Most small business owners don’t realize that confusion is killing their business.
Quietly, and often slowly.
Ideal customers find your website, land on your homepage, and aren’t really sure if what you offer solves their problem.
Even people referred by customers who love you, check your website and social media, aren’t quite sure what you do, or if you’re right for them, and move on.
Here’s the kicker…
You Can’t Know If Your Own Website is Confusing
You read through your homepage and think, “Sounds good to me!”
BUT, you aren’t your customer.
You’re coming into reading that homepage, or sales page, with years (maybe decades) of experience doing what you do.
Your customer may know NOTHING about your services or industry.
They’re approaching their first interaction with your business with no background, no knowledge, nothing.
If your marketing message is at all confusing, you’re losing them.
They look at your website and think, “I’m not sure if this is for me,” and move on to your competitors.
Two Types of Confusion in Marketing
More businesses have confusing marketing messages than want to admit it. Those who do recognize it often address only one type of confusion in their marketing. There are at least three.
Offer Confusion
If someone opens your website, they will know exactly who you are, what you do, how it makes their life better, and how they buy it, without having to dig? Will they understand those things in less than five seconds?
If the answer is “no,” you have Offer Confusion.
Your website visitors (this applies to social media or anywhere else you use words) can’t understand how your services solve their problems quickly enough, so they leave.
Process Confusion
Another type of confusion in marketing comes when your customer looks at what you do, but can’t picture themselves at the end of the process.
Maybe your service is confusing and has a lot of detailed steps to follow to help your customer overcome their problem.
If your customer can’t quickly understand a flyover view of your process and picture themselves on the other side, they’re more likely to opt-out, or “self-remove” by thinking it must not be for them.
Industry Confusion
The first two types of marketing confusion are internal. They are focused on what you say in your own marketing.
The last type of marketing confusion occurs when your marketing message is paired up with your competitors’ marketing messages by customers who are researching options.
Is your message distinguishable from your competitors? OR, like what often happens, is your message just a rehashing of the same thing your competitors are saying?
Think about it, if I’m looking for an HVAC repair company in Indianapolis, there can’t be five different “Most trusted HVAC repair companies” in the same town. That’s absurd.
YET, that’s what you find when you look at the websites of competing service providers in most towns.
If your message isn’t unique, it doesn’t stand out. If it doesn’t stand out, it’s not memorable. If it’s not memorable, you get ignored.
The World Is Moving Faster. There is no time for confusing marketing.
The world is moving faster and faster by the minute, it seems. You can’t afford to allow potential customers to spend time getting to know you.
You need everyone to understand what you do and how it makes their life better as immediately as humanly possible.
Is your marketing message clear? Does your website show visitors what problem you solve, and how it makes their lives better?
Is your messaging trying to solve too many problems at one time and leaving ideal customers confused?
There are a million ways to confuse people on your website and social media.
If you aren’t sure if your marketing message is clear, check out my Marketing Clarity Quiz, if you haven’t already.
Want some help creating extreme clarity in your messaging so you stand out in a crowded market? Schedule a call with me anytime!
0 Comments