Let’s Not Be Gross: Solopreneur Insights, Vol. 11
After working with marketers for nearly 20 years, I’ve seen it all. Many of them sleep perfectly well at night after a day of pitching lies and twisting facts in order to drive sales.
You've seen it.
It’s shady. It’s gross. It’s short-sighted.
While large corporations may be able to get away with manipulating information and unethical persuasion tactics, the Solopreneur cannot afford to dance next to the flames of sketchy marketing.
Our simple business model means there are no layers between us and the promises we make. This is a good thing. It means your goal is simple:
Do what you say you’ll do.
Marketing is the first stage of the “what you say you'll do” part. You’re effectively making a set of claims, directly or indirectly, that communicate what you can do for your customers.
As you back up your claims, you build the single-most important element in all of Solopreneur business:
Trust.
The primary method for building trust?
Honesty
Honesty is the cornerstone of trust. No one likes a liar, and they certainly don’t want to work with one. Think about the following when developing your marketing claims:
What you’ve done before. Experience speaks volumes. There’s no other substitute.
What you’re qualified to do. If you’re just starting out, make sure you tell the prospect you’re just starting out. If you’ve built fictitious case studies to demonstrate your skills, make sure the prospect knows they’re not built on a real client project. They’ll understand. If they figure it out before you tell them, you’re going to look dishonest.
Who’s a good fit. Especially when we’re starting out, it’s tempting to take just anyone. This is a trap. The client doesn’t have to be perfect. But, if you knowingly take on a client whose problems aren’t quite aligned with your solutions, you’re asking for trouble. It’s your job to make it clear who you’re honestly qualified to serve.
Don’t sell yourself short. Sometimes, people hold too much back in marketing. There’s a big difference between going overboard and letting people know when you’re really good at something.
Where does this honestly lead?
To a business built on the foundation of trust.
Check out what that gets you:
Loyalty
A client that trusts you is a client who will be loyal to you. One of the great things about Solopreneurship is that we don’t need millions of customers to be successful. Once we build a handful of loyal customers, everything gets easier.
Be honest in all communication, from marketing to ongoing conversations. Focus on your client’s problem and work hard to solve it. And, remember, nothing prompts loyalty quite like demonstrating it yourself. Loyalty to your customers means pulling through for them no matter what. It means creating things that genuinely solve their acute problems. Loyal clients will reward you for decades.
Referrals
A loyal client who trusts you will talk about you to others. They’re like free salespeople, but way better. Unlike salespeople, you’re not paying them to tell others that you’re great. Word-of-mouth referrals are the secret weapon of virtually all non-enterprise businesses. They’ll set you up for life.
Make it easy for your clients to refer you. If you offer products, give them referral codes. If you offer a service, make it easy for them to identify who in their network is a perfect fit for you and what they can say to that person. Make it worth their time. If someone is willing to refer you to a $60,000 client, a “hey thanks!” text doesn’t cut it.
Reputation
A good reputation is one of your most valuable brand assets. When you’re known as someone who simply does what you say you’ll do, you remove friction from all business processes. Landing new clients becomes easier, as they’ve heard good things about you already. Current clients never doubt that you have their best interests at heart. High-quality project partners are easier to find and keep.
Build a high-quality testimonial list and case studies that specifically showcase how your clients trust you to solve their problems. Be involved on social media, where you interact with others daily. People in strong networks casually vouch for each other in their correspondence.
Differentiation
I don’t know if you’ve looked around recently, but we’re up to our elbows in piles of crap businesses and individuals making ridiculous claims that are clearly nonsense. It seems everyone goes for the hot-take. The outlandish. The carnival barking that they think gains them attention.
You know what gains legitimate attention? Being an honest, authentic, clear voice among the crowd. It’s a breath of fresh air to your prospects who are tired of sifting through the garbage heap to find a good project partner.
Build clear and specific marketing language that speaks directly to your customers’ needs. Get rid of any extra junk that might make a Marketing Director smile, but only makes you sound like everyone else. Make sure the quality of your marketing matches the quality of your product or service.
Making sure your brand is synonymous with trust is like a cheat code for business. Clients will send you more work. They’ll recommend you to their friends. They’ll speak highly of you to everyone.
Once you get it right, you’ll never chase clients again.
– Torrey
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Visit my website: torreydawley.com
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