FREE MARKETING CHALLENGE. A Closer Look at Your Marketing - Can someone quickly understand what you actually do?
If you run a business, chances are your marketing to-do list never actually gets shorter. You clear one thing off it and two more appear. It may sound like: start a newsletter, try a new trend on Reels or just keep posting more!
Here's the thing though: adding more activity isn't usually the problem. Most businesses I work with aren't short on effort. What they're short on is a proper look at what they've already got, and whether it's actually working.
So that's what we're doing in this FREE challenge: no new platforms to learn, or extra things to add to the pile. Just an honest look at your marketing as it stands.
What you need: Grab your laptop and a pen and paper to make some notes.
Is Your Marketing Clear?
CLOSE is the framework I use with clients to get to the bottom of what's actually working in their marketing. Clarity's the first piece, and it's usually the one people can spot for themselves with the right questions, so that's what I'm giving you for FREE today.
Clarity
Here's an uncomfortable question to start with: if a total stranger landed on your website right now, would they understand what you do within a few seconds? Not eventually, or once they've scrolled through your About page and pieced it together from context. Straight away.
I ask because I see this constantly with clients, and it's rarely a case of them not knowing their own business, it's the opposite. They know it so well that they've stopped noticing the gaps. Phrases that make perfect sense internally read as vague to everyone else. Service names that mean something to you mean nothing to a stranger. You end up explaining your business to people who were never given enough to understand it in the first place.
So this challenge is simple, and it'll take you about ten minutes.
Go and look at your business like a stranger would. Pull up your website, Google Business Profile, your Instagram or Facebook bio, whatever's the first thing a new customer actually sees, and ask yourself these questions honestly.
THE WHAT - Can someone quickly understand what you actually do?
Not the full nuanced version you'd give in a conversation. The quick version. If they can't sum it up after a glance, that's worth noting.
SO WHAT - A lot of copy can read like a list of features and credentials. That's fine, but it's not the same as answering "what does this actually mean for me?", which is the real question your customer's asking. That's the difference between a page that lists what you do and one that makes someone think 'that's for me.'
NOW WHAT - Is there an obvious next step for someone who's interested?
If someone reads what you've written and thinks "okay, I'm interested," do they know what to do next? Or are they left to work it out themselves?
Score yourself honestly on each of the three questions above. 1 if it's genuinely unclear, 3 if it's there but could be sharper, 5 if you're truly confident it'd be obvious to a stranger. Add up your total.
12-15: Your clarity's in decent shape. Worth revisiting whichever question scored lowest, but you're not starting from scratch.
8-11: There's a clarity gap somewhere in there, and it's probably costing you more than you think. Worth a proper look before anything else on your list.
3-7: Your marketing is likely working harder than it needs to, because the basics aren't landing yet. This is worth prioritising over everything else.
Wherever you land, don't panic and rewrite everything today. The point of this isn't to fix it, it's to notice it. That's the bit most business owners skip.
What's Next?
Clarity's the one most people can work out for themselves with a bit of honesty. Lens, Online Presence, Strategic Focus and Experience are harder to see when you're too close to your own business, which is exactly why they're the four areas I go through with you in a Discovery MOT.
Less noise. More focus. Marketing that moves your business closer to where you want it to be.
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