Loading ...I read an article not too long ago by C. J. Hayden. In it, she was talking about the idea that marketing that is too unique can hurt you. In one anecdote, she related how she had met a fellow who had a “unique process” for helping companies resolve conflicts between employee groups. When asked, he couldn’t explain his process. All he would say is that it had to be experienced to be understood. When she asked him how it compared to solutions like mediation or team building, he told her it was a totally different approach that defied comparison.
She said she would have liked to have referred him, but couldn’t picture herself calling a company and saying “Hi, I know someone who says he can fix your problem, but he can’t explain how. You’ll just have to hire him and see.”
This reminded me exactly of a prospective client who once contacted me. He couldn’t give me any clear idea about what he did or who he did it for. He abjectly refused to categorize himself (and was quite pleased with himself about that), much less give me any kind of term for what he did, ”I don’t believe in labeling myself; what I do is too unique.”
Needless to say, that conversation went nowhere real quick. I can’t help someone who makes what they do so completely incomprehensible, for both me and their would-be clients.
When you are marketing your Virtual Assistant business, the idea isn’t to be mysterious or so all-encompassing that no one can figure out exactly what you are. It’s about creating clarity and understanding–clearly categorizing the business, what you do, who you do it for and how you help improve things for them.
The more you focus your message on a specifically defined audience, the more attractive, resonate, compelling–and unique–it will be, and the less you will be parroting the same tired, outdated, ineffective message that clients see on every single other VA site out there.
