"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight and no vision." - Helen Keller
I recently met a business owner with a great product. They came to me feeling a bit lost in all of their marketing efforts. They were doing a lot, but it didn't seem to be bringing them much in the way of leads and sales. Their current marketing efforts were focused on attracting customers that may not have valued this particular product because it didn't align with their mission and values. In the end we determined that the root of the cause was loosing touch with their initial vision, having unclear goals and missing the mark with their core audience.
They needed to shift.
Here is what I suggested they focus on first:
#1 Bring clarity to the brand with a clear company mission.
#2 Define goals.
#3 Determine core audience.
In the initial phases of marketing your new business, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. There is a lot on your list. The concept of "content creation" may be confusing and foreign - you just don't know where to begin or what to talk about. So before we get started creating awesome content for your business, let's take a step back and get a few things in order first.
Because I like to provide my content in smaller bites, I've created a three-part series with foundation guidelines, free templates and advice. In this first part of the series, it's all about getting clarity on your brand and mission.
If you already have a marketing plan in place, you may have some of this worked out. If so, I still suggest you answer these questions and compare them to your initial plan - you might find your answers have changed over time.
If you never created a marketing plan, this is a great place to start. I highly recommend creating a plan, but by no means do you need anything highly formal or exhausting (with some exceptions if you are looking for investors...). In many of the businesses that I've worked for where there wasn't a formal marketing plan in place when I was hired, I developed a simple deck in PowerPoint. It was easy to digest for upper management and my team. I included fun visual examples and it didn't take months to create.
As we diving into step #1 of bringing clarity to your brand, here are a few questions to get you started:
1. What is your company mission?
2. What is the single most important value that you provide customers?
3. What makes your product/service different from the competition?
Here are examples of potential answers to the questions above for an eco-friendly toothbrush brand:
1. Help make the world a better place by providing a high-quality toothbrush alternative that is considerate of the environment along with being dentist approved with stylish design.
2. Allow customers to feel good about caring for their necessary dental hygiene with an environmentally friendly product that is sustainably grown, organic, BPA-free and biodegradable.
3. An alternative toothbrush for adults, children and pets with an environmentally friendly and dentist approved materials as well as stylish design for the same price as typical plastic or nylon toothbrushes on the market.
To make it even easier, I created a free Brand Clarity Workbook for you to fill in, plus a few additional questions and simple identity forming exercises... :) Get Access Here.
If you would like to run your answers by me, please send to arica@writtenandstyled.com. I'd be happy to have a look. :)
Don't miss Part 2 next week, where we will get into defining goals. Sign up here to be the first to know about the post.
Cheers to creating content with clarity!
-Arica