What "We" Do
So I'm in a meeting with a customer who's enrolled in our Google Maps Boost program. She also knew that we design and manage websites because well the Google Maps Boost program works on websites. And I'd told her that we do, previously.
We'd just finished talking about our other key program, the custom 3D animated video. She didn't know that we did that. "Yeah, we're good," I said. "I'd put us up against anyone else in the world to create a sales video that explains a technical process."
The conversation goes on, and it's maybe 30 minutes later that this conversation comes up:
Customer: Well, I feel like I need to email my customers to tell them all of the stuff that we do.
Me: You don't think your customers know what you do? (with a pinch of too much sass)
Customer: No. They tell me that all the time. They'll hire us for one service, but then they don't know that we do alllll this other stuff.
Me: huh ...
Customer: I mean, that's what we just talked about earlier! I didn't know that you did 3D animations.
Me: [touche]Customer: So, how should I tell them what we do?
It's a great question. The simple answer is, well: tell them.The not so simple answer is tell them in a way that:
matters
that's relevant to their business problem and
in a way that they can't ignore.
Yeah, that's where the whole marketing deal gets a little mushy.
Update: 8-1-19
So, it shouldn't be that hard right, that is, to tell someone what you do, but to be honest, I'm still refining that story.We started with a mishmash of 50+ "services," and in the past few years, we've simplified them. But no two clients have the same overall program. Here's how I'm currently thinking about it:We have 5 areas of core capabilities:
Story - aka figuring out what story should be talked about, writing said story and sometimes planning it out as content marketing blogs/articles/posts
Animation - specifically 3D sales videos and a fun 2.5D Isometric Animation style
Search Marketing - helping people get found on the goog with an organic + local strategy (that mixes in a lot of the content marketing aspect of #1); and a fantastic paid search program
Websites - Custom Wordpress design, development and ongoing assurance plans & a squarespace site solution
*Design - to do a lot of these well, you need to have good design capabilities. Yet, design as a standalone service isn't something we actively market. But we have a good system for it.
Within these 5 capabilities, there's 30 total components -- set processes and systems -- underneath all of these. By defining these components, we've been able to create checklists and best practices for each and approach each client's needs with a, dare I say, standard customization.
In other words, a combination of each of these components is what makes up a client's project or ongoing program.
#alwaysberefining
To be continued...