Successful geospatial sales and marketing are built around messaging. That is communicating your value proposition to your potential customers. Too often we see companies fail at messaging. Too often we hear orgs bemoan their lack of content (articles, blog posts, videos etc). Messaging success is the key to successful sales and marketing.
Starting at the beginning ..
It is certainly true that at some point you’ll need a medium and form in which to share. That is content. But, before you get to this point, you will need a messaging strategy. In other words to ‘walk before you run’. There are three key elements to building your messaging strategy:
- Who are you targeting (persona)?
- How will you reach your target audience?
- What is the focus of your messaging (your problem to solution story)?
There are some Simon Sinek elements to the above. Let’s dig deeper, and move from the bottom of the list to the top:
What
Focus. Focus. Focus. One cannot emphasis that enough. We are moving away from the “swiss army knife” approach to messaging ie. our solution can solve all your problems. Your potential customer need to know what you are offering and how this solves their problem. The days of ‘selling widgets’ are long gone. Solution-focused sales and marketing is today’s reality. That means understanding your customers problem and taking them on a journey to a solution. Your messaging has to be centred on this journey. Whether it be sales: short, sharp and to the point, or multi-communication channel marketing.
Your what need be focused on clear, focused. consistent messaging.
How
There is often that question around inbound and outbound. Do you focus energy on tracking web site visitors, those reading your articles, and those responding to calls to action (CTA)? Or should outbound engagements be your core focus? To us this is the difference between passive and active sales/marketing respectively. Both inbound and outbound strategies are valid and needed. But we sit very much in the active camp. In today’s world we see sales and marketing as ever more an active engagement. That is bringing your messaging to your potential customers. The form that messaging takes is guided by your messaging strategy.
Today your sales and marketing need be active and not passive, with the form that messaging takes guided by your messaging strategy.
Who
I mentioned Simon Sinek at the beginning of this article. His focus is on the why. That is that you understand and can express your purpose or belief. Your why. We all know our what (offering) and how (the details of the offering). It is your why which connects you to others: your core business belief.
Let’s provide an example.
“The promise of Geospatial 2.0 is faster more accurate decision-making”
That is a what statement.
“Geospatial 2.0 leverages geospatial data and artificial intelligence to create insight”
That is a how statement.
“Our mission is to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on roads (by applying Geospatial 2.0)”
That is a why statement. So how is this relevant to your messaging and who you should be reaching out to with that messaging? Using this examples, the primary focus (why) of safety engineers is to ‘reduce fatalities and serious injuries on roads’. Your sales and marketing goal is to connect with those who share your why. These folks are the target of your messaging.
There you have it. A well thought through messaging strategy is part of that needed ‘big picture’ phase. Content then delivers this messaging. That is moving from strategy to execution. We help organizations connect these dots; from building the strategy, and executing the plan through content creation and delivery.
We’d love to chat more about your messaging challenges. Reach us at [email protected]
Recent Comments