Make Marketing Suck Less

Michelle Mazur [00:00:00]: Sometimes we think we need to prove how smart we are in order to make people want to work with us. On the surface, this makes sense in a world where we are told we only need to be one step ahead of our clients or we need to be just 20% smarter. Being an expert is a competitive advantage, but showing how smart you are and how much you know in your marketing is not the best way to find clients.

And it actually might have the opposite effect. It might push clients away from you. So let's talk about this sneaky little thought of needing to prove your smarts and how it keeps you from attracting clients and what to do instead. Let's do it.

[00:01:03]: Get ready for the Rebel Uprising Podcast, the only podcast dedicated to business owners who feel overlooked for their expertise, skills and experience. Let's claim your expertise and turn your complex ideas into unmistakable messaging that grows your business. I am your host, Dr. Michelle Mazer, the author of The Three Word Rebellion and your Rebel Truth Telling guide to building a business that gets noticed.

[00:01:34]: You've got nothing to prove. There, I said it. I know it's frustrating to see the business owners with the catchy marketing land client after client when you know they don't know jack about what they're doing.

And it's so tempting to want to prove to the world that, hey, you've got this cred. You know what the hell you're doing, you know what you're talking about, and you want to show it in your marketing so people see you as the expert to hire. And this sentiment is very much in a proving type of energy, where if you could just prove to people that you are the smartest and best and brightest at what you do, then they'll hire you.

But proving energy is never the way to attract new business. Now, I'm a former debater, and so when I'm on a sales call or even in my marketing, if I feel like I am slipping into, “well, if I can just prove how good this is, they'll hire me”, energy.

I know that I need to slow down and remind myself that proving energy is always a red flag when it comes to sales, because I've got nothing to prove and neither do you. I agree, you are smart and excellent at what you do, but trying to prove it to others is not going to bring clients to you.

So let's not bring that energy into your business, into your marketing. Instead, here's what to remember and how to approach messaging and marketing instead.

So when it comes to marketing your expertise, the most important thing I want you to remember, if I could tattoo this on your forehead, I would. It is that clients want to benefit from your expertise, not become experts themselves. They're not looking to get a PhD in whatever it is you do. They want you to come in and smartly solve their problem. And it is so tempting to talk in the language of the expert in our marketing to go deep into topics only our peers would care about.

In fact, today I was on LinkedIn and I noticed someone I followed used a whole bunch of acronyms that clearly the “in crowd” would know what these acronyms mean. But for her people who would want to hire her, we had no clue. I just asked, I was like, hey, what do those acronyms mean? Can you please explain it to me? But that's just an example of the sneaky little ways that expert language can get into our marketing.

And one thing people often say to me, “well, if I don't show my expertise, what will my peers and colleagues think? They're going to think less of me. They're going to think I'm dumbing this down.” And my message to you, if you have that objection, you're not marketing to your peers or your colleagues. Those people will never, ever hire you. They already have your expertise. They don't need to benefit from it. So remember, when you are marketing, the goal is to really show how you can benefit your potential clients.

You have to communicate the value of what it is you do in a way that your “right fit” client understands and remembers and is like, oh, hey, I think you're talking to me. And in order to do that, you're going to have to do something uncomfortable.

You're going to have to view your expertise like your clients would. And that means you need to tap into what it's like not to know everything that's currently in your brain. And that feels impossible, but it is not.

And the way you can tap into people's brains who don't know anything about your expertise or have a very limited knowledge is to do voice of the customer research, to speak to people, to survey people, to dig into your intake forms and really understand who your client is, how they think, what they understand, what are their misconceptions? What are they struggling with? What are they seeing, doing, hearing?

And once you understand them, then you can relate your expertise to them in a way that they're going to grok, in a way that's going to resonate, in a way that they see that your expertise matters to them.

And doing Voice of the Customer research is where I start all of the members of the Expert Up club, because if they know what's going on inside the heads of their “right fit” clients, it's going to make marketing and copy way more effective.

So no, you can never forget all that you know about the work you do, but you can tap into the hearts and the minds of the people who benefit from your work so you can understand how they see it and understand what it is you do.

The next part of marketing your expertise without the proving energy is to simplify, simplify, simplify. Because nuance and complexity go to die on the internet. And I know what you do is complex.

It looks a little bit different for everyone. You have research floating in your head or theories or experiences, credentials that you can draw on to help your clients, which is great when you're working with your client, when you're actually doing client delivery.

But before that, you can't hit them with all the nuance and complexity when you're in the marketing and sales process because it's overwhelming to them. And the other thing is, it can make people feel really stupid. Like, “oh, wow, she's saying all these things to me. I guess I should know that already, right?”

[00:09:28]: And they shouldn't know it already. They just shouldn't. It becomes your job to simplify your message in a way that people can care about it, that people can understand, so that they see the need for it.

And not only that, when we simplify our message, it makes it easier to repeat because people need to see a message multiple times for it to sink in. It's not like they see something once and they're booking a call.

They need to see it like twelve times, 20 times. We're so distracted, they probably need to see it 50 times at this point. So in order to simplify, one of the key ways to do this is creating frameworks for your work, your process, that faces forward during the marketing and sales process.

Because even though no framework can capture all the nuance, having a framework, a way to explain what it is you're doing, it is a structure that breeds trust because it's easy to understand. I know that you're taking me through a process, so simplifying that message is going to be key for your clients to really benefit from the work you do.

Now, if you're like, “wow, voice of the customer research, this sounds great, and yes, I do need to simplify. But all of those things feel really hard”. I'm sure they do. You are very close to this message, and as people always tell me, you can't read the label from inside the jar.

So if you're wanting more help, there are two different ways to work with me coming up.

First and foremost, the Nail Your Message workshop is back. It's coming the week of June 19. It's $150. In that workshop, we're going to start the process of translating your expertise into a message that matters. And we do that by crafting three essential pieces of messaging that you can then use in your marketing and copy. Get on the waiting list for the Nail Your Message workshop@drmchellmazer.com/nail.

And if you're like, “Michelle, I need way more than just three pieces of messaging.” Then the Expert Up Club could be for you. Because that's where we deep dive into your message through our messaging sprints so you can get it handled and then start showing up to market your business.

And the best part is, you get to do it in an amazing community of other experts who've been at this for a while. So if you're interested in that, you can join the waitlist at Expertup.Club.

In the meantime, what I want you to remember is, number one, you've got nothing to prove. You don't, you don't have to prove how smart you are, how good you are. You are those things and proving energy repels people from wanting to work with us.

Number two, focus on the benefits of your expertise. Remember, your clients don't want to be an expert. They want to benefit from your expertise. And the best way to capture that is to do voice of the customer research.

And then finally, simplify, simplify, simplify. The more simple you can make your message, the more memorable it will be and the easier it will be for people to see how they can work with you.

And that framework, that structure that you give them, always breeds trust.

[00:13:58]: If the Rebel Uprising podcast is helping you claim and communicate your expertise so that your clients can find and hire you, please share the show with a friend. The easiest way to do that is through Pod Link. You can find the show at pod.link/rebel, and that page will allow anyone you share the show with to subscribe and start listening in their favorite podcast player. That's pod.link/rebel.

Subscribe and start listening in their favorite podcast player. That's Pod link Rebel. The Rebel Uprising podcast is a production of Communication Rebel. Our production coordinator is Jessica Gulley Ward of Juggling Logistics. Our sound engineer is Stephen Mills. Rebel Uprising podcast is recorded on the unseated traditional land of the coast Salish Peoples, specifically the first people of Seattle, the Duamish people original stewards of the land past and present.