Make Marketing Suck Less

Michelle Mazur [00:00:00]: One of the things that pisses me off about online business is how fast and loose people are with words. A lot of the times, they use words in a way where they don't mean what they think they mean. And this past year, I've noticed a lot of people talking about messaging and how they help you with your messaging. But when I look at their programs, because, believe it or not, I take a lot of courses on messaging and marketing to keep my own skills sharp, I often find the program isn't about messaging. It's about copywriting or content marketing or just straight up marketing, or it's just a snippet of what messaging is, like an elevator pitch or content buckets. And nothing makes marketing suck more for you as a solo business owner than being confused about what your business actually needs. So it's time to revisit what the difference is between marketing, messaging, and copywriting with examples so you know where to focus, and you're not wasting your time or money focused on the wrong damn thing. So let's do this.

Michelle Mazur [00:01:31]: Welcome to Make Marketing Suck Less. The podcast that knows marketing is freaking hard, especially when you're a solo business owner trying to juggle it all. I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, author of the 3 Word Rebellion and founder of the Expert Up Club. Forget the latest marketing fads and tactics promising social media stardom. I'm here with research-backed strategies to help you clarify your message and get twice as effective with your marketing. And while I can't promise you'll ever love marketing, I'm here. to make you hate it a tiny bit less.

Michelle Mazur [00:02:12]: So what the hell is the difference between messaging, copywriting, and marketing? And how are they related to each other? And how do you know where to put your efforts? We're going to answer all three of these questions today. So there is this common business wisdom that I can't trace back to any particular source. But what is often said is messaging is the what, copywriting is the how, and marketing amplifies the what.

Michelle Mazur [00:02:46]: So if you've ever sat down at your computer to write an email to your list and thought, I don't know what to write, that's a messaging problem. If you're struggling to succinctly talk about what your business does, That is a messaging problem. If your marketing is not generating leads, those new people who are interested in your offer, then that's also a messaging problem. Because here's the deal, folks. Messaging powers your marketing and your copy. So let's talk about a simple definition of messaging. Messaging is the key ideas or themes that need to be conveyed in your marketing and copy to persuade. Let me say that one more time.

Michelle Mazur [00:03:41]: Messaging is the key ideas that need to be conveyed in your marketing and copy to persuade. Now you might be asking, what am I persuading them to do? Well, it could be to book a consult. It could be to follow you on social media, join your community, sign up for your email list, buy your book, buy your product. The important part is you have to define the goal of what you want your messaging to do first and then combine it with the right ingredients. So I really look at all of the key themes and the key ideas as the ingredients to a cocktail. The way you blend different ingredients together can create a compelling narrative. It can create an entire marketing campaign. It can create a short little social media post.

Michelle Mazur [00:04:42]: And so whenever you go into a restaurant, there is a bar and there are so many bottles of booze. Right? And your messaging is like that. Like, you have a set of different themes. So there are an infinite number of drinks a bartender could create, and it's the same with your messaging. Like, you can remix your messaging in a way to create different types of marketing assets, different types of campaigns, different types of content. When I approach messaging, I always think about it as what different ingredients do I need to attain my goal. I also approach it using Eugene Schwartz. He wrote the book Breakthrough Advertising in 1964, so this is definitely old school.

Michelle Mazur [00:05:32]: I use his customer awareness spectrum. In his customer awareness spectrum, what you need is a different set of messages to reach people at different stages of awareness. So you need a set of messages to reach people who don't know you yet. You need a set of messages to help them diagnose their actual problem. Another set to introduce your solution. Another set to introduce and invite people into your offer. Right? So for me, when I look at this and I think about my own sets of messages and I'm just gonna keep this super simple, so I'm just gonna talk you through one set. So when I think about reaching unaware audiences, I do have several themes.

Michelle Mazur [00:06:21]: Make marketing suck less is one of those big themes. It's trying to reach people who are kind of at their wit's end with marketing. It is harder than people have said. The formulas aren't working. They've been around the block. They know that there's more finesse to marketing, but they don't know exactly what it is. I'm out there saying, like, no. Marketing is actually not as simple as people lead you to believe.

Michelle Mazur [00:06:47]: It's actually kind of hard. And then once I get their attention with that set of messages, I can say, like, hey. Let's talk about what's really going on here. Do you have a marketing problem? Or could you have a messaging problem? So funny enough and so this is the problem aware stage from Eugene Schwartz, customer awareness. But, also, it's really funny because this episode would be a problem-aware piece of messaging. Right? Because I'm talking about what the difference is between messaging and marketing and copywriting. And it's something that I need to clear up for people because they are unsure what the difference is. It's a misconception that causes them friction from finding out what my solution is, which brings me to the next stage of customer awareness, solution aware.

Michelle Mazur [00:07:40]: Now depending on what my goal is, like what product or service I'm trying to sell, the solution will probably still be about messaging because that is what my business is all about. Right? But I might be talking about the 3 Word Rebellion. Or I might be talking about the minimum viable message, which is something I do inside the Expert Up Club, and that also pairs with a 3 Word rebellion. And then once they know, like, what my approach is, I can go into that product aware, most aware phase where I'm telling them how I actually work and the results that I've seen. So here's the thing. Like, when I know what all my key themes are, like, when I am clear on how I am leading people from not knowing me at all to being interested in the Expert Up Club, then and only then am I ready to apply them to my marketing and my copy. So if messaging is the what, then what the heck is marketing? So marketing essentially amplifies the what so you reach your potential clients. Marketing amplifies your message.

Michelle Mazur [00:09:01]: Now for me, I love Seth Godin's definition of marketing from his book, This is Marketing. He says marketing is the generous act of helping others become who they seek to become. It involves creating honest stories, stories that resonate and spread. Marketers offer solutions, opportunities for humans to solve their problems and move forward. Like, hell, yes. That's such an empowering definition of marketing. Right? Like, that jazzes me. And in that definition, you can see the messaging overtones.

Michelle Mazur [00:09:38]: Right? It's about honest stories that resonate, and that's what messaging is, but they also need to spread. We have to spread the stories so people can understand how we can solve their problems so they can become who they want to become. It's about amplification. So the first thing to realize is that marketing is made up of strategies, so thinking about what your goals are and how you're going to reach those goals, and tactics. And any good marketing strategy has 3 different components to it. Basically, I say that marketing does 3 jobs for your business. Now, I have talked about the GEO framework before. And if you want to go deeper on this topic, I recommend taking my free crash course, Market Like an Expert.

Michelle Mazur [00:10:34]: It's 7 emails over 7 days, and you're going to come out with a do-less but better marketing strategy. You're going to understand how to do each of the 3 jobs marketing is supposed to be doing for your business. So if that sounds interesting, open up your podcast app right now. Click the Market Like an Expert link in the show notes, or you can just open up your browser, go to doctormichellemazur.com/mle to get started for free. So I did want to go quickly over the GEO framework and the 3 jobs marketing does for your business. And surprise, this is also based on Eugene Schwartz' customer awareness, but thinking about the tactics we need in each segment in order to amplify our message. So here we go. The “g” in GEO stands for grow.

Michelle Mazur [00:11:37]: So the first job your marketing does is helping you reach the unaware and problem aware people. So growing your audience, building your brand awareness. So how do I get new people interested in what I'm doing? How do I get them to find my business? How do I build brand awareness? Grow answers those questions. The second phase of GEO, or the second part of geo, is “e” for engage. And this is how do you nurture people? How do you get them ready for your offers? How do you get them to raise their hand and say, yes. I think I'm interested in this. I think I have the problem you solve. And when we're in this engage phase, our messaging is focused on that problem aware set of messages and also introducing them to our solution, our approach.

Michelle Mazur [00:12:37]: Not our offer. We're talking more about our high level approach. And then the final phase, the “o” in GEO is offer. This is when you are actively inviting people into your sales process. So you're telling them about your offer, your framework, your results. When you're thinking about grow, engage, and offer, the great thing is that you have so many different tactics you can choose from in order to fulfill those jobs. Everything from social media, which you don't have to do, to webinars, to consultation calls, email marketing. And I lay all of those out in Market Like an Expert.

Michelle Mazur [00:13:20]: So, seriously, just go get the Market Like an Expert crash course so you know what activities to focus on. So we've talked about how messaging is what to say. Marketing is amplifying that what. Now what is copywriting? Copywriting is how to say it. Copywriters are uniquely skilled and experienced. They are typically highly trained in what converts. So this is called conversion copywriting. It's the type of copywriting that can live on your sales page or your home page or you're using in your email marketing when you're launching.

Michelle Mazur [00:14:06]: You should know that there are different types of copywriters out there, like, more personality driven. But conversion copy is what you want the most if you are selling a product, a service, an offer. So what copywriters do is they understand how to translate the key messages, those ideas and themes that aim to persuade people, into words that live on the page that inspire people to take action. Most copywriters, when you hire them, expect you to come in with some knowledge of what to say. They expect you to understand your customers, how you help them, the big results that you produce, and your key messages. Now some copywriters do messaging work. And, honestly, you should be paying those people double because, in my opinion, messaging is a completely separate project from writing the copy that goes on your website or that you're using for launch emails. Because copywriters who are doing messaging are now digging in to figure out the what.

Michelle Mazur [00:15:17]: Like, what are those key messages? So they are highly skilled and highly trained in what to say and how to say it. So you should probably be paying them more money, in my opinion. So let me boil this down. How do you know what your business needs to focus on? So let me leave you with 3 simple questions. Question number 1, do you know what to say? If you sat down to write an email to your list right now, do you know what you would say to them in order to move them closer to working with you? If your answer is no or I partially, I kinda know what to say, stop right there. Your business needs you to focus on your messaging. Question number 2 to ask yourself, If you feel like you know what to say, do you know how you want to amplify that message? Do you know how to market your business? And are you doing it in the way that's most effective? So if marketing is sucking for you, but you already know what to say and you have your themes, you know how to move people to working to you, then marketing should be your focus. And the final question you can ask yourself, maybe you know what to say, but is it translating to your website and to the emails that you're writing.

Michelle Mazur [00:16:57]: Right? So is that how to say it coming through? And if you know what to say, but your website isn't reflective of what you want people to know about your business, then that means you need copywriting. Bottom line is I want you to be clear on what you need so you stop investing in programs or investing your time and energy into marketing or copywriting before you're ready. And I just want you to have the focus to know what your business needs in order for you to grow and thrive and to make marketing suck less.

Michelle Mazur [00:17:40]: If the Make Marketing Suck Less pod is making your marketing more effective 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.

The Make Marketing Suck Less podcast is a production of Communication Rebel. Our production coordinator is Jessica Gulley-Ward. The podcast is edited by Steven Mills, our executive producer is me, Dr. Michelle Mazur.

The Make Marketing Suck Less podcast is recorded on the unseated traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish people, original stewards of the land, past, and present.