3 Steps to Create an Irresistible Message to Market Your Agency

[Black_Dragon43]

One of the biggest issues smaller agencies struggle with is articulating the value they offer to prospects in their outreach.

In many cases what they can do for clients is extremely beneficial, and it's often to a much higher standard of quality than big agencies can deliver.

But with fewer case studies, and without a message that can cut through the noise and resonate with their target audience, they struggle to get a response.

Here are 3 secrets to crafting a message-market fit that gets prospects to respond to your messaging:

1. Figure out very SPECIFICALLY who your ideal client is

Your ideal client is simply the business that can MOST benefit from what you offer.

Let's jump straight to an example. In our case, the niche we serve is at a broad level "marketing agencies". But that's not specific enough.

There are marketing agencies out there that make $100M/year. Are they our ideal client? No.

So we need to get more specific.

"US & EU-based marketing agencies with 1-3 employees, where the owner runs most of the show making between $40,000 to $250,000 per year and looking to scale to $1,000,000 while building a team."

Can you see how specific that is? You need to be so specific that anyone who falls into that category is actually an ideal client for you.

2. Engage your target audience about the problems they face to achieve the transformation that you offer

It can be as simple as saying:

"I'm just doing some market research about [Target Audience], would you be able to help me with one simple question?

• What's your biggest challenge to achieving [Transformation you Offer]?

Cheers, appreciate your help "

Below is an example of how I have done it. All the strategies I share here and inside my paid programs I have used myself to scale my agency to 18 people in the past, and now to scale my current consulting business to $1M/year by the end of 2023.

3. Talk the same language as your customers, and show them how YOU solve those problems for them (and how they can solve them too).

Your service IS your marketing. You never need to create content and offer the service separately. Create the content when performing the service.

Then you simply bring the content and put it out in front of people who aren't yet customers. And make sure you extract the language your ideal target audience uses to describe the problem in step 2 and put it in front of them.

This entire post is an example of me doing just that. Can you see how simple it is, and yet how effective? It got you to read this far and it's quite a long post!

 

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[mikecarlooch]

One of the biggest issues smaller agencies struggle with is articulating the value they offer to prospects in their outreach.

In many cases what they can do for clients is extremely beneficial, and it's often to a much higher standard of quality than big agencies can deliver.

But with fewer case studies, and without a message that can cut through the noise and resonate with their target audience, they struggle to get a response.

Here are 3 secrets to crafting a message-market fit that gets prospects to respond to your messaging:

1. Figure out very SPECIFICALLY who your ideal client is

Your ideal client is simply the business that can MOST benefit from what you offer.

Let's jump straight to an example. In our case, the niche we serve is at a broad level "marketing agencies". But that's not specific enough.

There are marketing agencies out there that make $100M/year. Are they our ideal client? No.

So we need to get more specific.

"US & EU-based marketing agencies with 1-3 employees, where the owner runs most of the show making between $40,000 to $250,000 per year and looking to scale to $1,000,000 while building a team."

Can you see how specific that is? You need to be so specific that anyone who falls into that category is actually an ideal client for you.

2. Engage your target audience about the problems they face to achieve the transformation that you offer

It can be as simple as saying:

"I'm just doing some market research about [Target Audience], would you be able to help me with one simple question?

• What's your biggest challenge to achieving [Transformation you Offer]?

Cheers, appreciate your help "

Below is an example of how I have done it. All the strategies I share here and inside my paid programs I have used myself to scale my agency to 18 people in the past, and now to scale my current consulting business to $1M/year by the end of 2023.

3. Talk the same language as your customers, and show them how YOU solve those problems for them (and how they can solve them too).

Your service IS your marketing. You never need to create content and offer the service separately. Create the content when performing the service.

Then you simply bring the content and put it out in front of people who aren't yet customers. And make sure you extract the language your ideal target audience uses to describe the problem in step 2 and put it in front of them.

This entire post is an example of me doing just that. Can you see how simple it is, and yet how effective? It got you to read this far and it's quite a long post!

Hey Tudor great post I have a question.

My audience is targeted toward a specific sector, but it's not nearly as targeted as the one you displayed here.

How did you come up with all of those small details, was it just a matter of guessing?

And if it's so specific like that, do you spend like 10 minutes qualifying each lead?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Hey Tudor great post I have a question.

My audience is targeted toward a specific sector, but it's not nearly as targeted as the one you displayed here.

How did you come up with all of those small details, was it just a matter of guessing?

Your niche will evolve over time based on where you're best positioned to deliver value. I didn't have so much specificity from the get-go, but I've refined over time as I gained more understanding about my market.

So I'd say it's a matter of watching your client interactions:

• Who is interested in what you have? Who responds to your outreach? What are their features?
• Who actually ends up buying?
• What are the reasons someone doesn't buy?

I'll give you a specific example. I get on an inbound sales call with one of the directors of an UK-based marketing agency. I ask them a few questions, I see they already have 15 employees and making $2M revenue, they're really looking for an entirely done-for-you service just to automate lead generation, and they feel like they've got their business model nailed down.

They're not my people.

Why not?

Well, what does my program help people achieve?

• It helps them nail a business model that works and will allow them to scale to the $1M/yr level. Business model here means Niche, Problem, Offer and Transformation combination.
• Helps them nail a compelling, high-ticket offer that gives them sufficient income to enable them to hire others and start scaling.
• It helps them replace themselves with systems formed from people and processes, so they're not stuck working in the business.
• It gives them the tools (ie, systems, blueprints, workflows, templates) to create build & train their team to do (1) sales, (2) marketing, (3) hiring, (4) get case studies in the right format, (5) expand what clients spend with them, (6) manage larger teams and projects, (7) build a personal brand and authority in their niche.
• It helps them build a system that can book 10-60 appointments per month for their business.
• It gives them access to me and coaching whenever they need it to make sure any specific problems they have can quickly get addressed and solved.
• Gives them access to 3 ready-made funnels and 6 outbound strategies with templates that they can just adapt for their own use.
• And there's a few more...

But the point is the guys from the example above couldn't benefit from most of those. They were not my people.

So who CAN benefit from those things?

The lone agency owner who maybe has 1-3 employees or remote staff that helps him, is making a decent income, but wants to grow this into basically a fastlane business, hire others, build his team, and stop working around the clock or feeling stuck and not knowing what his next step is.

That's the guy (or gal - actually most of the agency owners I've worked with this year have been women) who can benefit from ALL of that and more.

So it's all a matter of problem-solving and seeing who can most benefit from what you have to offer. Entrepreneurship is all about detecting and solving problems for people.

 

[Andy Black]

Your niche will evolve over time based on where you're best positioned to deliver value.

This. You dial it in as you engage the market. What seemed your ideal niche or avatar on paper might not be for all sorts of reasons. And when you're in motion you'll stumble across other niches and avatars you didn't think about before you started. Your offering will slowly evolve too. I think that's normal and why we need to engage as early as we can, and figure it out as we go.

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

This. You dial it in as you engage the market. What seemed your ideal niche or avatar on paper might not be for all sorts of reasons. And when you're in motion you'll stumble across other niches and avatars you didn't think about before you started. Your offering will slowly evolve too. I think that's normal and why we need to engage as early as we can, and figure it out as we go.

I love this @Andy Black, amazing point!

Taking action is the most important thing. Without action, there is no learning, and without learning you can’t be guided by the market towards what’s truly valuable.

I’ve built my entire NPOT Methodology that I use around this. Your business model is essential defined by your Niche, the Problem(s) you solve, the Transformation you deliver and the How (your Offer. Stands for NPOT.

Then every agency has an NPOT Model - it’s sort of the engine of the business, its potential. You want a higher potential you need to evolve your NPOT Model towards maximising the value you deliver.

And the only way to do that is to engage the market and let it guide you. Everyone starts with a hypothesis — a best guess for their NPOT Model. They say I’ll go after local dental clinics, helping them solve the problem of reactivating inactive patients, through Facebook Ads & special discounts (the offer), so they can build more loyal customers (the transformation).

But that’s just a guess. Then you have to engage the market, through your marketing message, and then try to sell them through your sales process.

The marketing message, if the NPOT Model is effective, will resonate with a large number of your target market. If it’s not, then it won’t resonate. You’ll struggle to book meetings and appointments. If that’s the case you need to ask smart questions to figure out which element(s) of your NPOT Model need adjustment.

Likewise your sales process may not resonate, and you’re getting meetings but no one buys. Gotta figure out the issue and where in your NPOT Model it’s coming from.

This is how you evolve it through time. It’s exactly like the scientific method - make a guess about the market, go out and test it, learn from it, make a better guess, and repeat. Doing this you simply cannot fail - you’ll pivot around till you’ll find something the market is willing to pay to solve.

And what I love about agencies and digital service businesses is that there is really no cost other than your time to learning. Anyone can start this and make it work.

 

[Paul David]

One of the biggest issues smaller agencies struggle with is articulating the value they offer to prospects in their outreach.

In many cases what they can do for clients is extremely beneficial, and it's often to a much higher standard of quality than big agencies can deliver.

But with fewer case studies, and without a message that can cut through the noise and resonate with their target audience, they struggle to get a response.

Here are 3 secrets to crafting a message-market fit that gets prospects to respond to your messaging:

1. Figure out very SPECIFICALLY who your ideal client is

Your ideal client is simply the business that can MOST benefit from what you offer.

Let's jump straight to an example. In our case, the niche we serve is at a broad level "marketing agencies". But that's not specific enough.

There are marketing agencies out there that make $100M/year. Are they our ideal client? No.

So we need to get more specific.

"US & EU-based marketing agencies with 1-3 employees, where the owner runs most of the show making between $40,000 to $250,000 per year and looking to scale to $1,000,000 while building a team."

Can you see how specific that is? You need to be so specific that anyone who falls into that category is actually an ideal client for you.

2. Engage your target audience about the problems they face to achieve the transformation that you offer

It can be as simple as saying:

"I'm just doing some market research about [Target Audience], would you be able to help me with one simple question?

• What's your biggest challenge to achieving [Transformation you Offer]?

Cheers, appreciate your help "

Below is an example of how I have done it. All the strategies I share here and inside my paid programs I have used myself to scale my agency to 18 people in the past, and now to scale my current consulting business to $1M/year by the end of 2023.

3. Talk the same language as your customers, and show them how YOU solve those problems for them (and how they can solve them too).

Your service IS your marketing. You never need to create content and offer the service separately. Create the content when performing the service.

Then you simply bring the content and put it out in front of people who aren't yet customers. And make sure you extract the language your ideal target audience uses to describe the problem in step 2 and put it in front of them.

This entire post is an example of me doing just that. Can you see how simple it is, and yet how effective? It got you to read this far and it's quite a long post!

Asking for advice or feedback is a great way to start conversations especially as lots of people are used to getting pitches.

When you’ve asked that initial question, and let’s say the answer means they’re a qualified lead, how do you pivot to introducing your service?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

When you’ve asked that initial question, and let’s say the answer means they’re a qualified lead, how do you pivot to introducing your service?

By helping them to gain clarity about the problem and discuss the aspects that worry them. My marketing is my product, ie consulting!

That usually leads to a zoom conversation, and from there if they want more thorough help through my Agency Ascendancy Program after they trust me enough, I’m happy to go for it, otherwise they can continue enjoying and benefiting from my content.

That conversation actually ended up into a booked zoom call after I shared 1 of the 55 tools I have inside Ascendancy to help the guy. Then he wanted some advice on some scripts he had. Haven’t had the zoom call yet.

That’s what most people don’t get. Your marketing should be no different than your product. Whatever you do with your product (that includes cases when your product is your service), bring a part of that out in front to prospects. And keep doing it. If day after day after day they see the same thing in front of their eyes, it’s only a matter of time before they want the full enchilada.

There are no tricks. Just focus on building a great product that solves problems, and then bring parts of the product in front of prospects with your marketing. They’ll want to know more by themselves!

 

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