I know why your marketing fails

The problem with your marketing is your messaging.

Marketing vs Messaging

• Marketing is getting seen. Messaging is being understood. (Linda Handley said that, and I’m borrowing it!)

• Marketing is turning on the microphone. Messaging is what you say into it that motivates people to listen and act.

• Messaging aligns your organizational beliefs with the beliefs and needs of the customer. Marketing is how customers know you exist.

And, that, my friends, is the reason much Extension marketing fails: We create a flyer or make a social media post and think we’re done instead of defining a clear message that resonates with the individuals who need what we offer first.

Luckily for you, we can fix that, but first we have to understand these key fundamentals of messaging:

• We can’t have the same message for everyone. Pick one unique audience to talk to.
  To be effective in telling our story, we must craft a message that’s unique to the person the program is intended to help. I cringed each time someone asked for marketing aimed at “the general public.” The general public doesn’t exist, not in the marketing world. What motivates a specialty crop grower is different than what motivates a backyard gardener, so the message must be adapted to why each audience needs your program.

• People don’t buy products; they buy fulfillment. STOP making the message about WHAT you do (our activities) and START talking about WHY it matters to the participant.  
  If you can’t clearly state how a person’s life will be better in one sentence, you haven’t developed your program enough to begin marketing it. (Start with Why by Simon Sinek shows you how to change your messaging to focus on why people will want what you have.)

  • Let me give you an example. People don’t WANT to send their kids to 4-H camp; they WANT their kids to make new friends, experience new adventures, explore nature, and get away from digital devices. Effective messaging talks about those reasons WHY 4-H camp exists. Details come later after you’ve hooked them.

• People don’t care who you are; they care how you can help them solve the problem they have that is keeping them from living the life they want.
  Everything you’ve ever bought, you bought because it solved a problem you had. If your messaging doesn’t tell people how your program can help them solve the problem that’s holding them back, they won’t care what you have to say. (Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller shows you how.)

• We fail to tell people who they will become (how their lives will be transformed) after engaging with Extension programming.
  Years ago, advertising guru Keith Reinhard said “People seek brands that will help them survive, help them succeed, and help them take care of their own. They want brands that will help them be loved and admired and that will, in some way, enrich or improve their lives. Great brands obsess about the transformation of the customer.” That’s a Tuesday in Extension life, yet how often do we fail to tell people who they will become because of us something we do.

  Here are some examples of messaging statements that focus on the transformation:

  • Have the best yard on the block with these lawn care solutions.

  • Find the peace of mind you’re looking for in retirement at our finance workshop.

  • Be the envy of your neighbors by planting the right native plants.

  • Have no regrets when you open the door to your new home by completing Extension’s first-time homebuyer program.

  • Unlock the world beyond the digital screen for your children at 4-H camp.

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Right about now, you Logic Model fans are shaking your head and screaming, “Yes.” Good messaging aligns with a well-developed logic model (but that discussion is for another day).

Questions you should ask before writing your message

If you want to be better at telling your story, ask yourself these 9 questions before you start writing your messaging.

1. Who is your specific audience?

2. What problem are they trying to solve?

3. How does that problem make them feel?

4. What do they need to solve the problem?

5. What shared beliefs do we have around this issue?

6. What does Extension offer to address their problem?

7. Why are we uniquely more qualified than others to help them?

8. What does failure to change their situation result in?

9. What better reality will they experience (transformation) after their participation in the Extension program?

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Here’s how to craft those answers into a successful messaging campaign I might use in my marketing of me!

Let’s say I want to create a message aimed at improving your storytelling abilities.

• Fill every seat at your next workshop. (transformation you can expect which might also serve as a title)

• You need reliable marketing that doesn’t take all day to create. (what you need)

• The problem is, you’re not a marketer (problem) and you’re frustrated with the time marketing takes away from important programming (how you feel).

• Extension Insider believes that your time is valuable. We know you joined Extension to change lives, not create marketing. (shared belief)

• Extension Insider gives you the tools you need to tell a better story quickly. (offer)

• I know what you need because I was you. (unique qualifications)

• Stop wasting time writing and rewriting content that isn’t working. (failure)

• Find the resource you need to tell a better story at Extension Insider, then get back to changing the world. (transformation)

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