We recently commenced face-to-face workshops after a year of the purgatory that is online training and DBZ (Death by Zoom).

I really love these workshops, because they give me and the whole Fetola team an opportunity to get to know the prospective entrepreneurs vying to be a part of our next programme intake, and also allow us to assess their marketing competencies and brand positioning.

Many attend the workshops wearing branded clothing representing their companies, others bring pull up banners or leaflets, some offer samples of their goods and others hand out brochures about their services.

This sneak peek into these diverse marketing approaches is exciting and interesting for two main reasons.  Firstly, it aligns with our teaching around setting your purpose and that of your company, and thus gives us a good foundation of examples to draw on when we facilitate. Secondly, it gives the team a wonderful glimpse into the readiness of the entrepreneur for the support that the programme offers. Do they understand their customer? How clear are they on what they stand for and what they offer the world? Is there a spark here?

Sadly, the truth is that many entrepreneurs do not understand the purpose of marketing or its core elements. Most outsource this function to a service provider and take scant interest in what is said and how it lands with the intended audience. Typically, most marketing communications are too long, too wordy, not aligned to the target market or simply poorly thought through and executed. This often has a significant impact on a small business’s ability to stand out from the crowd, to engender customer loyalty or to win over new audiences.

The good news is it is a relatively straightforward fix. Most of us have heard of Simon Sinek’s breakthrough book Start With Why. In it, he expands on the reasons why some companies succeed and others do not and encourages leaders to distill the essence of WHY their companies exist and the reasons behind why they do what they do.

I have seen similar success in the marketing arena following this principle, but it usually needs to be taken a step beyond simply WHY and include WHAT and HOW when it comes to sharing, explaining, and bringing people into the essence of what it is that makes you and your company special. Let me explain a bit more clearly how this works and why it’s important.

WHY?

Let’s do what SIMON SAYS (get it?) and start with WHY. What is the reason for your existence and the problem/s you solve or the value that you bring? This is the anchor around which you can build your entire brand position, so it is important to get it right.

The reason for this, is that the majority of people need to resonate with WHY you do what you do before they will engage with it further. Win them over emotionally, and you will win them over as customers/stakeholders/supporters. This purpose, this WHY, needs to occupy the prime real estate on your marketing platforms, and be reinforced throughout them. Simply put, you need to tell us WHY your company exists.

WHAT?

The next element of your marketing message is your WHAT. Here you tell us what it is that you actually do, in succinct language or layman’s terms. Don’t tell us that “We are a multi-faceted company that provides quality services designed to delight our customers and add value to the economic landscape etc etc.”

Just tell us what you actually do. If you provide construction and maintenance services, tell us that. If you sell computers, or cabbages or cars, say so. Be clear and be concise so people know exactly what it is that you do and how it may solve a need that they have.

HOW?

The final piece of the puzzle is the HOW. Here you answer the questions around how one can access your products or services, where they can find you, the process of engagement and what to expect from your company in terms of service, timelines, capacity etc.

Here you can go into a bit of detail if necessary, but increasingly people are using tools like infographics to explain their HOW in very simple terms, to good effect. The same rules apply to this element as to the other two – keep it as simple as possible.

When we are unsure what to say, or don’t really understand our target market and the best way to engage with them and capture their attention, we often end up believing that more is more. We say a lot without saying much at all.

When we distill our message down to simply explaining the WHY, WHAT and HOW however, we end up having to focus only on what is really important. That is when the magic really starts to happen.