lot less pressure it's just you being really useful to people who want you to be useful very good you mentioned before but you're gonna have some homework for our students wait the next time so you need to work all the way through page twenty three which we've done in the class but I know that there was some skipping over because there's so many questions here and like terrorists at going through the questions is going to be the thing that makes this work in your business because I really don't want you don't just learn theory and think it's nice I really want you two of be of service to your people free to find the people and delight them so that they just love you and love what you make so that you can have the kind of business you want to have because you have the kind of life you want to have and have the time or freedom or whatever your north star is so go all the way through page twenty three and right at the bottom of page twenty three there's some space or wait twenty three it's twenty to um write a paragraph turn your sentences into a paragraph so now you have two pieces of language that you can use in so many different places andi, I also ask the question, where can use this message? You can make yourself a little list, and that will be the beginning of your to do list, because by session three, we're going to actually put your work. You're gonna leave with a plan for what you're going to do and how you're going to start applying this to your work and by knowing where you can change it, you could even go home tonight and change some of your language if you feel compelled that making a paragraph is through these sentences would be a great about me. Absolutely, or you're a tee shot for your website this kind of things to really sit there and work on that? Yes, because you're about me is what's selling you and your products like you're going to read that they want to know where it's coming from with the story is behind it? Absolutely, and actually tomorrow in session, teo on in segment one, we're going to go over your home base, your website, and we're going to talk about about pages and that's why this had to come before that? Because otherwise about pages air very scary, but now you guys have so much information. Like you have so much information about why you're awesome, your life experiences your story. So you just craft that intern about page like, he said. And if you take each aspect of that message, the what makes it awesome? Who? It's for what benefit? Those could each be a paragraph if you had, like, a long about page or an artist statement, because you guys could talk forever about about this. Now, I hope.