I've been working through Tara Gentile‘s digital workshop, Marketing ReWired, and something Tara said hit home with me –what is your small business's rally cry? This short, simple phrases integrates all that you do and incorporates the why of your business. Why you do what you do, and why your business exists. In essence, your business purpose. Your rally cry is something to use as a benchmark for every aspect of your business. For example, Tara says her rally cry is: Redefine Commerce, as she is an innovator behind The YOU Economy.
I've been thinking a lot about what the Innerspace Marketing rally cry should be and I've come up with this: Elevate Small Businesses. It is my purpose to help small business owners elevate their brand, their websites, their interactions with customers, and their appeal to customers.
Your Elevator Pitch and Your Rally Cry Work Hand-in-Hand
You may have heard of the elevator pitch, which is a term marketers use for a short, expressive sentence about the who, what, why of your business that could be delivered in the time it takes to ride on an elevator. I'm still a big believer of the elevator pitch, and I think it's a worthwhile exercise to define and memorize an interactive sentence about your business when someone queries, “What do you do?”
What people are really asking is who are you, who are your people, how do you spend your time, and what is your passion, as a way to get to know you and put you in a nice cozy box in their brains. All that packed into one socially accepted general phrase “what do you do?”
Our instinctive answer is to give just a 3-4 word response like, I'm a photographer, I'm an executive leadership coach, I'm a stock broker. This is a conversation stopper, not a conversation starter! You're merely providing the label for their box to put you in. What if the answers were something more like this:
(family photographer) “I artistically capture memorable moments in a family’s lives.”
(leadership coach) “I help upcoming executives breakthrough barriers and create a clear path to get them to the next step in their career.”
(stock broker) “I help people save money for their dream life.”
Which answer do you think will start to engage the person asking the question? Try to phrase your own elevator pitch to include your ideal customer and the benefit of doing business with you. Then memorize it and use it in your everyday life until it feels comfortable and perfectly natural saying your new elevator pitch.
Your rally cry works in conjunction with your elevator pitch. Think of it as a high level version of your elevator pitch or a kind of umbrella that holds it all together. In our three examples each rally cry might be, “Preserve Memories” for the photographer, “Next Level Catalyst” for our leadership coach, or “Financial Pathfinder” for our stock broker.
As I stated before, the rally cry can be used as a benchmark for every in aspect of your business. Ask yourself does this blog post fit my rally cry? Does my website home page fit it? Does my about me web page? Business cards? Facebook Page? My marketing? This link to an article I'm about to tweet? If it doesn't, change it! Your rally cry should be stated, right up front. It's why people want to do business with you.
People buy you, not your product or service.
If they believe in your rally cry, they will continue to be your customer over and over again.
Case in point, over the past few years I have purchased multiple products from Tara Gentile, because I believe in her message and I believe that it helps me be a better marketer for my clients. I wouldn't be back if I wasn't a believer.
So I want to know. What's your rally cry? What's your elevator pitch?
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