Know Thyself

You wouldn’t run into your childhood babysitter and start talking about the latest in video game technology, would you? She’s undoubtedly not the target demographic for that kind of conversation. We see it every day. A company that’s too engulfed in perfecting their message that they’ve completely forgotten who they’re speaking to.

Marketing, at its core, is very simple. Every ad you read or commercial you watch, each time those shoes you’ve been thinking about splurging on crosses your news feed… It all boils down to the most basic form of human communication, a one-on-one conversation. The minute a marketing message loses that, it’s over. Think about your favorite ad campaign. It’s probably your favorite because the campaign touched upon your personal pain points, maybe it positioned you as a hero in your own imagination. No blind luck involved, that ad was aimed directly at you (and many others just like you.)

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the potential for huge reach or fast, sustainable growth. Companies built for long-term success know how to strike a balance between messages that ignite new interest and excite their base.

How do you stay on track with your messaging? It’s easier than you think.

1. Stay true to yourself.

Cliché, we know. Clichés are identified as such because they largely hold true.

a. Why does my company exist?

b. Why should people patronize my business?

These answers are, on the surface, pretty obvious. However, today’s consumer doesn’t make purchase decisions based on simple logic anymore. Where they spend their money is driven more and more by intrinsic motivators. Let’s reframe those questions…

a. What problem does my company exist to solve?

b. How will patronizing my business make my customer’s life better?

Once you’ve pinned down the answer to those new questions, your business has a message. Stick to it.

2. Know your customer.

If at every networking meeting you were presented with a sheet of each person’s interests before you even said “Hello”, you’d probably be the life of the party. With the tools and data at your disposal in 2018, why are so few companies applying this information to their marketing strategy?

On social media, we can pinpoint the age, gender, location, and peak activity times for our audience. Through analytics tools, we can decipher what people are searching for when they find our business. Using old-school tactics like networking and focus groups, we can get even more precise.

3. Talk to someone, not everyone.

Now we’ve got information at our disposal. We know who we’re talking to! Our babysitter, from earlier serves as a good example.

We know we’re talking to a 60-year-old woman who lives in our town. We know the best time to get our message to her is at 10am on weekdays and we know what she’s looking for.

Now imagine you approach this person in a social setting, you know the following:

1. Her age, location, and peak times.

2. What she’s looking for.

3. What your company can do to solve her problem.

4. How her life will be better as a result.

I think anyone could close that sale.

Delegation - It can be your biggest strength

Business owners often find themselves in the middle of work processes that may not be their expertise. Whether it be getting more involved with the marketing team or handling manual labor around the office, owners and executives try their best to ingratiate themselves with their employees. On the surface, this type of executive behavior seems like a no-brainer positive. It is a double-edged sword, however, lending your time to departments that frankly, may not need it. Learning to delegate and trust your employees is vital to the health of any company’s culture. 

As effective as injecting yourself into other business functions can be for morale, spending time getting to know your employees personally, doing so also does two very important things that may have negative ramifications. First, it removes you from the job functions that you’re best at. You’ve hired people to do many of the things that you may find distract from your primary role. You hired them over other people specifically for their ability to do the job well. As such, business owners that cut their teeth in sales won’t be adding much to accounting or human resources meetings, except maybe a bit of stage fright for the speakers less accustomed to your presence.

Secondly, it interrupts very important work-flows. Many of our everyday tasks, especially in jobs where these tasks repeat themselves (stocking shelves, doing inventory, running payroll), end up being a part of our streamlined personal processes, each employee or team with their own efficient methods. Injecting oneself into the processes that your employees rely on will introduce inefficiencies, slow-downs, and may actually hamper morale or create frustration among your employees. 

You find yourself now a leader of others. Though your instincts are to be one with your team, you’ve reached a point in your career at which delegating should become your greatest strength.

Delegating work, rather than taking it on yourself shows your staff that you trust their ability to produce good work - a boost in morale that bests most any other.