July 8, 2025 | Vol. 102

Start Here: Before You Spend a Dollar on Ads

When it comes to marketing, we often jump straight to audience targeting, media choices, or data strategies—whether it's traditional, digital, or social. But none of that matters if the message is off.

The most important first step?

Craft a message that connects.

Your message must be clear, compelling, and consistent across every platform—TV, display ads, paid search, social media, print, and in-store signage.

Start with These Questions:

“What do we want the public to know and feel about our business?”
“What perception do we want to shape?”

And remember, your message isn't about you—it’s about your customer. It has to be built through the lens of their wants, needs, and values.

Your Message Can’t Say Everything.

A common trap is trying to include it all: best price, best service, most experienced, family-owned, clean restrooms, free delivery, and more.

But great messaging is about clarity and focus, not cramming in every feature.

My Process for Helping Clients Craft the Message:

1. Get on a Whiteboard:

List everything you'd like consumers to know. Let your team participate. Typical examples include:

• Locally owned for 50 years

• Family-run

• Tenured employees

• Clean facilities

• Online shopping + home delivery

• “We answer the phone”

2. Prioritize What Matters Most to the Customer:

Some things matter more to your internal team than to your customers. Don’t let internal pride cloud your message.

3. Craft the Narrative:

Use tools like AI to help creatively shape ideas. Collaborate with a skilled professional to distill that whiteboard list into a simple, powerful message.

Think “Just Do It” or “Built Ford Tough.”

4. Test and Refine Regularly:

A message isn’t “one and done.” The world changes. Consumers change. Your message needs to evolve with intention, at least once a year.

Straight Talk from the Crazy🤪:

Before you start worrying about where to run your ads or how to target your audience, make sure what you’re saying is worth hearing. Great targeting with a weak message is like throwing darts at a bullseye painted on a brick wall—it won’t stick.

Your message is your foundation. Get it wrong, and everything you build on top of it wobbles. Get it right, and every dollar you spend on marketing works harder.

Thanks for making it all the way to the end.

Until next time | Expect to Win!

JIM WEBB

​📲 Email, text, call, or message me on LinkedIn.
Or visit jimwebb.me and pick whatever’s easiest.

On a Journey - Chasing Better

#xp2win