Best Kept Secrets 🤫
Hello Reader,
This week, I was working with one of my favorite clients, Jamar, on elevating his message to reach clients that are a perfect fit for his team's services.
When I do this work as part of our six week strategy sprint, Spark Sessions, or three month marketing Accelerator programs, I often ask clients to step waaaaay back and talk me through everything they do with their clients. This is helpful because I'll often see things that are a really big deal that my clients take for granted. These pieces are their own best kept secrets.
No surprise, when Jamar walked me through his process and the impact of his work, it became undeniably clear that he does far more than his marketing would indicate. I picked up on this immediately because, well, been there, done that, bought the souvenir T-shirt.
Real talk? This is why it took me so long to actively sell strategy as the core service at SM&Co. (I offered it, built it into everything—but I didn't market it. I know, I know... I knew better.)
I talked about this a bit over on Instagram, or you can watch below.
Here's the thing: We all do this. Even professional marketers like Jamar and I!
When something feels easy thanks to years of practice—in my case it's strategy—it doesn't feel naturally marketable or even worth sharing to many of us. And yet, that's the thing that often feels hardest and most overwhelming and incomprehensible to our audiences.
When I started talking about the thing that was my natural strengths on purpose and deliberately, my marketing got so much easier. When I encourage my clients to do the same, they experience that as well.
Do you remember this graphic?
It applies here as well.
What do you love talking to people about in real life? What feels like you could discuss until you shut down a party? What do you want everyone to know about?
That's likely the place from which to ground your marketing.
However, for many of us, we often go straight to the outputs, what people "get" from whatever you're offering. I did this when we were producing websites at scale. It felt like we SHOULD talk about the outputs: pages, optimizations, image curation, all that stuff.
What I realize now is that marketing that service would have been easier if I'd started from all the "hidden" elements of what we brought to the client experience—you guessed it, the strategy.
Are you hiding some of the most valuable marketing assets in your toolkit because they seem like no big deal to you? What can you share that seems obvious to you but will actually inspire your audience?
Talk soon,
Sarah
P.S. Some housekeeping items:
1. Past clients: I now have a master page of services for all of you that you can book at your convenience. Yes, this includes our website "alums." Reach out for the link and we'll send it out to you next week.
2. I haven't had the time to update the pricing for the SEO Funnel Toolkit, so if you want that workshop series, the Summer price should be good through Monday. Click here to grab it.
3. Strategy Sessions for September are close to booked. Grab one now to make sure you are on my calendar if you need a quick hit of strategy. Here's that link.