NEWS

How a simple marketing message can drive profit for your Australian small business

We talk a lot about creating and communicating a really simple message to your current and existing customers and clients. Because we live in such an overcommunicated and cluttered world, consumers can only take in and remember so much information, so by creating a clear and simple message, we have a higher chance of cutting through.

When we create this simple message with our clients, we call this a positioning statement. On the back of the work that we do with them, we create a positioning in the minds of their customers where there is the least amount of competition or we minimise the competition.

We create a positioning statement or a clear message, so let me show you two examples of a great positioning statement and a crappy positioning statement, or as some people like to call it, a tagline.

Let's look at this one: “Sorting your plumbing every single time.” Now if you have a look at that, you know what they do – they do plumbing – and maybe that they're reliable because they do it every single time. But there are one million plumbers in Sydney. So what is it that makes this business different? Who do they do plumbing for, where do they do it, and why should we trust them? It’s very vague and very much a tagline that you might see on a TV commercial done by a big corporate business.

But the average person or the average builder or somebody that needs to engage a plumber, we're not really sure where they do it, who they do it for, and how they can help them. Versus this great example: “Sydney’s commercial plumbing experts.” So we know exactly where they do it, we know that they are plumbers for the commercial space, and we know that that's what their focus is on. They tell us that they're the expert in that, so rather than competing with every plumber out there – residential, commercial, industrial – this business has a real focus in terms of where they do it and who they do it for.

So you can see the stark contrast between a generic fluffy tagline and a positioning statement that tells people exactly what you do, who you do it for, where you do it, and why you're the expert in that industry.

And this is where the power of a simple marketing message really shows up in your bottom line. When your audience clearly understands what you do and who you do it for, they can make faster decisions, recommend you more confidently and trust that you’re the right fit for their needs. Clarity builds credibility and credibility builds profit. The clearer your positioning, the easier it becomes for the right customers to find you, choose you and stick with you long term.

So be really obvious with your messaging. Create a clear message, a clear positioning statement, and remember a positioning statement is on the back of the fact that you've created a positioning in the minds of your customers where there's the least amount of competition or where you eliminate the competition — and in this case, this plumbing business has done exactly that.