A Realistic Look At Your Offerings

What are you offerings and how are they being communicated to your audience?

Think this a ridiculously simply question?

You know what you provide.  But your brand perception is  your perspective. Other people might see your brand in a completely different way. These are your customers. So it does matter how your brand is represented in their minds.

It is not always easy to see your brand with fresh eyes. Getting honest feedback from other people and using this information to develop your brand will be worth the effort.

Here is a list of four basic questions for you to seriously consider in planning out your strategy for product development and marketing strategies. To make this list work for you, start writing down your answers on a piece of paper and take note of any areas where you become stuck. You might be surprised at what an eye opening experience this is.

• What exactly are your offerings? Does your product benefit others? Does it make things easier? More enjoyable? Does it solve a particular problem?

• Do your offerings have a differentiated edge? If all your competitors offer what you do, then why should your market audience choose you?

• How well does the average person in your target audience understand what your product is about and how it can benefit them?
  

• Is the language in your marketing material convoluted & wordy? Are the benefits clearly communicated?

As you can see, these considerations require that you perceptually step outside your business and look at your brand from a consumer's point of view. It's like being two people at once.

Product development and  marketing are often thought of as completely separate departments.  But let's look at this realistically. If your offerings are weak, marketing will not work. Don't think that smoke and mirrors can disguise a poorly developed product. This might have worked somewhat in the past. But with the internet, everything is quite transparent. Your customer's best interests are in your best interest. On the web, word of mouth marketing and social media can work for or against you.