Michelle Mazur [00:00:00]: Let's play a quick game. I'm going to say a thing, and you're going to decide if it is essential, a treat, a postponable, meaning I can wait, or an expendable. Ready? Here we go. Toilet paper, absolutely essential. Right? A fancy lip gloss? Sounds like a treat to me. A new couch when my old one still has some life in it? Totally, I can postpone that. Right? An app that teaches my cat how to manifest abundance.

Alright. That's totally expendable because, sorry, Brody, you already get an abundance of churros, you orange little beast. Now here's the rebel truth. Your clients are playing this exact same game with your offer right now. And whether they're aware of it or not, they are sorting you into one of those four buckets. And if you land in the wrong one, they're hitting snooze on working with you. So today, we're talking about how to make sure your offer feels more like a must have and not a, maybe someday. Because in a downturn, nice to have doesn't cut it anymore.

So let's get into it.

Michelle Mazur [00:01:28]: 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 [00:02:09]: We are deep into this series about how to fix your messaging and marketing in a very uncertain economy. So in Episode 393, we talked about how to translate your offer into the necessary elements of value that Harvard Business Review talks about. In the last episode, we talked about the high cost of sloppy messaging. If you miss those episodes, hit pause and go listen to them. I'll be right here when you get back. Today, we are adding another tool to your don't let your business get in trouble toolkit. This is another framework from Harvard Business Review that breaks down how consumers, yes, even our savvy B2B clients, categorize what they're buying during an economic downturn. And here are the four categories.

Michelle Mazur [00:03:09]: The first is essential, which are things that are necessary for survival or well-being. Second category is treats, the justifiable indulgences. Think about this as going out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate your birthday or anniversary. Postponables are things we actually need, but we can totally wait on until the economy improves. And the fourth one is expendables. They are unnecessary, unjustifiable, and sometimes straight up irrelevant right now. So let's dig into each of the four buckets with some examples so that you can apply it to your own business. The first bucket, essentials.

Michelle Mazur [00:03:55]: These are the things that we don't even think about cutting because we need them to run our business, to run our lives. So for me, my assistant, Jess, she is essential. She takes care of this podcast. She helps me manage my community. Like, I need her to keep the business running. And when you're essential or when your offer is essential, you're solving a high priority, often urgent problems. So for me, when I was thinking about the work I do inside the Expert Up Club with messaging, it can look something like messaging that actually gets you leads and clients right now because that feels urgent, marketing that actually brings in clients instead of wasting your time because, let's face it, our capacity is diminished. There is so much going on that we can't afford to spend time on marketing that doesn't work because we're all so tired right now.

Michelle Mazur [00:05:04]: And finally, this is advice that protects your revenue when every dollar counts. People want a service they can trust, that they know is going to get them a result. So if you're helping people save time, make money, avoid stress, or solve a “now problem”, they'll likely see your offer as essential. Now let's talk about the second bucket, treats. These are small indulgences that people can still justify. So maybe it's a $49 mini course that feels like a win that's gonna help you do something quick and easy that will move your business forward. Like, I just bought one of these so I can better track my metrics. A one off session to get clarity fast or it's really anything that feels affordable and it feels good and it's going to give a quick win.

Michelle Mazur [00:06:05]: So treats aren't needed, but we still indulge in them because they spark hope, comfort, or momentum. The next bucket, postponables. Things your clients wants, but not right now. The high touch retreat, the total rebrand, the book, the TEDx talk. People want it, but not when they're watching every penny. So here's an example from my own decision making. Eventually, I need to do a rebrand. I am growing.

Michelle Mazur [00:06:42]: I am evolving. I have a vision for my business that my current brand doesn't match up with. However, I am not ready to invest in a total rebrand, but I will tell you what, the back end of my website is janky. It's been breaking. My footer disappeared all of a sudden. And you know what? I can get more mileage out of my current brand, out of my current website if I just redevelop the back end. So I hired my wonderful developer to do that because I saw that as essential because it's gonna help me get more mileage out of my current brand and my current website. Whereas a rebrand, oof, that's a big job.

Michelle Mazur [00:07:24]: That's gonna cost a lot of money, so it is postponable for right now. And then the final category, expendables. So cue the sad trombone music. These are offers that sound good in theory, but they don't feel relevant anymore. If your offer leans too aspirational, too vague, or too one day when I'm rich and have all the free time in the world, you're probably already in this bucket. And if you're already here, you might be struggling before any of this economic uncertainty took off. So think of things like discover your soul's marketing frequency. Curious, but am I gonna find out right now? Probably not.

Michelle Mazur [00:08:10]: Craft your six figure vision or uncover your unique voice for more impact and influence. If your offer reads like a horoscope, people aren't gonna buy it. And my friend, so much of what's out there is expendable right now, and I don't want you to be in this bucket. So now it's time for you to ask yourself the real question. Where does your offer land in the mind of your audience? Are they seeing you as essential, or are they quietly filing you under someday maybe or even never? And if you want an objective opinion on this, then send me your sales page. Just email it to me. If you're on my email list, just hit reply to one of my emails and have me look at it, and I will tell you if what category you are currently falling into because you need to know that information because your job right now is to bridge the gap between what you're offering and what your audience, what your potential client needs to hear in order to prioritize it. So how do you start to reposition yourself as essential? So here's how you can make the shift.

Michelle Mazur [00:09:29]: Step number one is get specific about the urgent problem you solve. You're not helping people elevate their brand. You're helping consultants book more sales calls. Right? Or for me, I talk a lot in my 1x1 work about you're great at sales, but you're not getting enough calls. Like that is so specific, so urgent. And even last week, I had somebody who told me that they booked a call with me because of that exact line of copy. And that leads to step number two, speaking their language. You wanna know where I got that exact line of copy? Talking to potential clients who have told me that again and again and again throughout the years.

Michelle Mazur [00:10:13]: So you need to speak your client's language. You're not building an audience that you can influence and create ripple effects for. You're getting in front of more of the right people so you can sell out your group program. Right? So speak their language. Speak to what they want. And then finally, make the case. Why is now the time to solve this? What is the cost of waiting? You don't need to be a fearmonger. You don't need to trump up scarcity or fake urgency.

Michelle Mazur [00:10:47]: You can give people just the facts. I did this in my last launch for the Expert Up Club. I had an urgency message, which was about what happens if you wait to work on your message until the next time we open The Club, which is, what, three months from now. Well, what happens is that you are waiting another six months or almost to the end of the year before you're really ready to get out there and market consistently and call in the right clients with your marketing. Right? That is real urgency because it takes time. It takes time to create your message. It takes time to figure out how you're going to market and implement that message, and I was just giving you the truth. And when you're able just to be a truth teller like that, just give the facts, then you were seen as more essential.

Michelle Mazur [00:11:43]: And I could just talk about, like, hey, own your expertise, be seen as a thought leader, get on the TED stage. But in 2025, that is postponable and maybe even absolutely expendable. So here's what I'd like you to do next. First, audit your messaging. I know, I know it's hard to look at it, but go to your sales page, ask yourself, am I solving a problem that feels urgent and essential? Have I tied my offer to a concrete functional need? And go back to Episode 393 and listen to that one to help you answer this question. Then finally, am I still talking like it's 2019 and the economy's great and everyone's chasing their big dreams? If your offer is great, and I know it is because you are an expert, you are great at what you do, don't let it get dismissed because your message is stuck in a pre downturn mindset. Position it as essential. Back it up with specifics, and then you can start seeing momentum.

Michelle Mazur [00:13:03]: 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.