Two things happened this week. A fellow business owner/creator was featured on a podcast and her words hit home as usual. And My GoTo Social Media Examiner Podcast had another incredible podcast about Marketing and consumer beliefs. Notice how I didn’t say “changing consumer beliefs” I’m on my third listen of Michael Stelzner’s guest, Billy Boras (and he is a badass but not a “Billy Badass”) His philosophy of marketing is inline with mine. Good marketing is not about smoke and mirrors it's about the value of a clear message. Boras talks about knowing your customer’s  beliefs. Not only in the beginning but all the way through the customer’s journey.

Now, I don’t know about you but both of these concepts are on the innuendo and nuance side of marketing. I will be honest I’m much more comfortable with the tech and numbers side. This is a brain stretch for me and since I love a challenge I chose this as my topic this week.

Let’s start with Jacquie’s mind bending quote,

“You can lead with a new thought, but you can’t make people drink till they are thirsty” Jacquie Chandler

Jacquie a local activist, speaker, and author: check her out on Speaker Mastermind Podcast, The Nature in Me| A Matter of Speaking, Episode 23: Jacquie Chandler.

Her words just hit me with one big - HOW?

To unpack Jacquie’s concept and apply it effectively, let’s break it down.

Thirst: Before attempting to influence or communicate a new idea, it’s essential to understand the needs, desires, or 'thirst' of your audience. This involves actively listening and engaging with them to grasp what motivates them, what challenges they face, and what solutions they are seeking.

Water: Once you understand the needs of your audience, the next step is to present your ideas (the 'water') in a way that appeals to them. This means using the right language, tone, and delivery methods to make your ideas attractive and compelling.

For BWCI the thirst is business owners wanting their business brand and services to be seen and heard. The water is BWCI’s ability to build platforms that connect and rise to the surface of visibility on the undulating waters of our vast internet. (Oooo, shameless plug here)

Next is tackling the beliefs.

These can be many and scattered, In the SME podcast Billy Boras - How to Leverage Buyer Beliefs to Improve Your Marketing breaks them down using the customer journey and it’s three stages: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision. This helped me in trying to rope in all the beliefs I have to deal with.

• Awareness: My biggest hurdle is convincing people Meta and Google ads actually work. The majority of my client base is at the end of the Boomer generation and Social Media is not native to their way of thinking.

• Consideration: Billy Badass or Connection. Here I use education in defining the choices a business needs to make in marketing. Do you need to go for the numbers? Fast marketing like selling a widget. Or, building a service business which requires brand building. Slow at first but the biggest ROI over time.

• Decision: Here is where the features and benefits come into play. Time to shine.

What I love from Boras is that his belief is, if you do your marketing properly selling is not necessary. For me that is a perfect world. Couple that with Jacquie’s thirst concept and I think I have a new BWCI Fall marketing plan developing.  Whew!!! I’m under deadline to get my own marketing laid out for Fall. I’ll be breaking down each my personas beliefs this week. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Big news!! Check out BWCI’s new website!

If there is a topic you’d like to hear more about by all means comment below or direct message and I’ll do my best.

Nothing better than a good question to jump into.

Reach out for a talk over coffee or a hike I give information freely. I only ask to be paid when I do the work. tgold@bigwaterci.com

Comment below or share.

Trina Gold

Master Creator

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