Anchor’s Away: Articulating Your Brand With Your Anchor Statement

When you’re trying to sell something, you need to have answers prepared for any question that comes your way. It’s a tough goal, but if you prepare, you are better able to understand what you are selling, who you are selling to and why you do what you do. 

Whether you’re selling a prospect on your product or service, or an angel investor on your startup, you need to have a complete grasp of your value proposition(s) and positioning statement(s) so you can craft a good elevator pitch. What’s the difference between your positioning statement and your value proposition?

Value proposition. This is simply the value you bring to your customer or client. It’s the solution you’re providing to the problem your customer is experiencing or the way your product or service increases profits or saves money. How is your customer better off purchasing your product or service? If it’s unclear to you how you help your customers, it’s even more unclear to your prospects.

Positioning statement. Unless you’re Thomas Edison, there’s a good chance that others are providing a similar,­ if not exactly the same, product or service. Your positioning statement should define your place in the market. Both Ace Hardware and Home Depot sell hammers, yet they have different strengths that they use to appeal to their customers. They are positioned differently within the market.

You need to understand your competition and what niche you’ll occupy within the market for your product or service. If you can’t do this, you won’t know which customers to target, where to advertise, how to price your product, etc.

Elevator pitch. This is a short “best of” presentation that takes the best of your value proposition and combines it with the best of your positioning statement. Above all, it is crafted for your target audience. Your value proposition and positioning statements won’t change – unless your business pivots – but your elevator pitch may change for every person you present it to.

Sometimes, it is hard for an individual to step outside of their own bubble to figure out their value proposition, their positioning statement and their elevator pitch.  The main reason is because people don’t understand how to articulate their WHY.  Why do they do what they do.  If you are struggling to set yourself apart from your competitors, try asking yourself the below about you and your potential customers.

1. What would you want to hear them say about what you do?  Be careful: The question here is what you would want to hear them say about what you do, not what you think they would say or what you expect them to say.

2. What would you want to hear them say about the results you produce? What are the outcomes, impacts, end products, and consequences you’d want people to say they received by working with you or using your product or service?

3. What would you want to hear them say about your authentic qualities? What are the contributions, characteristics, talents, and virtues you bring their life?

Take a look at the answers you wrote down for all three questions. The first answers describe the fundamental activities that define your work or business. For example:

• A dental hygienist cleans teeth and shows patients the proper way to floss.
• A business law firm writes up contracts, advises on business law, and crafts clever letters designed to get the other side to say “uncle.”

The “Doing” part of our brands is a fairly straightforward description of the day-in, day-out behaviors that make up our work. What you do is the service that you offer, the process you put in place, or the product you provide. It’s the way most people talk about their brands. While this part of branding is necessary to clearly communicate, it is usually the least interesting aspect. 

Next, take a look at the answer you wrote down for question two. This relates to what people will “have” in terms of results, impacts, and outcomes from engaging with your brand. For example:

• The dental patient will have bright, shiny teeth and a world-class flossing ability.
• The small-business owner will win her case and have an iron-clad contract.

Many people articulate their brand in terms of what they provide to their clients and customers, defining it by the results they produce. While this is more interesting than just describing your brand as what you “do,” it’s still not the complete picture.

Finally, take a look at what you wrote about the qualities you contribute. These are the qualitative characteristics you bring to what you do. It’s the bigger picture of the results you produce. It’s the why behind it all. For example:

• You generate well-being for your patients, since they feel confident, relaxed, and secure that their dental health is in good hands.
• You generate peace of mind for your business clients, since you help remove the stress that can be associated with legal matters.

The most powerful part of your brand is the qualitative part, yet ironically, that’s the aspect we spend the least time articulating. What we’re contributing with what we offer (do) and the results we produce (have) are important—but the biggest difference we make is by what we are.

It’s important that the layers of your core anchor statement include all three levels of brand definition: what you do, the results you produce, and the way you are that makes the difference.

Now, take a crack at crafting the anchor statement for your brand. Once you have something you feel works, try it out on people you meet. Keep what resonates, and tweak the rest. It won’t take long before you have an anchor statement that sings the true tune of your brand. 

If you need help developing your anchor statement, your vision statement, your mission or elevator pitch, contact SK Consulting today!

If you really want to rise above your competition and stand-out, you are going to have to rocket launch the level of trust people have in you.

People buy services based on their confidence in your ability to deliver what you say you can do, and they need evidence. Trust is usually earned over time, but it is a funny thing.

What if you are relatively new in business, just rebranded or have only started launched your personal brand? Not everyone has the luxury of building a brand with inherited confidence like the ‘trusted brands’ that have been around forever. There are ways, however, to build trust to boost your brand quickly without first being a ‘household name’.

Simple trust building activities can add to your credibility and help convince prospects that you are worth considering.

Booster #1 – Best Selling Authority

Writing a book is great for your brand, but becoming a best-selling author adds a gold coat to your trust currency.

To land quality speaking gigs you have to do more than write a book about your industry. Work to get your publication into the best-seller category.  This shows event organizers that you know more than a thing or two about your business.  That you are, in fact, subject matter expert.

Best-selling status demonstrates that not only do you know your industry, it also indicates that people like the content you have to share.

One way to become a best seller is on Amazon with an e-book of around 10,000 words – short enough to read in one sitting.  Set it to $.99 and get half a dozen reviews, then give it away for a period of 2-3 days – make sure you promote when it will be available for free.

Booster #2 – Read All About It

If it’s in the news, it must be true!

Having your face and your story highlighted in the press or in respected on-line media gives huge credibility to your brand.

Get quality media training if you want to create publicity yourself.

·       Find your angle and write a newsworthy press release, find the right publication(s) your ideal audience is already absorbing and create relationships with journalists.

·        Do not make your publicity about you. Start by writing a list of all the top tips, how to’s and even the “what not to do” bullet points that your audience might find valuable.

·       Create press releases that use case studies and focus on seasonal or event based needs – i.e. Summer, Mother’s Day, Back To School, Christmas…think about what happens in your ideal clients life at these times and write articles that are meaningful for them.

·       Most importantly, be prepared. Different media outlets have different deadlines – it could be hours, days, weeks or months ahead of publication dates.

Booster #3 – Winners Never Lose

Being able to call yourself an Award Winner is a great way to boost your brand profile and gain respect.

It’s easy to proclaim you are the ‘the best’, but to be really authentic, promoting the fact that you have won awards in your industry and for your expertise is far more valuable.

Adding Award Winning to your profile can be one of the most satisfying things you can do to boost your brand – because you’ve earned it!

There are so many awards you can enter, so to look for those that really fit with your niche, are focused on your specialist area and are the most useful for you to leverage.

Entering awards can be time-consuming, and it’s worth investing in some guidance to ensure you give the judges very good reason to include you in their short-list.

Often it’s difficult to even consider you are award worthy, but if you find a new way of looking at what you do and work on fact-based evidence, results and outcomes, you are onto a winner.

Booster #4 – We Love You!

Your personal brand is what others say about you when you’re not in the room.

Testimonials are real credibility boosters, as long as they are real. Even better than written testimonials is an image and full name or a video testimonial.

More than just your clients telling others how great you are, you can also get key opinion leaders to provide testimonials for you, leaders in your field elevating your brand. All you have to do is ask. 

The worst that can happen is that they say no.  Then you move on to the next.

Use LinkedIn – the best way to get an endorsement is by giving one to someone else. They will feel obligated to return the favor. Ask people to place a review on your business Facebook page, or offer a Google review for you.

Remember to use testimonials in as many places as you can - on your website, blog, speaker bio, your book cover, social media and on your marketing collateral. Make sure you get permission to use a testimonial.

A great testimonial could be worth about $1,500 for your business!

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Above all, the best way to build a trusted brand is to be 100% authentic in everything you do.

Don’t try to create a persona and don’t be tempted to “fake it till you make it”. Instead, embrace your uniqueness and package your skills with your own marketing content.

Trusted brands are those we have known for years. The human brain doesn’t like new, it likes what it knows, so once you have packaged your brand, make sure all of your messaging, images, content and language is congruent and consistent.

If you need help developing and promoting your brand, contact the experts at SK Consulting today!

Why Your Marketing Messaging Matters

You’ve created something unheard of. You’re passionate about it. You believe in it. You’ve also spent an insane amount of time figuring the whole business out down to the tiniest detail. By now, you can talk about it for hours — and to top it off, it actually is a great idea.

But for some reason, you can’t sell it. So, what’s the problem?

It’s the not-so-simple issue of communication. Of course, you understand your idea, but you've also spent hours, months or years living your project and exploring every avenue. Your future clients haven’t, which can lead to some frustrating interactions.

In many instances, the problem lies in the explanation. We often get so caught up in our idea — our baby — that we get too focused on over-explaining the gritty details and not the overall problem the solution is solving. Overly complex explanations, vague buzzwords, and too much wordiness can cause your client to hesitate. And when you are just starting out, you probably need them more than they need you.

Learn how to communicate your idea in terms your client will understand.

For starters, be aware of industry jargon and communicate the benefit of your solution in a way that makes sense to your audience. As a marketing specialist, I understand what the terms SEO, capital spending, Google Analytics, website flow and function mean.  I understand the difference between SEO and SEM, time vs. money capital and what relationship marketing really means.  But, my customers more than likely don’t or else they wouldn’t enlist my help.

So, instead of saying, we’re going to help with SEO, I explain that we’re going to take a look at key words that people typically search for when they need or want my customers’ product or service. I explain that there is research to back how a person’s eye travels over a website. I show them the difference high-quality pictures make when relaying their message.  Basically, as a service provider trying to attain customers, we need to take a page out of Joe Miller’s playbook.  In Philadelphia, the attorney says, “Now, explain it to me like I’m a four-year-old.”  

That may seem a little young, but the premise is right.  People want things spelled out in simple terms.  I have a problem, what is your solution?

How do you come up with correct messaging?

After some U-turns, dead ends, and sometimes three right turns, you will be able to refine and create clear product messaging. But it takes time.

First, try coming up with simple explanations and testing the response from different clients, taking notes on what worked, what was confusing, what got their attention, and what should be immediately thrown out. Then, think about why this is the case.

You can also test your company's messaging is when hiring new employees. Based on their own pre-interview research, do they know what you do, and does it make sense to them? Does an outsider with general industry awareness understand what your business does, and how it is different? 

Looking at basic things like this are a quick and easy way of testing your messaging.

When you finally get it right, don’t stop.

The landscape is always changing, and because of the importance of communication, your messaging should be something you continuously try to optimize too.

Messaging will differ based on the audience that your company targets as well.

Owning a business and perfecting your message takes time.  You need to become familiar with the industry, the competitive landscape, the needs and desires of your potential customers.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how well you understand what you’re selling. If no one else does, nobody will buy.  If you need help with your messaging, contact us today!