If you follow Against The Grain on Facebook, you may have seen my recent post sharing Joshua Nite's article about empathetic content. How to write it, why you should, and all that other good stuff. It was an interesting article and very well written. I loved the examples he included and there is a lot of power in empathy, especially when it comes to content.
Furthermore, there is a bounty of great, free information on the internet. I'm very thankful for all the professionals who contribute to that. But here's the thing, far too often as business owners, we try to soak up all of it and force it into our business model. We all want a quick fix to success, a fast track to more sales, and it's easy to believe you'll get that by following marketing trends.
Are we wrong in wanting that? No.
Will we get what we want by chasing trends? Probably not.
So here's a fun and quick activity that every small business can do to break the cycle of chasing after trends and sharpen the focus of their marketing strategy. I understand some small businesses may have never even considered writing a marketing plan. You definitely should in some capacity but, for now, this will give you some direction.
- Think of your small business as a person.
- Come up with three to five words that truly capture the personality of that person.
- Make the words as specific and unique to your business as possible. The more specific and well thought out the words are, the better your focus will be.
It may help to consider your unique selling points at this time. I even like to go as far as picturing an image of this person in my head or sketching them out. Create a business bitmoji maybe? Give them a name!
My business personality is very close to my own personality, and that may be the case for many small business owners, but have you ever thought about that realistically and wrote it down somewhere?
Here I go. If my marketing agency was a person, I would want my friends (potential customers) to see me as:
- authentic
- unordinary
- helpful
Now you go.
Once you have those words down (and maybe a picture), get them in a place where they can easily be seen every day as you work. Anytime you make a marketing decision, refer to those words and that personality. Ask yourself things like:
"Would Samantha post that on social media?"
"Would Samantha want to be featured in that magazine? Are her friends (potential customers) reading that magazine?"
As always, there is much more we could talk about regarding brand personality and how small businesses can achieve a focused strategy. If you want to go down that rabbit hole, I'll join you. Just let me know.
If you went through the steps above and your "person" has a name, share it with everyone in the comments.
NOTE: I could have picked a lot of articles to lead into this blog so please don't think less of Joshua Nite's work. It was a fantastic write up about empathy and content and I look forward to reading more of his work. In fact, he already has a wonderful post about personality. Go Josh!
Cheers,
