We love working with start-up companies! In fact, over the past month we have begun work with a new national art gallery, a digital textile company, and a remote kitchen co-op. As a media training and expert messaging consultant there is nothing more gratifying than working with a brand new venture and helping them become successful through effective and impactful messaging via traditional media, online and social media platforms.
During these diverse experiences, we have taken notice of some common challenges facing these brand new companies in the messaging and media arena. We thought it might make for a useful blog to share what we’ve learned:
The Elevator Pitch
Simple enough, right? You probably already know the definition but for those who don’t an elevator pitch is a succinct, one to three sentence summary of your business. The idea is to be comfortable and familiar enough with the pitch to be able to easily and quickly share you business story with a colleague or friend, or as the name implies, with a stranger in an elevator.
We have found that most start-ups have not mastered their pitch. In fact, we have found wide ranging responses from executive to executive within the same company. Message consistency is incredibly important when promoting any brand, new or established, on any media platform. We help all of our clients create an agreed upon general company message, and then share that message with everyone to start practicing.
Industry Language/Definitions
As digital technology continues to expand its foothold, new business ideas are born, start-ups launch, and often there is a need for new terminology which describes the new business process or product. Case in point-we recently put a start-up to the test, asking the President of the company during an on-camera interview to define in simple terms what exactly his new service provides for the consumer. He acknowledged later off-camera that corporate leaders struggled with creating new language needed to describe what they do. It’s imperative that digital and technology start-ups create new terms and definitions which best define their product or process, which resonate with their audience, and that they do so in advance of any messaging opportunities.
Call to Action
What do you want your audience to do with your information? Again, simple enough, right? But most completely forget their call to action when put in the messaging spotlight. If nothing else. you should at least pitch your website for people to learn more. Better-ask people to follow you on your social media sites, promote an upcoming speaking engagement, e-learning, or live video conference. You’ve taken all this time to get their attention-now, get them to act!
Rich Dubek is a two-time Emmy award winning TV news reporter with more than twenty five years of news media experience at the local and network level. He is President of the Dubek Media Group, specializing in expert media training messaging, and on-air coaching, and full service video production. The Dubek Media Group is based in Tempe, Arizona.