Why your message isn't landing with your audience (and what to do about it) (Ep#13)

You're talking about pain points...you're talking about the end goal, you've got the solutions...but no one is listening! Logically, you're messaging is spot on but it's not landing with your audience and it's hitting your sales.

In this episode of The Upside-Up Marketing Podcast I'm looking at three why that might be (four actually because I thought of a bonus one too!) and what you can do to fix it.

You can get your copy of the Ideal Client ANTI-Avatar here: https://www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk/anti

You can download your complimentary guide to "Three Techniques to Validate Your Offer Before You Launch" here: https://www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk/validate

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Transcript

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What do you do when you have spent a lot of time putting together an absolutely. Banging perfect bit of content. It's brilliant. Even if you do say so yourself, it covers the problems and pain points your people have. It talks about the solution to these. It talks about the end result. They're going to get. And it doesn't really get a response. Okay. One post could be a blip, but what if this keeps happening? You know, you're talking about the pain points. You're talking about the. And go, you're talking about the solutions, but no, one's really listening. It's not really landing with your audience. What do you do then? That's what we're going to be talking about in today's episode of the upside up marketing podcast. Using marketing to persuade people to buy your thing is hard, icky and not an effective use of your time. It's an upside down way of doing things. Introducing Upside Up Marketing. Helping you create offers people want to buy and share them in a way that feels good. All over a nice cup of tea. Hello from chili chili, London, definitely winter dumper weather. Now I've got my hot drink. I'm all good. Uh, and welcome to another episode of the upside up marketing podcast. And, yes. Well, I wanted to talk to you about this week. Is essentially yes. What do you do when you're doing all the right things in terms of your messaging? You know, you've identified pain points, you've identified solutions, you've identified the end goal. You're talking about it all. You know, you know, what you've got is brilliant for people. And your engagement is. Underwhelming. At best, and that's not even get started talking about the, say it was, it is. Hawes. It's hard and don't worry if this is affecting you because it affects. An awful lot of businesses. Um, and there were a few reasons why. And I want to go into some of them today. And I also wants to tell you how you can fix them. Now I've called this episode, the three reasons, but as I was just jotting down my notes, I thought of a, fourth one. So. I thought in as well. At the end, there's a bit of a bonus. Um, but yeah, essentially, why is your message not landing with your audience when you have worked so hard to make sure that it's tailored to them? You know, it's not like you're ignoring them and just say the first thing that comes to your mind. Logically it should be landing and it is not what is the problem? Just want to introduce myself for those of you that are new to me. My name is Katie spread Bree. Um, I help businesses with understanding that ideal clients really, really deeply creating messaging, content, and offers that are perfectly aligned with what their perfect people want and need. Wants to need, not always being the same thing. So let's jump straight in So the first reason that, um, your message is not landing with your audience, with your ideal clients. And this one won't come as a surprise for those of you that have been following me for a while. Is that. You filled in your ideal client avatar, you followed the series of prompts. You've answered the questions. But you have done that all in isolation, just you filling in a worksheet or maybe you and your business coach bouncing it between each other. Um, and you have. That completes the all from what is already in your head. But your ideal client does not live in your head. They are a real breathing, thinking, walking, talking. Real person who do not experience the problems that you help them with in nice clean isolation on their own. They're part of a complex web of their lives. And so it is unfair for any business coach to expect you to be able to find them in your head. It's going to take more than that. When my clients come to me and they show me what they've done in the past, a lot of it is focused on them as a person. I think that's become quite a trend in the online industry. Um, in the small business industry is to, you know, focus this on yourself. This is your business. It's got to be all focused on you and what you want to do and what you think and what you. Which is brilliant because we do have to have businesses that we love and that we find it easy to show up in, et cetera, et cetera. But I think that the ball has swung too much in that direction. And we're forgetting that there is a client on the other end of this as well, and they are a real person. So. We it's always like the, uh, the age of the ideal client avatar is dead, you know, and we have to move beyond that. Now we are talking to real people. We are going out there talking to real people. They really exist. And so we can't be expected to know everything that's going on for them just from our own heads. There were two types of business owners, really there's people who have never been their ideal client and never will be, you know, there. There they've come from a corporate background perhaps, and they're bringing their corporate skills into their own business, or they are helping people that are just not like them at all. Um, And then there are people who have been their ideal client in the past, and now they are helping people overcome the same problems that they overcame. In both of those cases. You can't expect to find your ideal client in your head. So even if you've been your ideal client in the past, it's really, really hard to put yourself back there. Two. Experience things as you've experienced them. At the time. You know, you have so much knowledge now and experience about how to overcome it. That you're looking at your past, through that lens, through those glasses. And it's very, very hard to then put yourself back into where you were actually at at the time and the way you understood things versus how you understand them now. So basically what I'm saying is it's not in your head. This stuff, you can't find it in your head. So stop trying to stop beating yourself up. That what you have come up with from your own head has not been spot on first time, because you've probably, you're probably pretty close, but, um, until you actually go out and speak to these people and. Like get some information from them. You're not going to hit that nail on the head. So the first is that your ICA work or ideal client avatar work has all come from yourself or yourself with your business coach. And essentially you're throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks and nothing has stuck yet. Um, so that's the first one. The second now that is some people, but some people say, well, hang on a minute. I know quite a lot about my ideal client. You know, I speak to them all the time. I have sales calls where we have these in-depth conversations. I go to networking and I meet them and we chat and, you know, it's, I'm having these conversations. So if I sit down and fit into that ideal client avatar, Worksheet or sit there thinking about my messaging strands, from what I know about my ideal client haven't I got the information from that. But I would say the second reason that your message might not be landing with your ideal clients. Is because you are relying on sales calls and networking. And your own interpretation of that to understand your ideal client. Now there are two sides of this. The first one is, and this depends on how you set up your sales calls. What sort of networking you go to. One side of it is if someone expects to be sold to. They are very unlikely to be completely open and honest with the way they talk about what's going on for them. Okay. So if they're expecting to be hit with a sales pitch and they're not sure they want that sales pitch. They're likely to be quite cagey about what they're experiencing, about what trouble was they're having about the depth of the impact that is having on them. Because they've been in this situation before where that has been turned against them and use to beat them over the head until they bought or went away, feeling really rubbish about themselves for not buying. So people are naturally a bit more reserved in that situation. So if you're at an a, if you're talking to people, whether it's on a sales call or at the sort of networking event where they're expecting you to hit them, hit them with a pitch. Then probably not going to be as open and honest as you need them to be. If your messaging is going to be that spot on perfect relevance, understand them better than they understand themselves. Chat to them like a best friend, you know, that sort of level of relevance. What they're going to be giving you that isn't going to be strong enough for that. But even if you are speaking to people in a way that. So if you get them on a sales call and they all, you know, they're coming on the south coast, they pretty much know they want to work with you already. And this is just like the first part of that process or. Um, you're at a networking where, um, setting isn't on the agenda. You're just having, like making genuine connections, having genuine test. Um, as if you were all mates in the room. There's another side to it, which is that if you're not approaching these conversations with a view to gather information, your brain is not going to be in that open minded. Preconception free. Um, completely open state. Our brains are very keen. To do as little work as possible. And so our brains are very good at picking out information that backs up beliefs. We already have things we already know, et cetera. It's called confirmation bias in psychology. And, um, it means that if you are talking to someone. And they are saying. They say. Three reasons that they think that they are. Struggling with whatever it is, you helping them with three weeks, three reasons. They are. Um, Struggling to. Lose weight or three reasons that their time management has gone out the window or something. Um, if one of those is the reason that you already think is the core thing for your ideal clients. That is the one your brain will latch on to. That is the one your brain will hold on to. And that is the one that you will take away as being the key thing that they've said. They could have said to other completely different things that were way more important to them than the thing that you already knew about. But your brain is going to latch on to that one. Um, and that is going to happen again and again, because. Like I say, it's what our brains are hardwired to do is not terribly helpful. When you're trying to get a well-rounded picture of something, but it is very helpful when you are, um, you know, in evolutionary times, you know, tribes coming together, all thinking the same way or, um, You know, just existing in the world is exhausting enough as it is our brains. Take up a lot of energy and it's a shortcut that helps our brain to cope with everyday life. Basically. Um, so. If you're not going into it with that viewpoint. As in, I am here to learn, I am here to absorb I'm here to get new information. I am here to have my assumptions challenged. Then your brain is just naturally going to pick out the bits. It wants to gloss over the bits. It doesn't. And, um, you're not going to be getting the full picture. It's something that. Even when I'm working with clients, it's one of the things I'm coaching them to do when they're having a messaging with search conversations, with their ideal clients. I'm saying before you start the call, just take a moment to empty your mind at any preconceptions. You are totally open to anything that they have to say. It's a really, really hard thing to do. So that's number two. You're relying on sales calls in networking without approaching it with an open-minded. I am here to find out mindset. So three reasons your messaging might not be landing with your ideal clients. Um, the first one was that, yeah, you've got all from your own head. The second one was the conversation you are having with your ideal clients. Aren't geared up to bring that sort of well-rounded open-minded picture to it because you're, not going in with a research mindset. The third reason that your messaging might not be landing with your ideal clients, is that. Everything you know about your ideal clients is what you have picked up from social media. Now. Let's just sit with that one for a minute, because social listening is a big thing in market research. Um, big, like big companies have, um, AI that trolls. And they've had this for years. This isn't a new thing, or that truly was social media and sees what people are talking about, whether it's positive or negative sentiment, what topics are coming up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Social listening is big in the research world. But at that microscopic radical relevance level, the level of relevance and understanding that you need to get to as a small business owner in your market. It is not enough. Okay. So when you think about your ideal clients on social media, Um, I mean, just the Instagram versus reality. Craziest thing. The it sums it all up better than I ever could. So I was a networking party recently. Um, absolutely amazing time, by the way. It's so good to get in the room with other business owners, whether they are people that might be my clients, people might know my clients or just people that are going through the same sort of stuff is great to go out and have those conversations. Although. As I was saying in the last point I'm using them for research. You really need to approach them in the right way, but I was just there to socialize basically. But a few people that I talked to, When I said to them, how were things, you know, online? They are smashing it. They look like they are so busy. They are doing such amazing stuff. They are putting out really valuable content. And I said to them all, you know, how are things going? And they're like, uh, It's not been that great. Online, you are only getting half of the picture. Yeah, you are not getting the really hard stuff. Even when people share their struggles on social media. It is often. Dressed up as a sort of behind a joke or is often dressed up as a sort of lighthearted. Oh, ha ha ha. Isn't my life. Funny, I just did this ridiculous thing or this ridiculous thing is happening. All. They are. So in the midst of it, it's hard for them to articulate what's going on or most likely, especially if your audience is businesses. They're coming to us afterwards saying that I went through this really hard patch. This is what it taught me. Now when they were in that really hard patch, that is probably not what they were thinking. They were probably not. They're going, this is going to be a great lesson and. I'm going to get some great social posts out of it. When they were in the thick of it, that was hard for them, but you're not seeing that on social media. Everyone puts up. A version of themselves that they want other people to see. But a less, that is what is Trudy inside of them as well, following their social media and getting all your understanding about, and from that is not going to be enough. I'm not saying it's useless. I definitely encourage people to do it. And I always, always encourage you to go out and be asking your audience questions on social media and things like that, but just be aware that they know they are putting their answers into a public forum. So they might not be as honest as you, um, would want them to be in water. Use what they're saying in your messaging properly. So, yes, getting all your information from social media is not going to be enough. And this is where I thought of that fourth bonus point as well, which is. A lot of people, I see it happen. Like no one admits to it, but I see it happen. Their messaging is very influenced by other people out there in the same industry. Other people working with the same ideal client. And this is how things like, I mean, my online world is flooded with coach speaker at the moment, you know, sort of words that I never would have used in my day-to-day life until I started spending all my time on social media in this. In this bubble. So you really need to be careful whether this is what people, the way people think in their heads, or this is the way they've translated it for social media. For example, a word I see thrown around a lot at the moment. It's authenticity. Authenticity I've even used it myself because everyone around me is using it. Oh, you've got to be authentic. Be authentic. If you see someone. And they are talking like a normal person. Do you go, oh my goodness. She's so authentic. No, you go, oh my gosh. There's a normal person. I love it. Normal person. Here's someone I can get on board with. Hey, normal person, you know? It's about being real and about being normal. One of my favorite things to say to people when they're getting all caught up about the content is that you are a normal person speaking to normal people. Stop trying to make it something that it's not. Um, because I don't know about you. I find the people that I connect with most online are the ones that are showing up. And talking to me normally. And yes, there is a bit of a skill to that because it is very hard to get beyond the, um, oh, I might put my pedestal on my feet and I am posting this amazing wisdom and insight that I have come across. Um, and to share it. More like you would with a friend. In fact, one thing that I do is, I'd often tell a story in my emails. Um, That leads in segues and a really cheesy way into a learning point or something. What am I in the story? I think. How would I tell this to my friends in the pub? You know, it's, it's usually about something funny. That's happened in my life. How would I describe this? If I was talking to my mates down the pub? And that is how I write it in the email. And I always get people saying, oh, I love your emails. I love the stories you tell. Like it's so it's so weird. It's so normal. No one ever says to me, oh, Katie, you're so authentic because people don't speak like that. The only people who speak like that, uh, people online when they're talking to other people who speak like that only online, no one talks like that in real life. So, um, don't be too hung up with what other people are saying and how other people are describing your ideal clients. You might see something that someone puts out and it says, um, you know, oh, this situation or something, can you think, yes, that's my ideal clients too. They re they would really resonate that, but don't copy it because. You're just don't sound like them. Everyone starts sounding the same. And then you're not standing out. You've got to come up with your own things. If you want to stand out your own examples, your own way of saying it. So don't look too much at what your competitors are saying. If your sales copy could be stolen by a competitor. And no one would notice, then you've got a problem with your sales copy. You've got to stand out and be yourself. Okay. So that was my full extra one. And it came with an extra special. It will run in the middle of there as well. I hope you enjoyed that. That was totally unscripted. I wasn't expecting to do that. But yes, that was, that was authentic. And with authentic right now. It's yeah. I'm going to take myself a whole hair. But what can you do about it? What can you do about it? If you find yourself stuck in this area where you think you've nailed it. No. It was like really engaging, no one, like not enough people to engage in, not enough people are buying and you know that what you've got is amazing and it should be setting the world on fire and it's not. And any of those points resonated with you. So you are. Relying too much on what's in your own head. You're relying too much on, um, your partial memory of conversations you've had with people. Uh, you are. Relying too much on what people have said are saying online on social media for your ideal client understanding, or you are copying what your competitors are saying. If any of that resonates even a little bit. Then what can you do to make your message? More impactful. Well, This won't surprise you. If you've been following me for awhile, it is talk to your ideal clients, have actual proper conversations with them. Carve out some time for a messaging research exercise. Now this is something I want you to take away and think about really carefully. Where can you find time to just fit in a few calls? You could either do one exercise where if you feel like you need a lot of help with this one exercise where you speak to. Five or six of them within like a week or so, or just make it habit to book in regular coffee chats with people and have proper real conversations with them about what is going on for them. Where There's no risk that they think you're going to segue into a sales pitch and put them under pressure to buy anything. You're just meeting up, having a coffee, having a chat about what is going on in life. And I can't recommend you do this enough. And when you do that, I want you to do this. Okay. This is the most important part. Play devil's advocate with yourself. Whenever they say anything. Can you think? Yes. Yes. Yes. Think, hang on a minute. What else is going on here? There? Is there more to it than this? If you're talking to someone and the first thing they say is the obvious thing, the thing you thought they were going to say. Ask them. What else? Yeah. Ask them, what else is behind it? What else is going on? What else is troubling? There's always more sweat than the first thing they tell you and let them talk, give them the space to talk. Let the pause is set. Let them feel the pause is because that is where the information comes through. Then when you go to write your posts, write your sales, copy. Anything like that. Pull out the situations that you've been given, pull out the language they've been using, the actual words they've been using, um, not when they were trying to impress you, but when you were talking real talk, when you were talking about real people. And. Work that into the way you show up online as well, work that into your social posts, work that into your sales copy. Um, one thing that I see a lot is where. Uh, post might just show like, You have a problem with this? This is the solution and there's no. There's nothing to really bring it to life, you know? These examples that I'm talking about the. Um, like putting out things that are really happening for your ideal client, putting out words, they would really use putting out specific scenarios. That is what lifts the posts from something that is bland, boring, and doesn't sound like it's for them to something that will catch their attention. I might think, well, yeah, actually that is me. It is not, saying. Writing your social content takes up hours of your day. Here's a quick way to write social content. It is more like. Picking out what is happening. When they have a, to do list, as long as their arm, the first thing on it is right. A social posts. They sit down to do that and before they know it, it's two o'clock, the day is almost done and they still haven't. You know, they haven't done half the things on that list because they've just been trying to write this one damn post, you know, Um, so it's picking out the exact scenarios which are going to resonate and really make them bring it to life for them and make them see. And you could only do that if you are really talking to them and engaging with them, I'm really. I'm coming at it at the angle that I don't know everything I need to learn from you. So, what I recommend you do today is go out there and speak to some people and find this information for yourself. Find the specific, find these. Examples of these scenarios. Find out your true understanding of what is going on for your people now. I said earlier in the PO cost that the avatar is dead. The age of the avatar is over. We are about talking to real people now. And so as a company Munster today's episode, I'm gifting you the ideal client, anti avatar. Now this is a, um, Uh, work because I suppose. That you can go through, it will help you to tell me what is important to know about your ideal client. And what is not important, what you can forget, that's going to be different for all of you. Cause it really depends on what nation interest industry or in, you know, it's important to know that your ideal client has a cat. No for most of you, that's absolutely irrelevant. It's not relevant for me. Whether any of you guys have a cat, but if you're selling cat food, That's a pretty relevant bit of information. That's a very simplistic example, but you know, what what's important for different businesses will differ between all of you. So, um, it helps you decide what's important. What's not, and then helps you find out what it is you need to know about the things that are important. So, you can get that by, clicking the link. I'm going to put in the show notes. Um, but yes, it is a fantastic resource. I had loads of good feedback on it. I tried to retire everyone wanted it back. So. I'm offering it to you again. Um, and, uh, yeah, I really, really love to see what you are going to come up with from that. Thank you so much for listening for watching. If you're on YouTube. Hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss a future episode. These come out every fortnight and I will see you very, very soon. And don't forget to grab your auntie avatar. Always be listening, always be asking questions. I will see you soon. Cheerio.