Sat in reception I waited to be greeted by my client for our 9am meeting. Scanning the office, already there were staff firmly focused on their work at hand. An office of technology experts working to deliver business-changing applications for their clients. An office brimming with vibrancy and clear devotion. You sensed that this was a business, very much, on the up.
We were about to run a workshop. My client wanted to address her concerns regarding the level of leads their website was generating. She believed in her business. She believed in the outcome of the work they provided for their own clients. She wanted to expand her business further.
We introduced ourselves. It was the first time we’d met in person. ‘Wow… this really isn’t what I was expecting to see…’. I had to be sincere. What I saw within their working space contradicted what I saw through their website. My perception of their business. She was surprised by my comment. ‘Really? That’s interesting….why’s that?’
I couldn’t put my finger on it. I hadn’t contemplated ‘why‘. It was a sense, a perception, I’d formed through browsing their website. The website told me about what it was that their business ‘did‘. It talked about process. It talked to me in a language, as an outsider to their industry, I didn’t necessarily understand. It told me very little about them. Their people. Their beliefs. Their vision. The same business with 2 widely differing perceptions – their web fascia and the reality of their business. The actual business.
Generating leads wasn’t their immediate problem. Perception was.
Their workplace unveiled their ethic, their passion and their story. A business that believed in itself and believed in it’s proposition. Online, they simply represented themselves as a company that creates commodity. Nothing more.
They believed they needed to ‘freshen’ their website. Create a new fascia atop the existing mask rather than break the mould that was holding back a true connection with their online audience. They believed that increasing the size of their audience, paying for traffic, would enhance lead generation. All they really needed to do was begin telling their own story.
Your content message isn’t about articulating what it is that you do. It’s about what your offering can help me achieve. The most technical problem, the most advanced technology, you still have to break it down using common language. Complex language isn’t smarter marketing. Connection is.
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