Have a Burning Business Question? Ask the Expert: Tim Riesterer. Our expert this month is looking to take your questions on business messaging, marketing communications and branding.

By Andrea Huspeni

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.


Tim Riesterer is the chief strategy and marketing officer at Corporate Visions
With increasingly low barriers to entry, the market has become saturated with businesses hoping to be the next billion-dollar unicorn. While this environment can be great for customers (hello: options galore), it can be difficult for businesses trying to catch consumers' eye (and dollars).

This is why business messaging is so imperative. It's what distinguishes you from your competitors, helps position your company to be top of mind, evokes brand loyalty and is the foundation for the entire communication strategy. But it isn't easy.

Related: The Secret to a Strong Branding Message? Focus.

Fortunately, we have Tim Riesterer, an expert in business messaging, to give us a helping hand.

"No company is perfect, but finding your own niche in an otherwise crowded marketplace and figuring out how to tell your own story in a way that resonates with your prospects and customers' own pain points is what determines a company's success or failure," Riesterer says.

As the chief strategy and marketing officer at Corporate Visions, a marketing and sales messaging business that employs a science-based approach to consumer behavior and decision-making processes (as opposed to "best practices"), Riesterer leads the company's directions, develops strategies to execute on the vision and drives business development.

Prior to Corporate Visions, Riesterer co-founded Customer Message Management and was the CMO and VP of strategic services for Ventaso, a company that provides customer-message management software solutions. He also served as the president and CEO of Brady Marketing Group, where he was involved in marketing, communication and sales support for such companies as Rockwell Automation and GE Medical Systems.

Related: 4 Ways Brands Can Hit the Social Jackpot With

Because of his accomplishments, he is frequently asked to keynote at industry conferences. Most recently, he delivered the highest-rated presentation at the BMA International conference, a major B2B marketing event. He has also been highlighted as one of the "Top 10 CMOs to Watch" by the former managing editor of DemandGen Report in 2013.

Riesterer has taken many of his learnings and written he bestseller book Conversations That Win and will soon be publishing another book called The Three Value Conversations.

So to say he knows a lot about messaging may be a slight understatement, and he is looking to share his lessons with aspiring founders.

"As a former entrepreneur myself, I've personally been through many of the challenges facing startups every day and hope that sharing my experiences will help young entrepreneurs put their best foot forward," he says.

For the month of April, we are thrilled to have Riesterer as our expert. He is eager to take your questions on business messaging. Feel free to ask him anything about external branding, online initiatives, social-media marketing and how to communicate to employees and stakeholders.

Submit your questions in the comments section below or tweet us, using the hashtag #ENTexpert. One topic will be selected by the editors of Entrepreneur and addressed by Riesterer in a weekly writeup.

Related: 3 Steps to Creating Your Branding Message

Wavy Line
Andrea Huspeni

Founder of This Dog's Life

Andrea Huspeni is the former special projects director at Entrepreneur.com and the founder of This Dog's Life.

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