I get a lot of pleasure in working with small businesses to help them define their brand or refine their marketing strategy. Bringing their ideas to life is always exciting.
Most recently, I was approached to help write a promotional campaign for three small businesses. They were pulling together their unique skills — a plumber, an electrician and a builder — to offer new homeowners a hassle-free way to turn their unfinished basements into their dream family room. Their promise: Save time, money and the headaches of finding the right tradespersons to do the job!
After a few rounds of edits to get the right message together, the printed promotion was ready for a door drop. The team had decided that dropping these flyers off with high-end homeowners was the way to go. True, these homeowners were a likely candidate to refinish their basement, and would have the cash to get the job done, but were they the only target, or the best?
I always like to go back to the objectives of a project. For this discussion, I raised a couple key points from the promotion: Unfinished basements, save money and headaches. While it’s true that anyone might value these offerings, I ask myself, who’s more likely to pay the extra cost to have the basement finished when building a new home? Who’s more likely to have the resources to hire a contractor to get the job done?
The point I was making? Don’t rule out the not-so-high-end new homeowner who may have skipped completing the basement to save on overall home costs. The offer may be even more appealing to them.
Next time you get ready to deliver a message, ask yourself, is this the right audience?
Writing for you. 