right message right people

marketingSome of the best wisdom in my life has come from learning things the hard way – looking back and realizing what I wish I would have done differently.  This one piece of advice is coming from personal experience and something that I would tell any new business owner trying to get their business off the ground.  It is very simple, but it has made all the difference in our business at Uncommon Wealth.

So what is this one piece of advice? Hire a marketer.  Not just any marketer, but one who understands your company, cares about your success and is willing to meet you where you are at.

There are two big reasons to hire a marketer (sooner rather than later):

  1. They help you tailor your message to fit your business. Not every business is the same, and even if your company offers the same services as the next company, the way you craft your message makes all the difference. A good marketer will help you craft your message in such a way as to give you the competitive edge you need to differentiate your business. The right message also protects you from just accepting any business that walks through the door. We took clients that I knew wouldn’t be a good fit for us long term just because they were in front of us. You need a professional to help you hone your message in order to identify your ideal client, which leads us right into reason number two.
  2. They use the right message to get you in front of the right people.  Chances are not everyone is going to be your ideal client, but if you can get the right message to the right people you will be that much closer to helping and serving more people, which then adds to your company’s bottom line.

We interviewed four different marketing firms before we picked the firm that we are with now.  After hearing all of their value propositions, we knew there was one that knew us better than anyone else and that was because he was a current client.  He had the inside track into what made us tick, and what made us different from the next financial advisor.  Not only that, but he was uncommon in the way that he went about his business, which was the perfect fit for us.

A good marketer will work with you and your budget and will give you a clear plan to move forward.  They will also give you the metrics you need to know if the marketing is working or not.  Like I said before we did not have a marketer for the first 4 years of our business, and it makes me sick to think of where we would be today if we had gotten the right message to the right people from day one.

Everyone has heard that you should work smarter not harder, but not everyone knows how to apply that principle to their business. This is an example of working smarter.  Hire a person you trust, and then let them do what they do best and get you in front of the right people.

Take my advice and sit down with someone who can help you get the right message out to the right people.  You will thank me.