201. You Know What You're Selling...Do your Potential Coworking Customers?

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:

Good messaging examples:

Related podcast episodes:

Episode # 185 featuring Trina K from Ecom Spaces

Episode # 194: The Importance of Walking in Your Customer’s Shoes

Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

TRANSCRIPTION

201. You Know What You're Selling...Do your Potential Coworking Customers?

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything co-working podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert. Jamie Russo, Welcome to the everything coworking podcast. This is your host, Jamie Rousseau. How are you guys doing? It's a Monday and I spent the weekend competing in a CrossFit competition.

00:00:37 I know I have some CrossFit CrossFitters listening. So I've been doing CrossFit for a long time. And I can remember the very first time my CrossFit friend, Christine asked me to do a competition with her. I had done a one competition before that and felt completely unqualified to be competing. I remember there were in lifts and I could not actually lift the weight that was specified for my age group.

00:01:08 So I had to peel off the weights and just lift what I could, which was fine. But I thought I'm not really a competitor in CrossFit. Right. And that was years and years ago. But surely after that, my friend Christine asked me to do a partner comp with her and it was a female only thing. She really wanted to try it.

00:01:27 And I was like, Oh, I don't think I'm the partner for you. You should find somebody that's more competitive. And she's like, Nope, no, no, no, no, no. I want it to be you. Okay. All right, we'll do it. And this was again, many years ago and we went and we did it and we had a great time.

00:01:43 We did not get on the podium, but we continue to do competitions, partner competitions and some individual competitions after that. And I have a love, hate relationship with competitions. They're exhausting. They're hard. I don't even know if the word fun could be associated with CrossFit competitions. The ones that we do that are not partner competitions are usually two days.

00:02:11 So you're doing two days of multiple workouts and you're just exhausted and can't eat the, you know, it's hard to eat the right food and can't take a nap in between the events. There's usually like three hours in between the events, which you need to have some recovery time, but it also is just a long day and it's hard and you're nervous and you're anxious and all the things.

00:02:36 And so I think about this question. Why, why am I buying a CrossFit competition, a ticket to one? Right? So the one I did this weekend, I think the ticket to compete was $220 that doesn't include food. It's just the cost. You know what it costs for the organizers to run the event. They do have prize money for people get on the podium.

00:03:00 I am quite a good CrossFitter in a national or global pool of CrossFitters. I tend to finish in the top 5% or so when, you know, in the CrossFit open, but these competitions tend to be very competitive. So I'm not getting on a podium ever. So I'm not buying a podium seat, right. I'm buying something about that experience even though,

00:03:24 even as it's painful as it is. And I'm going to put this photo in the show notes. So one of the events that we did was a max snatch you to do a bunch of burpees and then you get to do a snatch and then more burpees and another snatch five times. And by the fifth time you needed to hit your max snatch. So I hit one Oh five,

00:03:45 which is my previous PR. And then I did two attempts at one 10 on the second one. I caught it overhead, but I got it just a little too forward and I dropped it and I didn't get it, but it was, I almost had it. Right. So it's almost a PR and it's very, you know, exciting. And you feel,

00:04:05 there's a feeling that comes with trying really hard at something, right. Even if you don't make it, there's still some success there. So my friend, Christine, like jumps over the gate and we get this photo and I put the photo on my personal Instagram. And it's one of those photos that just doesn't require a caption. Like you just get it.

00:04:24 It's one of those, you know, pictures worth a thousand words. You get a feeling from the photo. And the photo is like gratitude, pride, elation, even though I didn't hit the lift. Right. But we were there together. We were both trying really hard. She had gone right before me and got to watch my lift. So that photo,

00:04:45 when I looked at it, you know, just made me think a lot about the why and what are we really buying? You know, like when I buy a ticket to a CrossFit competition and I know it's going to be exhausting, I can barely move today. Literally I just got out of my chair and walked to the kitchen. I was like,

00:05:01 I need to sit back down. I'm so sore. What I really need to be doing is rolling and stretching, but, and I'm tired. So it's, but I'm buying the feeling in that photo. Right? And I will hold onto that feeling for a long time. And that feeling probably gives me something else in terms of growth and grit and attitude in life and all those things.

00:05:25 So the people who sell CrossFit competitions, don't market, that really, they do post a lot of photos that look like the photo that I have, but they don't use language that makes you realize what you're buying. I think you really don't know until you buy it, which is not great marketing. Right? So to bring this back to coworking, I've been doing calls with co-working space operators that are interested in our new mentorship program,

00:05:53 which you can learn more about. There's a link in the show notes. I think it set everything co-working dot com forward slash mentorship. There's a button on the website too, if you are looking for that. But I had a couple of different calls this week that really struck a chord with me. And I wanted to share the insights from those calls because I got two of them in the same week that were very,

00:06:18 very similar. And I thought there are probably a lot of people out there with this challenge. And I started poking around at websites. Again, I'm looking at your websites. And I think that this is a very common problem. So it's kind of website related. I'm going to keep talking about this because our websites are everything right. And when I do these mentor calls,

00:06:39 I'm looking a lot at websites to see if the, what they're offering aligns with what they tell me they're offering. And I had two cases this week where they were not in alignment at all whatsoever. So that's super critical. So we think we're selling something. We think we know we're selling the thing in that photo, right? That feeling of elation and pride and gratitude.

00:07:03 But there are no words on the website that say that that's what we're selling and no photos that show it. So if you're a coworking space operator or soon to be one, you are you've opened or are opening your coworking space because you want to offer your members a better way of working or being, or feeling you want your members to be more productive or more confident,

00:07:27 maybe more clear on the next step in their business, maybe more profitable, more successful, more focused, happier, healthier, more connected. You have a lot of whys that are very deep and meaningful, but on your website, what you're offering and what your words talk about are, you know, 10 day punch cards and dedicated desks. That's not really what we're selling,

00:07:53 right? What we're selling is more successful, more connected, happier, healthier. We're selling that feeling that you see in my photo, right? But we aren't talking about that. So if you're marketing a coworking space, you have two audiences, those that know what you're selling and those that don't. So your first audience is problem and solution aware. This is super basic marketing.

00:08:18 See this mistake all the time. We all make it. And that's why I'm just, I think it's very, very healthy to keep talking about the basics because it's hard to get, right. And if you can get the basics right, then you're going to be on your way. So your first audience is problem and solution aware the first audience, those that are aware of their own problem and aware of coworking as a solution,

00:08:46 probably find you through a Google search. So potential members in this aware audience search for coworking near me on their mobile device or coworking in Nashville on their desktop. And then they probably see a list of Google, my business listings. They scan the reviews. They look at a map of coworking spaces and a little radius around their home. And they pick some to checkout and to move this aware audience through your sales funnel,

00:09:12 you should have two clearly labeled buttons at the top of your website. One button is for membership options. And one button is for books taking it to her. And if I visit your website and I know what co-working is, I want, and I know if you have the membership option that I'm looking for, and then I want a book to her or a trial day.

00:09:32 I'm not, I don't looking for much else on your site, right? I'm not going to poke around and read a bunch of words, probably not going to go to your blog. I just want to come by and see if I like your space. If I like how it feels. If I think I can be productive there, if it gives me the vibe that makes me feel happier,

00:09:50 more successful. And if I like the people there, if I want to connect with the people, and maybe I have something more specific I'm looking for. And so we'll talk about that in a minute, when we get to some examples, but your website doesn't need it to talk a lot to the people who know what co-working is, right. They're looking for,

00:10:12 where are you? What are your membership options? And how do I book a tour to come in and try you out? Cause I've already screened you out and set and figured out, you know, you're in the radius of convenient geographic locations. If you're not in a convenient geographic location, you're not in my consideration set doesn't matter, but I'm also not going to spend a bunch I'm busy,

00:10:32 right? I'm a busy professional who can afford your coworking space. And so I'm not going to read a lot of words on your screen. I'm just book or two or membership options. So that's all you need for those folks. The challenge which we have in our business model. And what I found on my mentor calls this week is lots of you have a model that is not necessarily talking directly to people who are problem and solution aware.

00:10:57 So if I am not problem aware or solution aware, then I don't find you through a Google search. I find you through social media, maybe a Facebook ad, a friend told me about you and the messaging in your social media or Facebook ad or what my friend said is not about a punch pass or a dedicated desk or a private office. It's about something else that is happening in your space that you are trying to provide to people.

00:11:27 It's about the feeling you get when you almost hit your one 10 snatch, right? It's about being more successful in your business. It's about being more confident as you start your business, it's about feeling more connected to your community. They've told you something about how it feels to be a part of your community. See that makes you interested. But I still don't know.

00:11:47 I'm not really clear about the problem that I have or how your solution fits in, or maybe you, me onto your email list through some really good content marketing. So I don't know what co-working is or why I would do it. I don't maybe even need a desk. I have one at home, right? So I talked to two operators last week,

00:12:07 not going to share who they are, where they are. I just want to share kind of what they were trying to, who they're trying to serve. And then the, the challenges with the language they're using. So each one has a niche space with a solution. That's not really about the space, right? None of us are exactly about the space,

00:12:27 but their solution sort of manifested itself in a co-working space. So one is a community dedicated to accelerating the private practices of wellness professionals in their first year, as of striking out on their own. So it's a pretty specific audience, right? And most wellness professionals, this is not on their website, by the way, those are my words to describe what they do.

00:12:51 Most wellness professionals are practicing just fine at home post COVID. So I asked that question and you might be listening my, the woman on my mentor call. And I said, look, do people need your space? Well, some do, but some are doing okay at home, right? Some people don't like being at home. So they might be aware that they're not happy at home,

00:13:12 but they're not were aware of the other benefits of this community. Maybe they have a kid who knocks on the door every time they're talking to a client grader, you know, they don't have a private space at home, but she said, you know, a lot of people have figured out how to practice at home because they had to keep their practices going through.

00:13:27 COVID what they don't get at home is a community of other wellness professionals that are walking the steps of the same journey, but maybe are a few steps ahead of them and can help them avoid pitfalls and provide accountability. And the operator that I was talking to and her business partner have a beautiful story. This is their, why their, why was they shared space?

00:13:53 But what they found was more confidence in business, more success in business. And they wanted to create that for others. And so they manifested that in a physical space, but the solution is not exactly about the physical space. It is a place where people can come together to get this solution, right? But so they have to explain that to people on their website,

00:14:16 they have to, they have to find a way to communicate those benefits to their best potential members. We have an, I talked to another operator this week that helps people that want to advance their tech skills to accelerate their careers, but they don't want to leave their day jobs to attend a bootcamp for six months. And the bootcamps are full-time and they're pretty big investment.

00:14:37 She wants to help them figure out what courses they can take as a sort of side hustle, you know, at night on the weekends. And she wants to give them a focused and productive place to go through the classes, surrounded by like-minded people with similar goals and interests who are also taking classes and want to talk about the classes and kind of nerd out together.

00:14:59 She'd also really liked to help them with career placement. Neither operator is telling her story or the why on the website, they both sell solutions like desks and places to host sessions with clients. So the only, only people who are going to get what they sell are solution aware, but their real, why is for the people who are not sort of problem or solution aware,

00:15:25 that's a heavy lift, right? So that's harder than yeah. Having a generic, I love niche spaces because if you message correctly, the person who shows up at your site, that's your best ideal client. It should say, that's me. That's me. I, in my first year of business as a wellness practitioner, I am not confident. I don't know how to get clients.

00:15:48 I don't know how to manage my books and I need help and I need community. And yes, it would be amazing to have access to a place, to meet clients. I need to that's me. I want to join, right? So we, I have a niche space. You can speak very clearly to your potential end user, but you have to use the right words and you have to get them right.

00:16:10 And those words can not only make sense to you, you know what you're selling. So you have to test and test and test. So my advice speak directly to your best member, as clearly as possible. Anyone looking for generic coworking spaces near their home, they don't really care what you say on your website. They're going to go straight to their member,

00:16:30 your membership options and book a tour. And they know what to do. Speak directly to the people. Well that don't know what you do. If you manage to get them to your website, again, that's not going to be through Google. That's going to be through your other hustle, marketing work, right? Social media, Facebook ads that are very intentional about messaging,

00:16:50 not messaging about space, but to educate about your solution, tell them in the first words on your website, what problem you solve for them right at the top, do not have a welcome message. Do not. You're the first X coworking space in X town. Tell them exactly what you do for them. I'm going to quote Donald Miller again. If you confuse,

00:17:13 you lose. If you manage to get someone to your website that doesn't know that they need what you sell, you have to tell them immediately. Exactly. And in the clearest words possible that you solve a problem that they have. So I have a couple of examples it's poking around on websites. So I went to a few that I'm familiar with that I thought might be pretty clear.

00:17:35 So the first example is from e-comm spaces and they were a guest on the podcast number or one 85. If you missed it, go back and have a listen. So the first line on website, I mean the first at the top, and there's a link to their website in the show notes, a coworking space with a fulfillment center. If I need a fulfillment center,

00:17:59 Ooh, that's me. I'm like literally raising my hand. Oh, that's me for the e-commerce entrepreneurs who need a space to create content for their brand, operate their business and ship their products all under one roof. That's the next line. If you are an e-commerce entrepreneur who needs a space to create content for your brand, operate your business and ship your products all under one roof sold.

00:18:26 You may not even care at that cost because you need that and you can't find it anywhere else in Atlanta. Right? Sign me up. I'm going. I might even drive across town. I'm working outside of my radius for that. Right. It's so clear. And if I'm not an e-commerce entrepreneur, it's probably not for me. If I have some reason to believe that maybe I serve that community and I make sense there.

00:18:50 Then I know that. But if I'm just generic or if I just want to belong, because it's down the street, that's cool. I'm going to book a tour. I'm not, I don't care that it says it's not for me. Right? Here's another one that I think not quite as Nishi, I think they could get nichier because they're, they serve creatives really well.

00:19:07 But their message fireworks in Marietta, Georgia is work close to home, not at home, flexible workspace to help you focus and, and the work from home distractions. Got it. Right. So if I show up and I'm not super familiar with co-working, they're not trying to sell me a desk right away, or an office or a meeting room. They're telling me why,

00:19:30 here's what we help you with. We help you focus. And we end the work from home distractions. I love that lighthouse co in LaDuc Alberta, Canada is in our community manager program. So Amber wrote this I'm sure, Amber, awesome job. Need a break from working remotely on your own. So if that's you, Oh, that's me. Yup.

00:19:57 That's what I need. I'm sick of be I work remotely and I'm Alone and I need a break from that. So she says, we saved you a seat, a seat where you can be productive and connect with other driven career and business minded individuals like you, a seat where you can just get out of the house and work in a flexible, safe and sanitized in parentheses,

00:20:19 quiet and productive professional office space. Then directly underneath, she goes into what is coworking and why coworking would you go? Berta is this small or town and coworking is new to them. So she's not using words like flex desk and dedicated desk right off the bat. Right. She's saying why? Or do you need a break from working remotely on your own?

00:20:42 Yes. Okay. Well, here's our solution. We saved you a seat, a seat where you can be productive and connect with other people. Like you get out of the house. It's flexible, it's safe. It's professional. And then if you're like, I still, okay. I think that's me, but I don't. I want more detail than I can read through the,

00:21:00 what is coworking? Why co-working, she's got member featured, blog posts, testimonials all the things if I want to poke around. Right. And if I know what co-working is, I'm going straight to book a tour or membership. I'm not poking around. I'll find out, you know, maybe I look at member features maybe, but if I still,

00:21:18 Oh, that sounds like me, what is this? What do I do here? How much does it cost? I can find all of those things, but in the very first glance, that's what I see is we saved you a seat. This is for you. I love that. Okay. A couple of less clear examples because you're probably thinking,

00:21:37 Oh, I'm just as clear as what you just said. You're probably not. So I want you, again, we, I did an episode on having someone else go through sort of website, user testing on your website. And that would be a couple of episodes ago. So scroll back and listen to that one. If you missed it, I'm dwelling on this because I it's it's you have to get this right.

00:21:57 So I'm going to keep talking about it. Okay. Let's clear examples that I found join a community. This is ready to help you succeed. At name of co-working space. In name of town, help me succeed. How so I get the sense that it's an accelerator, but there was that line and then kind of a lot going on on the page.

00:22:19 There was a video with some weird overlay texts that I was confusing and the blog. They wanted me to go read the blog book. If I can afford your space and all the time to read your blog, that's not what I'm there for. I want to know what you do and how you can help me. And you have not told me, you can.

00:22:37 You told me you can help me succeed. Help who succeed. What if I'm an attorney? What if I'm an e-commerce entrepreneur? Like, can you help both of us? Here's another one. Whether you're looking for a coworking membership, a personal office or an event space, we have a place designed just for you with over 11,000 square feet of co-working office space.

00:22:59 Name of space in name of town provides you with the space and flexibility you desire. So that is perfect. If I'm solution aware, I know what co-working memberships are. I may have no idea what 11,000 square feet means as owners, we become obsessed with square footage, right? The first thing I often ask an operator, how many square feet do you have?

00:23:20 Because it immediately sets context for the business, right? It matters a lot. When you're an owner. If you ask anyone in your space, how many square feet, your spaces I guarantee, I will bet a lot of money. Zero idea. People just simply do not think in terms of square feet, unless they're buying a home. And even then very hard for them to picture what that really means,

00:23:43 right? So this is not language that our users probably relate to. So that's great language. If you are aware of coworking, it's not even that great, it's generic, but I know I'm in the right place. Okay. But good to her. But if I don't know what co-working is or why I would need an event place, or why 11,000 square feet of co-working and offensive office space matters,

00:24:06 you've told me nothing. So the solution needs to be clear to your potential member, not just to you, you have no sucks. You have no chance in succeeding. If you're selling a solution that your end user does not know they need, or doesn't know that you sell. If you are in a market where co-working is well understood by enough people,

00:24:26 then you can say things on your website, such as this, we situate members within concentric ecosystems of communities, helping them find balance in work in life, self, and community, and still get members. But if you're serving a community that's new to coworking or you're offering a niche solution that happens to manifest itself in a physical space. Like the examples I gave earlier with the wellness space and the learning space that you're referring to as coworking,

00:24:56 but isn't really about desks. Then the only way you can succeed is to test your messaging all the way through your sales funnel and particularly on your website, because that's really our point of initial purchase, right? If somebody gets to our website, we need them to book a tour. And the tour booking happens on our website. So you need to test your messaging until your ideal members immediately understand what the problem is that you're solving and what you're offering to solve it.

00:25:27 And they respond with, Oh, that's me. And if you are not getting tours booked, then your messaging isn't working, right? So either you have a terrible location or your website's bad. I think it's, it's simple as that. We're, we're really starting to reopening most, unless you're in Canada and other places of the world in the us,

00:25:52 you should be getting tours. And if you're not getting tours, there is a disconnect. People are not finding you or your messaging is not right. Look at things like your bounce rate on your website. We talked about this on the website episode, but I'll just kind of repeat it. You need to look at your numbers, look at how many leads you're getting on your website.

00:26:11 And look at your bounce rate. If the bounce rate is really high, like over 50%, then people are coming. They don't understand. And they leave. Google is saying, look, people don't, you know, they don't get what you have or they don't want what you have. So you need to, you need to fix that disconnect and then look at how many people are booking tours and track that over time and tweak your messaging until that percentage goes up,

00:26:38 right? So start, start baselining your numbers, and then out where your challenge lies. If you're not getting tours, then people don't understand. You're not reaching the right customer and you're not communicating the problem that you solve and making them want to book a tour. So make sure for step that you're aware, audience can review your memberships and book a tour with one click,

00:27:03 do not confuse them by making them look at a lot of stuff they don't have time for, or don't care about. They just want to get into the space and figure out, you know, what's your, what you offer and probably what your pricing is for your unaware audience. You have to get that messaging, right? Test it, test it,

00:27:18 test it until it's clear and it delivers leads. It's not working when you think it's right. It's working when it delivers the right people to your doorstep. And if you need help with your sales funnel, our mentor program can help. So book a free call to learn more. We'll put the link in the show notes, everything coworking.com forward slash I have to make sure I get this link,

00:27:40 right? Yeah. Yep. Ford plat Ford slash mentor. I have one other resource I want to plug since we're talking about websites. So Rubin Lau was on the podcast a few episodes ago, talking about search engine optimization. So this is very different from messaging two entirely separate activities that you have to nail on your website. But Ruben did this amazing training for our community manager university program.

00:28:16 And I had a cheat sheet made up from his training and it is very, very good. So thank you to Rubin for the content. And then we made it super, super actionable with this cheat sheet. So if you want to get this super simple cheat sheet to help you sort of step by step, go through his recommendations that we shared with our community manager university group,

00:28:40 you can grab it at everything. coworking.com forward slash S E O cheat sheet. Okay, that's it for today. I will see you next week.

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