Make Marketing Suck Less

Does Your Business Have a “True Believer” Problem?

Lately, I have been working with a lot of business owners in the 3 Word Rebellion Messaging Intensive whose audience has stopped growing.

That is the main reason they decided to work with me. They've plateaued in growth, which also means they've plateaued in the revenue that they're able to generate.

Now, each of these clients believes that their message is needed by more people. They know that there are more individuals in the world who absolutely need what they've got to offer, but something is off because those people aren't finding them. They know it has to do with their message. They just don't know what it is.

One of the core exercises that I do with my clients is an audience, deep dive, and when someone comes to me with a growth problem, I am particularly focused on this audience deep dive because 9 times out of 10 I can immediately spot why they are no longer growing and the clues lie in how they are talking about their people.

What is the true believer problem and how do you know if you have one that could impact your business? And if you have that problem, what do you do about it? Well, keep listening because of what I'm going to talk to you about today. We'll shift the way you are developing content for your business and create conversations for future members of your movement and customers in your business.

Tune into the audio:

The true believer problem happens when your message, all of the content that you create, is for the people who have already said, heck yes to what you do. These people are 100% bought into your movement. They've most likely purchased your book or enrolled in a class or are part of your membership site or have worked with you personally. These are the people who are 100% with you already.

And when we have a true believer problem, our content focuses mostly on taking these people deeper into your work.

So when you're only talking to them, you're not opening up the doors for other people to find out about you and your work. So for example, in my business, the true believers are the people who have already bought into the idea of having a 3 Word Rebellion. They've bought the book, they've worked with me, they already have their 3 Word Rebellion.

They understand the methodology and they know it will get them results. And if I focused on creating content for only them, yes, it would keep them fired up and engaged. But my movement and my goal of getting the 3 Word Rebellion book into at least 5,000 people's hands this year would stall out.

Now, I'm not saying to never create a conversation with your true believers. You need to keep these people engaged because they are your advocates and I create content with them in mind. And some of it you'll hear on the show in upcoming episodes like creating a customer journey for your 3 Word Rebellion, or how to get visible and spread your message consistently, or how to lead with your message and grow as a leader. And I'm glad that I'm having these conversations.

However, if I only created for my true believers, my audience won't grow and my revenue will plateau.

So all of us need to be having conversations with two other kinds of audiences. And when you start talking to those audiences, there is a bonus here. When you start talking to those other types of audiences, you are giving your true believers a way to talk about your work and your message to other people who don't know about you.

What so, so what are these two types of audiences? The first audience I call them, they don't know what they don't know. So they are unaware of the real problem that they're having. They are unaware of the real solution. They probably don't know you. These people have a problem, but it's a really broad problem.

Like I'm not making money in my business. Now there's a crap ton of reasons you could not be making money in your business.

Number one, you don't have something to sell. So you have no business model.

Number two, you don't know what to sell. So the problem is your sales skills.

Number three, people don't want what you offer. That's a market research problem. It's a product market fit problem.

Or number four, you can sell your offer, it can get great results, but no one knows about you, which is a lead generation problem.

I can go on and talk about all of the other ways or I can go on with this, but I won't.

The point is you need to have a conversation with your audience that helps them figure out what the real problem is and if what your business does solves that problem.

When I want people to figure out if they have a messaging problem or not, I know I can create content around why your service isn't selling, why people bounce from your website, why no one responds to your podcast pitches, why your Facebook ads don't work. There's so much content that I can create and conversations that I can have that will attract a larger audience who may have the problem that I can help them with. And when I create those conversations, I'm reaching the people who don't know what they don't know and they don't really know about the solution yet.

So I would love for you to pause here and figure out how you can start reaching this group of people who don't know what they don't know.

And when you reach them, you can help them diagnose what their real problem is and your audience will grow and so will your business.

Now the second type of audience that you need to be creating conversations for is the, how do I fix this audience? They know what the real problem is in their business, but they're struggling to find the right solution. So all of the people who don't know what they don't know eventually become people who are struggling with how to fix the problem. And this is where people are experimenting with different solutions.

They're trying, they're failing, they're flailing around in the bottom line is they know a solution exists, but they don't know that your solution exists yet. This is the place where they are trying other options to fix the problem. So, people who know they have a messaging problem, they do lots of different things to try to figure it out.

My people have tried so many online courses that have promised to help them find their message and didn't work that it's ridiculous. Maybe they've looked into having a unique selling proposition and they couldn't get that nailed down, or they're trying to come up with a tagline, so they're following formulas to do that. Or they've read Donald Miller's Building a StoryBrand, which is a great book on messaging, but it's not getting them the result they want. Or they even hired someone to help them create a message. But when they got that message back, it didn't feel right.

So I can create conversations around each of those solutions and tell people why it might not work for them because a unique selling proposition does not work for everyone. I know when I started my business and I was working with a marketing person, I could never come up with my unique selling proposition and then so I could then introduce them to the 3 Word Rebellion as an alternative.

Then I can have those people run out to Amazon and buy the 3 Word Rebellion book and PS, if you haven't bought the book yet, you totally should because it will help with your messaging. The other option, they can work with me one on one.

I want you to brainstorm what are the other things that people are trying to solve their problem with? Think about why it might not be working for them and position your solution or even your own 3 Word Rebellion as the solution to that problem.

The bottom line is that you need to be talking to all of your people and some of these people don't know you.

Some of these people don't know you. They don't know what problem they're having and they definitely don't know what the solution is. Other people are just screaming, how can I fix this problem? I'm trying everything and it's not working. And then your true believers will always want to go deeper with you. And when you start having these other conversations, they're going to be able to talk to other people about the work you do in the world.

So talk to everyone who could potentially be in your audience, create content for each audience segment and watch your business and audience grow.

Lastly, I would love to know your biggest takeaway from this episode of the podcast. So be sure to slide into my DMs over on Instagram. The best way to support this podcast is to buy a copy of the 3 Word Rebellion book. And Hey, buy one for a friend who is struggling to communicate how they do what they do.

Until next time, talk to your whole audience, not just the true believers.