All posts by punchline

Your value proposition only needs two things

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Your message needs to be both distinctive and desirable Photo by Marc Sendra martorell on Unsplash

What makes a slogan, tagline or value proposition valuable?

Simple…it only requires two components.

Those two are – what makes you distinctive and what makes you desirable?

It needs to be as succinct and poetic as possible, expressing why you’re just that little bit special, in words which are novel yet familiar. And if you are able to incorporate a metaphor, as it can shoulder a lot of heavy-lifting, so much the better.

Of course, unearthing such a term is the real trick.

There’s precious few words with which to impart an account of yourself, to make a suggestion to a potential customer on why they should pause.

The best way to approach the refinement of your first message is to remember it is your authentic story.

And, at the heart of your business there is One Central Truth of who you are. It is the key idea behind what your message has to be.

You can make them bland and forgettable, or distinctive and desirable…and risk having someone say “tell me more.”

Your call.

Keywords according to Google do not a story make

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Trying to tell a story with key words according to Google is inauthentic. Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash

Google’s pretty useful. It is difficult to imagine the internet without its all-pervasive presence.

But trying to overly appeal to its search algorithm is an ugly way to craft your first story.

Indeed, if one of the ultimate truth tests of your primary message is to respond to “what do you do?”, then attempting to seed your answer with what appeals to Google is a doomed strategy.

This is because our brains are wired for story, and we delight in understanding such expressions – as short as our first one must be.

Sure, part of the first statement read on your website might include your ‘what’, which may be a keyword.

But, just as importantly, you’re also providing a ‘why’ for a potential customer. And this is not necessarily a term the world’s largest search engine is on the hunt for.

The other danger in chasing keywords for your H1 statement, is such a story will look and sound inauthentic.

You’re better off telling your true story, succinctly and poetically, and appeal to real people’s sensibilities.

Then you can use other parts of your copy to appeal to Google’s process.

A business is invariably many stories…but you can tell only one

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A business can only tell one story as its first story Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Any business could create its narrative from many different objective viewpoints

We all, as a business have different stories, different parts of our whole.

But we can tell only one.

Deconstructing your business to find your One Central Truth is necessary to unearth who you are.

A Million Dollar Message emerges from a structured chaos to reveal a ‘what and a why’ story, fit for purpose.

All a business’s other stories can be developed with its first, most important story acting as a North Star.

These 2-10 words as the basis for the escalator (going in different directions) answer to ‘what do you do’, as well as being an encapsulating story on a business card.

This one story is a lodestone for all internal and external message – one story, told very well.

Put a pun in your first message at your own peril

Marketing, Metaphor, million dollar message, punchline, Tagline, value proposition
Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Hairdressers seem particularly prone to them – “Hair today, gone tomorrow”, “Hair apparent”.

Garden landscapers are often close behind – “I dig gardening”, “Gardeners know all the dirt”.

We’re talking puns, word play which hopefully raises a smile (as an aside, the language knowledge needed to understand a pun is very sophisticated. This is because they require the processing of the sound and meaning of words twice, and this seemingly simple task requires considerable language agility).

But puns can be slippery turns of speech to have in your first, most important message.

Customers mightn’t get the joke.

The term you use may indeed be clever, but has nothing to do with your business.

A pun may position you as being more frivolous than is ideal.

Most of all, it is probably a missed opportunity to give those fleeting eyeballs a reason to linger longer, and explore further because the emotion and rationale parts of their brain have been intrigued by a great, first most important story.

Now there’s nothing wrong with a bit of word play, a bit of fun further on in your copy, it’s just risky using a pun first up.

Having said that, here’s a pun which is also part of the business name – which does a lot of heavy lifting in giving you a feel of who they are.

These guys ply their trade in my neighbourhood.

Good Natured Garden Services – a pun that works!

Taking the time to look up

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Picture by Lance Grandahl on Unsplash

Sometimes we all need to stop – and take the time to look up.

A colleague’s friend recently went to watch her son’s school cross country race.

Naturally she cheered her son across the finish line. And having given him a compulsory congratulatory hug, she was about to leave.

It was about then she realised she was one of the few parents celebrating her child’s achievement.

Deciding that work could be put on hold, she repositioned herself at the finish line, and cheered every runner across.

Success is too often only bestowed on the winners, when in fact being in the competition is a heroic act in itself.

By staying at the cross country, and especially acknowledging the plodders, she did herself and those runners a huge favour.

Our humanity is based on shared experiences.

Both the runners and the cheerer had lives that were enriched by crossing that finish line – together.

Why your business name should start your story

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Picture by rawpixel on Unsplash

Many of us have struggled with what to call something or someone.

In the case of a child’s name it can be a nightmare. After all, we don’t want to lumber our offspring with either too common a handle or something so obscure it invariably results in variations on ‘pardon?’.

A business name is similar, though probably without the psychological pressure of getting it wrong.

Some people are tempted to adopt a name (which is also often their brand) which has no connection to the business they’re in.

This invariably means they have to explain why they’ve gone for such an oddball (in the business context) term.

In needing to explain the name, they lose precious moments to tell a prospective customer their purpose.

In giving themselves a label which has no connection to the product or service they sell, they effectively create an antagonistic storyline.

Which is why, if in the formative stages of business creation, you can create your name – make sure it’s the start of your story.

Make your name a semi-synonym for what you’re doing.

Make sure there’s no disconnect between your name and your message.

Make your name effortlessly flow into your story, and give yourself the best chance of capturing a customer’s heart, and then their head.

Simple is better…but hard to achieve

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David is simple...not
Michelangelo ‘simply’ removed the marble which wasn’t David

After Michelangelo sculpted his statue of David in Florence in 1504, he was asked how he created such a masterpiece?

“It’s simple. I took away everything that wasn’t David,” he replied.

Viewing the magnificent more than four metre David, it’s obvious Michelangelo is being slightly disingenuous.

But his ‘simple’ idea to remove the unnecessary bits should be kept in mind when telling a business story, and informing us as succinctly as possible.

Removing story clutter is deceptively difficult to do. Our temptation is to always add more – like adding another feature to already bloated software.

It’s one reason Subway’s ‘Eat Fresh’ story/slogan/value proposition is so good. There’s plenty of other fast food brands that could’ve claimed the label, but Subway got there first.

Like Michelangelo, Subway’s creatives cut away everything that wasn’t David.

‘Eat Fresh’ is simple, and Subway owns the idea.

The challenge for all of us is to own an idea in our own area of expertise. It will probably require more than two words, but shouldn’t be more than 15.

Why bother blogging?

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Photo by Alvaro Serrano on Unsplash

In an age where the world’s awash with content of multiple kinds, what’s the use of blogging?

An obvious-ish answer is because Google doesn’t like seeing static websites.

From that point of view, regularly updated material in the form of a blog creates change, reminds the internet’s largest search engine that you’re still alive and kicking.

That’s important, but perhaps not as significant as the opportunity blogging provides to tell your own story – your authentic story.

Now, if you’re lucky, someone else with a publishing outlet may tell your story on their behalf. Almost invariably however, the angle they’ll take isn’t necessarily what you would’ve chosen.

Blogging allows you to tell your own story in your own words.

The other great advantage of blogging is by putting those words down on paper (metaphorically speaking), you’re forced to make semi-formed ideas more concrete.

And converting those semi-formed ideas into written form is hugely powerful in refining and relating the stories people want to hear about a business, your business.

Blogging forces you to think about what it is you’re trying to say. Blogging builds believability.

Now I’m sure there’s many other reasons to blog and tell your own stories. What’s some of those other reasons?

Making your story simple yet profound

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Picture by rocknwool on Unsplash

Many of us, myself included, are often guilty of over-wording our message.

We use two words when one would do.

We use generic words when our story screams for a metaphor.

We use little known words that can embarrass people because they don’t understand their meaning.

The key to creating your own Million Dollar Message is keeping it simple…but in that story simplicity making it crystal clear what it is you’re selling and why a (potential) customer should be interested.

Such a simple yet profound message could be the name of a report, the first thing read on a website or the title of a speech.

However, there’s a line between being too simple and overly profound.

Your job is to plot a new path, using novel yet familiar words, that balances both.

How do you answer “what do you do?”

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Photo by Jenni Jones on Unsplash

Most of us will have been at a function, and asked someone “what do you do?”

“I do many things,” the reply.

“You do many things and therefore nothing,” you tell yourself in your own mind, and instantly detune your listening.

Now, it may indeed be the case that a business does do many things. But, because we invariably only have one bite of the ‘what do you do’ cherry, you’d better make damn sure that your single message is exactly on point.

Refining your own business story down to that single message is a challenge – after all, no one likes killing their darlings (or other potential messages).

But it’s not killing them. They can and should appear later as support and reinforcement for the one idea that someone initially reads on your website, or hears when you speak.

However, no one should ever underestimate how extremely difficult it is for business owners and employees to unearth this single story on their own.

A dispassionate foil, a reflective listener with an ear for language and a flair with words is your best bet to help you extract the 2 – 10+ words that reflect your purpose and reason (for others to give a toss).

So, to find the message that really matters to you, find someone who cares…but not too much, and together you’ll refine that story to a single blindingly clear ‘aha’ for any listener.

(And you’ll never be caught saying “we do many things”!)