Creating a Powerful Message (And The French Uber Driver)

Creating a powerful message isn't about shouting the loudest.

It's about whispering the right words so your ideal clients want to listen.

P.S. If you're looking, here are a few things to help you:

- Hang out with 20 marketing directors for 2 days in Orlando, FL at the Momentum conference. You'll walk away with a simple strategy that works, the skills, plan, and confidence to make it happen. ​Click here for details.​

- Download the Marketing Director Roadmap to get the one-page blueprint to succeeding as a marketing director.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

This is the Marketing Director Daily, and I'm Tim Parkin. And today I want to talk about creating powerful messages. This is one of the main elements in my marketing director roadmap. And I think that marketers don't understand messages well enough. And so we need to talk about what is a powerful message, why you need a powerful message, and how to create a powerful message. The message is everything in marketing. It's how you communicate to people, and it's how they hear you and understand who you are, what you stand for, and what value you can bring to them. Having a powerful message isn't about some arbitrary thing that you say or promise to people. It's about a message that resonates with your ideal clients, with your ideal customers. It goes deeper than a feature or a benefit or even a promise. It's a message that connects you to your ideal prospect. And in marketing, there's a big problem that there's a lot of competition, there's a lot of technology, there's lots of channels. And we tend to think as marketers that the way to distribute our message is to turn up the volume, is to amplify our message and be louder than all of the noise around us. And this is completely wrong. And we have to rethink how we put our message out into the world and how we create a message because you don't need to shout the loudest. That's not marketing. What you need to do is you need to have the right words that you can whisper and that when you do so, your ideal customers can't help but hear it, turn their heads, and lean in and listen close. Having a powerful message is about having the right words to say rather than saying them the loudest or the strongest. And this is really good news because many of you are not the biggest in your industry. You're not a billion-dollar company. You don't have the budget or the funds or the team or the resources to amplify your message, to distribute it everywhere, and to be the loudest. And that's okay because you don't have to be. Instead, you can create a powerful message that then everything you do in your marketing can use that message to get the maximum result possible. So let's dive in and unpack creating a powerful message. And I want to give you an example of my Uber story the last time I was in New York. Because we landed, we're at the airport, we grab an Uber, and I'll tell you, my Uber driver was not the friendliest guy. He was seemingly upset about something, and he was slamming the doors in the car as we got in, and we're driving off. And he's listening to the radio, and he seemed very frustrated and isolated. I could tell he was the guy I didn't want to really mess with. And for some reason, I'm a complete introvert, but when I'm in an Uber, I love to talk to the drivers. And I was scared to talk to this guy. I was afraid that if I said anything, he might lash out at me or not want to talk to me or he would be angry at me. But I noticed something really interesting about the music he was listening to and the radio that he was listening to. In particular, I realized it was French. They were speaking French on the radio, in the songs and in the announcements. And I happened to know a little bit of French, barely any to qualify as knowing French, but in high school I took French. And as a kid, my parents took me to France a couple times. And on my honeymoon, we went to Paris. And so I remember a little bit of French. And so I had this debate in my mind. Do I dare speak up? And do I call out the fact that he's listening to French? Uh, or do I even say something, try to say something in French to get this guy's attention? And then how would that go? Would he be offended? Would he be angry at me? Or would it connect with him? Or would he try to speak French to me and then I'm really screwed there? So I decided after much sweating and debating in the car, we had a long trip, that I should say something. And the thing I thought to say is, do you speak French? Um, but I said it in French, parlez-vous français. And I don't have a French accent. That's the best I can do. Sorry to all of you who speak French. But I spoke up and I said something. The moment those words came out of my mouth, his whole demeanor shifted instantly, and he became the happiest guy I've ever seen. He was jovial, he was laughing, we were having a great time. I don't know where the first guy went, but there was a new character in the car driving us, and he was just the happiest guy on earth. And he started sharing with me and started a conversation in French briefly. I couldn't keep up, so we had to switch back to English, thankfully. But he told me all about Haiti, where he's from, and how his family, some of them learned French, some of them didn't, and they try to speak in French now so they can help each other develop their and maintain their language skills in French. It was fascinating. I learned so much about the guy from that point of our trip forward. And I really wish I had spoken up sooner because I love talking to people and learning more about them, especially in an Uber. But had I not had the right words to say, and had I not been brave enough to say them, I never would have had this interaction, this engagement. And from my perception, I never would have had that connection with him. And this is why marketing is about the message and why you need a powerful message that can break through these barriers and that more so can create a connection with your ideal customers. When you have the right words to say, and you say them in the right way, and you say them in the right places where your customers can hear them, magic can happen. Marketing is about the message first and foremost. You can forget all this technology and AI and automations and all that nonsense. What matters in marketing is the message. And you need to have a clear message, you need to have a powerful message. And if you don't, you'll notice that everything you do in marketing struggles as a result of a lack of a clear and powerful message. So here's some pointers to help you evaluate the clarity and the power of your message. First, is your message simple? Is it clear? Can you say it quickly and concisely? This isn't about a tagline. It's about can you communicate it simply, quickly, so that people want to hear it? They don't have to listen to a whole thesis from you, and it uses basic words, a low reading level, a low comprehension skill required to understand what you're saying. That's step one. Most of you probably don't have a message that is simple enough to be understood. They often say that the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else and to explain it to a child because a child doesn't have the context, the understanding, the vocabulary that you have. And so I wonder if the same is true for your message. So first, is it simple? Is it clear? But second, is it resonating with your audience? And this is more qualitative than quantitative. However, there certainly are quantitative indicators that your message is resonating. Do people pay attention? Do people respond? Do they engage? Do they opt in? Do they raise their hand? Are they booking demos with you? Is your message resonating? And I'll tell you personally, I have people who speak with me who say that my message resonates with them and they've never heard something so clear and so meaningful to them. And that is my indicator, that is my guiding light that my message is on track, that it's powerful, that it's clear, that it's breaking through the noise because it's what people need to hear. So you'll get those indicators from your audience and from your ideal prospects that they'll say, This is what I've been waiting for, this is what I've been looking for. How have I not found you guys before? So look for those qualitative indicators, but then use the metrics, the quantitative indicators to help measure and judge is your message working? I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having a clear and powerful message. Every dollar and every minute that you spend on marketing will be wasted if you don't have a powerful message. So before doing anything else, it's imperative that you make sure you have a good message, that you have a clear message, and that it's powerful and resonating with your audience. And one of the most important and most impactful things you can do in your marketing is to test your messaging, to test different messaging, and to compare and test your messaging against the messaging of your competitors, to see do people understand you, do people believe you, and do people want to lean in, listen, and hear more from you because you have a powerful message. You can think about my story of a Uber driver and imagine that it's your audience. That first you need to have the words to say, you need to speak their language, and you need to be brave enough to speak up and say it. And it can be awkward and uncomfortable to test new messaging, to try something new. But if you never speak up, you'll never have that connection and that opportunity not only to connect to your ideal customers, but to help them connect with you. And that's what marketing is really all about.