Small business marketing budgets are often relatively small. You need to get in front of prospects and you need to get their attention quickly. First impressions count. You’ll likely have no more than a minute (probably less but I am being generous) of attention from a prospect so you need to grab their attention with your important message. (As an aside, if you don’t understand, the name elevator pitch comes from the ability to answer the question “so what do you do?” if you are stuck in a lift with someone for 20 seconds or so.)
The Elevator Pitch must contain the following elements if you truly want it to be an effective tool in your content marketing arsenal.
- No Jargon – Industry jargon and buzzwords do not impress anybody. They can also be hard to understand. The best elevator pitches use simple but powerful words and create a strong impact.
- Under 45 seconds – I haven’t scientifically tested this one but in my anecdotal experience, people’s attention spans are getting shorter so you need to practice your elevator pitch until you get it under 45 seconds. this is all the time you will have to hook someone in before you lose their attention.
- Tells a story – Position yourself as a problem solver. Tell a story. Help illuminate what you do in the mind of your prospect. Stories are more likely to keep them interested than boring statistics or features.
- Targeted – Make sure your audience wants to hear what you have to say. If you have a number of target audiences you may want to write a number of elevator pitches and practice them so that you can pull out the right pitch at the right time.
- Talks outcomes and benefits – Your prospect thinks “what’s in it for me?” Tell then what they want to hear. No one thinks features. They want to know the outcome or benefit of using your product or service. They want to know how their life will be better.
Some more tips for crafting a great elevator pitch as part of your small business marketing package include:
- Write them down – Your elevator pitches need to be written down. You should write them down and save them so you can always and regularly refer back to them.
- Practice them – You should practice your elevator pitch regularly in front of the mirror. You need to practice your pitch so that it is memorised. You need to practice all of your pitches so you can execute the right pitch at a moment’s notice.
- Record them and listen back – Phones come with recording capabilities these days so there is no excuse not to do this. Record your elevator pitches and listen back to them so you can hear what they sound like. Are you speaking too fast? Are you speaking too slow? If you hear what you sound like on tape you will hear how others will hear you.
- Consistently update and adapt your elevator pitch – If circumstances change, change your elevator pitch.
The elevator pitch is an important aspect of your small business marketing plan. If you put the requisite effort into creating and implementing your pitch, you will reap the rewards.
If you would like to discuss how Greenlight Communications can help you with marketing your small business, get in touch today.