I have this place on my website where anyone can sign up for an hour of my time. It’s a lot of fun because I get to meet people from all around the world and help them solve their business problems.
A high percentage of the time, I discover that the underlying problem is FOCUS. My client is having a hard time defining exactly what they do and why they matter. This may seem like a pretty basic issue, but believe me, I have hundreds of data points to prove this is a prevalent issue!
Today I will share the biggest idea I can give you to provide focus to your life, business, and website.
The two key business questions
When I visit a website, I often find it difficult to tell what the darn business does! One person last week spent 30 minutes in conversation explaining her business and I still didn’t understand it. No wonder her website is confusing!
My advice to fix this problem is simple. When I come to a website, I want to see the answer to two key business questions:
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What problem do we solve?
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How do we uniquely solve it?
That’s it.
If you can answer those two key business questions, you’ll provide focus and something a potential customer can understand. with abundant clarity. When I visit a website, I should see the answers to those questions immediately without scrolling or moving to another page.
Although the advice I provide is simple, figuring out the answers to those questions can be more difficult.
Here’s what I’ve learned after consulting with hundreds of executives and business owners — They usually KNOW the answers but they’re not listening to their own wisdom. It takes some digging, but we can always unearth the truth. And if we can’t address those key business questions easily … well, maybe there’s not a real business there after all.
Answering the key business questions
Here’s a short example of how this works.
I was helping a chief marketing officer who had been working at a company for about 10 years. He was completely stuck on how to explain the company through his marketing messaging. He could not answer these two key business questions because over time, his company had grown and morphed into so many new areas that he couldn’t bring it together in one statement.
He told me that his company was a marketing agency, based in a major U.S. city.
I asked him, where are you getting most of your revenue?
“We’ve developed apps that help doctors visualize complicated patient data. We’ve also helped medical centers with new administrative software.”
Hmmmm. That does not sound like a marketing agency to me! I continued to probe. It became clear that the company had grown in so many new directions since he had joined the company that it was something beyond a mere marketing agency. They were a software company creating custom solutions for the healthcare industry.
This executive was explaining this to me but just couldn’t hear himself say it. Once I pointed it out, his direction and focus became crystal clear. He was relieved and we were able to start a discussion on an exciting new strategy highlighting their unique capabilities. All w had to do was answer those two questions.
Clarity is the key
Here are my own answers to the two key business questions:
Marketing is essential — but complicated.
I make it clear.
If you look at the trajectory of my career, that’s what I’m about: Distilling complexity to its essence. It’s easy for me to communicate this when I know what problem I solve and how I uniquely solve it! All of my content points in this one, easy to understand direction.
The true power in your business is embedded in the answers to those key business questions. Figure them out and your marketing plan unveils itself!
Mark Schaefer is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions. He is the author of several best-selling digital marketing books and is an acclaimed keynote speaker, college educator, and business consultant. The Marketing Companion podcast is among the top business podcasts in the world. Contact Mark to have him speak to your company event or conference soon.
