How You Can Avoid a Classic Fail When Presenting Your Message

I saw something along the side of the road that had me thinking about our message and how it should be crafted for optimal results.

It was an early Saturday morning and I was driving my youngest daughter to track practice. We were having occasional conversation on the way as we were both trying to ready ourselves for the day. Nothing was unusual about the ride. Standard stuff…some traffic, some construction, and some people watching.

As we were driving along, a guy on the side of the road suddenly caught my eye. He was standing there, less than enthused, holding a large poster board. In big letters it said, “YARD SALE”.

That’s it. It was clear, it was precise, it told me what to expect, but it was also a catastrophic fail.

What is the Problem With Your Marketing?

You see, the problem was that was all the sign said!

Let’s just say I was out driving around looking for yard sales. Let’s just say I stumble across this hapless dude on the side of the road. GREAT! A YARD SALE! Just what I’ve been looking for!

Just as I realize I’ve found what I was looking for, I have no idea what to do next. There is no other information provided to me. I’m simply told that somewhere, an amazing yard sale is being conducted and I have no idea how to get there. And it HAS to be nearby. So now, this guy is actually taunting me.

There was no address, no time, and even worse not even a single directional arrow.

The sign, regardless of the value of what might be at that yard sale, was completely worthless.

Fixing the Problem by Changing your Mindset

The fatal flaw this guy had was that he didn’t change his mindset. He didn’t think of the consumer. He didn’t put himself in their shoes to better understand how his message might be received.

He simply posted what he thought was important. Too many times this is not what is actually received by your audience.

He should’ve stepped back and said to himself, “If I was looking for a yard sale and saw this sign, what would I need to know next?”

Unfortunately he didn’t look at it from the consumer’s view and now he’s standing on the side of the road as potential clients drive right by.

How This Applies to Your Online Platform

This is exactly how you should approach messaging when it comes to your online platform. Always…ALWAYS…look at your message from the view of the consumer.

Approach everything in your business as someone first coming to your site, first listening to your podcast, or first watching one of your videos.

Make sure your message provides them the necessary information for them to act. You don’t want to lose a potential audience member, or better yet a customer, by missing out on something so basic.

This poor guy standing on the side of the road had a 100% bounce rate.