Why Empathy is Good for Business + How to Show It

Empathy is good for business! It's just as important as all the marketing tips, hr advice, and other business advice out there. Click through if you'd like to add more empathy to your work!

When you think of the personality traits of a successful business owner, what do you picture?

Tenacious? Hard-working? Creative?

Sure! A little tenacity never hurt anyone. But what if I told you the most important quality a business owner can have is … empathy?

4 reasons empathy is good for business

  1. Empathy increases the know/like/trust factor

Let’s say you can’t throw anything out and you’re suffocated by your clutter. You decided it’s finally time to hire a professional organizer.

Who are you more likely to connect with, relate to, and ultimately hire:

* the person who tells you that five years ago they too had drawers overflowing with old t-shirts?

* the person who’s somehow “naturally organized”?

* The person who doesn’t tell you anything about themselves or their background?

I bet you connected with the person who knows your struggle, didn’t you? It’s human nature! We’re more likely to know, like, and trust people who are similar to us. And – as I’m sure you know – we’re more likely to buy from people we know, like, and trust.

Here’s a great example of a blogger showing us how to break bad habits by sharing the bad habits she struggled with!

2. Empathy shows that you walk the walk

If you can show your clients that you’ve been where they are, found a solution, and emerged triumphantly, you’re modeling success.

You’re demonstrating that you’re empathetic to their struggles and you’ve made specific changes to overcome those struggles. You’re living proof that they don’t have to stay stuck! Living proof makes for pretty convincing marketing.

3. Empathy helps your clients be more vulnerable with you

When you show your clients you understand them, you’re helping them feel safe. You’re showing them that they can be honest and vulnerable with you. When you say “I get it. I used to be overwhelmed by social media too,” you’re making it easier for your clients to open up to you.

And the more they open up to you, the more you can help them, and the better their results will be.

4. Data without empathy is meaningless

These days it’s pretty easy to look at your analytics and see which blog posts your clients read, which tweets they liked, and how many people watched your video. But if you don’t understand why they read that blog post or what problem you helped them solve, that data is useless.

We all just want to feel understood and supported. Leading with empathy makes that possible. Click To Tweet

How can you make empathy good for your business?

Share your backstory

What have you struggled with? What hurdles have you overcome in your business? And how does this make you uniquely well-qualified to help us overcome something similar?

Maybe you overcame stage fright; maybe you undercharged for years. Perhaps you mismanaged your team and lost a big account or had self-limiting beliefs that held you back for years.

Whatever your backstory is: share it. Help us know, like, and trust you. Show us how you can help us overcome what we’re struggling with.

Share examples of people or situations for which you feel empathy 

You can also look to current events or public figures who are experiencing something with which you empathize.

For example, if you’re a financial adviser you could say, “When I heard about Johnny Depp declaring bankruptcy I thought, ‘Ugh. I know how that feels.’” Then you share the story of how you struggled with credit card debt in your early twenties and how you righted that ship to make healthy money management your life’s calling.

If you’re a life coach you could say “When Emma Stone talked about navigating her career while managing an anxiety disorder, I wanted to raise my hand and shout “Me, too!” And then you can share how you changed your workday, workload, or daily habits to get past this hurdle.

Anticipate where they might get stuck

If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably already know where your clients freeze up or give up. You know they’re nervous about being on camera or intimidated by downloading new software. You know which excuses they’ll pull out.

Show them you understand them and you’ve got their back! This can be as easy as using phrases like “You might be thinking ___________” or “I know you’re probably worried that ____________”. Then explain why that reasoning or excuse doesn’t apply here.  Or just assure them that they’ve got this and it’s not as hard as it seems!

My friend Sarah spent years working as a teacher and now creates and sells online courses. Every module of every course includes a ‘Where you might get stuck’ section where she addresses common hurdles!

If you don’t know what your people are struggling with or how you can help, ASK

None of these methods will help you if you don’t understand your people. If you don’t know what they’re struggling with, it’s hard to empathize, right?

Luckily, there are tons of ways to figure this out.

  • Invite someone who’s an ideal client out for coffee
  • Request a Zoom chat
  • Simply ask your social media followers “What are you struggling with at the moment?”
  • Create a survey and ask your blog readers and newsletter subscribers to fill it out. Make sure to clarify that their answers will help you create things that are more helpful and useful!

For more research and strategies on why empathy is great for business, check out The Empathy Edge podcast and book!

Content Marketing Success. Part 3: Tips and Tricks to Make Content Marketing Easier

Enjoy this special three-part series on how to find Content Marketing success! If you missed it, head back to check out Part 1 and Part 2.

You’re all bought into that content marketing is the right way to attract the right clients and customers, showcase your expertise and build a long-term relationship.

Fabulous. Now, how the heck can you possibly get it all done?

Boost your brand with content marketing. But be super smart + efficient about it!  (Tweet this!)

Here are some of my favorite best practices and tools ensure you can be efficient and more importantly, effective, with your content marketing efforts. 

  1. Make Content Shareable: No use creating all that luscious content if folks don’t do some of the sharing for you, right?
  • Use Forward to a Friend or Social Share Buttons on your website and emails.
  • Pre-write posts to share. My favorite tool is ClicktoTweet to enable your audience to share with the click of a button.
  1. Use Images and Infographics: Two very important data points for you:

When people hear information, they are likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (LifeLearn, 2015)

Visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. (Buffer, 2014)

  • Use Free Images: Here are some of my fave free image resources. Be sure to add a photo credit, depending on rights agreement and terms.

Unsplash

500px

Flickr Creative Commons

  • Optimize Images for Each Social Network: Each network has its own size requirements so make your image comes out crisp and clear otherwise, there’s no point. Bookmark this Page! It’s an always- updated image sizing guide for every social network. How can you resize for all the right dimensions if you’re not a designer? Easy….use these free image editing tools:

Canva: Get every template you need, pre-sized and with compelling imagery. They have templates you can use or you can upload your own images.

PicMonkey: Re-size images to any size you like and add eye-catching banners, effects, titles, etc.

Milanote is a tool for organizing creative projects into beautiful visual boards. By design, it feels a lot like working on the wall in a creative studio – visual, tactile and sometimes a bit messy – Milanote is a great fit for designers who work in teams remotely.

  1. Batch And Pre-Schedule Content: Be super efficient by cranking out a bunch of content, whether blogs, videos or podcasts, all in one sitting, maybe for the next month or even six months and scheduling it to publish over the long haul. Many successful bloggers operate this way.
  • Pre-schedule content delivery in advance so you can set it and forget it:
    • Blogs: WordPress https://wordpress.org/ enables scheduling posts in advance
    • Email Platform: All of them have the ability to schedule in advance
    • Social media: Popular scheduling tools include Hootsuite, Buffer, Meet Edgar, and you can use Tailwind specifically for Pinterest and Instagram
    • One caveat: If pre-scheduling to a Facebook brand page, only use Facebook’s native scheduler, not a third-party tool. Otherwise, the Facebook algorithm will not show the post to as many of your fans.
  1. But…Set Aside Weekly Time For Live Engagement: You can’t just quite “set it and forget it.” Remember, social media is SOCIAL so make sure you are active within the platform
  • Schedule 15 minutes per day to dip into social networks and interact, even if you pre-schedule content.
  • Follow proper etiquette for each network. They all have their own rules so make sure you know what you’re doing. This is a great book on that.
  • Respond to comments, give shout-outs, thank people, share valuable content from other trusted sources, promote complementary businesses or organizations if applicable
  1. Recycle and Reuse: You’ve put so much into your content. As your audience grows, many of them may not have seen your earlier stuff–or frankly, they may not remember it. Plus, people like to consume content differently. Avoid reinventing the wheel and repurpose what you have.
  • Spruce up old content for use again
  • Repackage into other forms: A blog post becomes a media pitch; an article becomes a podcast or video. A series of blog posts becomes a free guide.
  • Find at least three uses for every piece of content
  1. Gather Continuous Feedback: Keep polling and interacting with your audience to figure out what they want and need. Do they want to see more of a certain topic? Do they have questions? Use this info to keep delighting them.
  • Monitor social media for questions, comments
  • Provide mechanism to solicit content ideas
  • Ask clients about your content efforts when they come in for appointment
  • Poll your audience annually

How Can I Get It All Done?!

  • Create a plan so it’s easier to divide the workload. This is why an editorial calendar is super useful.
  • Hire a full or part-time content marketing manager
  • Hire a skilled freelancer on Upwork,  Fiverr, or Airtasker
  • Hire a virtual assistant specializing in content marketing/social media from somewhere like Worldwide 101.
  • Contact a local college or university and bring on an intern who is studying marketing, communications or journalism to build the plan and execute the content. You may be able to do this in exchange for course credit rather than pay!

Remember the most important tip: Have Fun!

This is your opportunity to showcase your unique brand personality and voice. Get creative! If you’ve never done video before, experiment with simply using your phone. If you’re a closet artist or photographer, create and capture unique images. The more you can have fun when creating content marketing, the more engaging the content will be to delight your clients, as well as attract new ones.

Missed the entire series? Check out Part 1 and Part 2.

BONUS!  Download this delicious free Content Marketing Cheat Sheet that outlines everything we’ve covered in this three-part series.

Content Marketing Success. Part 2: What Content to Create?

Enjoy this special three-part series on how to find Content Marketing success! You can read Part 1 right here. And Part 3 here.

Great! You’ve created your Content Marketing strategy as discussed last time and you’re ready to create some mind-blowing content to delight your ideal audience.

Only you can’t think of anything to talk about.

Maybe you think your business is not sexy enough: How creative can you get when talking about accounting services, you think to yourself? Or maybe you think writing is just not your “thing.”

Relax. You are the expert in your field and this didn’t happen overnight. You have years of rich wisdom and important information to share with your audience.

‘Oh, everyone knows that.’ No, they don’t. Share your wisdom!  (Tweet this!)

Content marketing comes in many forms: videos, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, emails, social media posts, free guides, tip sheets and more.

In your content marketing strategy, you determined in which vehicles you want to invest. Maybe you love to write or hate being on camera. Maybe your audience adores podcasts and you love donning headphones and interviewing people. Pick what works for you and your target audience. Remember to only choose one or two things and do them really, really well rather than try to create everything under the sun!

You still need topics and ideas, though. So how do you determine what you should talk about? 

First and foremost, survey your clients. I can’t believe how many business owners miss this obvious source of delicious information. What do they want or need? If you don’t have customers yet, find your ideal customers and interview them.

You’ll get oodles of content ideas. No topic is too basic. Remember that your “basics” could be mind-blowing insights for your audience.

Here are six more content ideas to get your brain in gear:

  1. Answer common questions you get all the time.
  2. Comment on hot trends or current news and give your professional take.
  3. Share important advice you know your clients or customers need to know. Even if they don’t know they need to know it!
  4. Interview other experts that may be of interest.
  5. Curate, don’t just create! You don’t have to create everything from scratch. You are also a trusted curator. Share interesting articles, community events, links to great resources.
  6. Poke around on social media or do Google searches and see what questions people are asking and for what they are searching.

Now you should have at least a page, if not more, of content topics. Enough to fill up the entire year. Build an editorial calendar and slot in the topics by date to keep yourself organized. This way, when you’re not feeling the inspirational buzz, you can just look at your calendar and instantly start creating, rather than staring at a blank page for too long.

In Part 3 of this series, I’ll show you my favorite tips and time-saving tricks to make content marketing fun, effective and efficient so it won’t consume your time and life.

In the meantime, download my delicious  free Content Marketing Cheat Sheet with tips, tricks, and best practices to attract new fans and convert more sales.

Some past posts that may be of interest as you come up with content ideas:

3 Tips to Make Blogging Easier

7 Simple and Stunning Blog Post Ideas to Keep Your Ideas Flowing (this can apply to blogs, videos, podcasts, eBooks….the works!)

5 Inspirations to Spice Up Your Content Marketing

Want to better define your ideal audience so you can understand what content they need and how and where they want it? You’ll love my Brand Bootcamp digital course – self-paced and stress-free!

Content Marketing Success. Part 1: Create A Sensible Strategy

Ready for a free mini-course on this blog? This is Part 1 of three-part series on how to master content marketing, create the right content, and manage it with ease. Oh, and a goodie for you at the end: A free Content Marketing cheat sheet full of tips, strategies and best practices. Delicious! 

Sales has changed. You don’t just pitch your offering cold and shout “Buy Now!”  Unless you have an infomercial. And then it better be damn good!

Most of you offer creative, value-based work to discerning audiences who are not buying solely based on price, whether you put on events, sell cheese, write books, design websites or coach executives.

These audiences greatly differ, but they all expect you to take them out on a first date and court them before they invest in you. You must prove your value and expertise before anyone spends a dime.

Enter CONTENT MARKETING

I’ve talked about content marketing before and it’s not even close to new (remember free DVD’s and brochures if you “call right now?”) but technology has expanded the ways in which content can be created, delivered and consumed.

Good, consistent content will boost your visibility, attract your ideal customers and make your brand irresistible over time.

#Contentmarketing helps you woo your audience before you ask for marriage! @redslice Click To Tweet

Content marketing helps you woo your audience before you ask for marriage!  (Tweet this!)

But where to start? And how do you do it right?

In this three-part series, I’m going to share how you can make good content an effortless and integral part of your brand-boosting efforts.

Part 1: How to Create a Sensible Content Marketing Strategy

Before going on any trip, you need a map to get you there. Don’t just dive into tactics without a strategy.

First, as always, start with your brand strategy and story. Clearly determine your audience, your value, and your personality. Then build your content marketing strategy based on that.

A content marketing strategy lives above any specific vehicles, topics or dates. It should drive all of your efforts.

The strategy includes:

  • What are my content marketing objectives?
  • What does my audience want? What do they need to know?
  • What will I create?
  • Will I have monthly themes and seasonal topics?
  • Which vehicles will I use? What does my audience want AND what do I enjoy creating?
  • How will I measure success?

Taking a step back before you start cranking out blogs, videos and newsletters to answer these questions will guide your efforts for the rest of the year.

A word of caution as you plan: Don’t go overboard! Are you really going to write a daily blog, post three times a day on Instagram, film a video every week and whatever else you dream up? I get it, marketing is fun, but you still have to do your actual work and sleep, eat, spend time with your family, etc. Start small. Make it doable.

You want to make this easier on yourself, right? Take a few hours to unplug, pour yourself a latte and craft your content marketing strategy.

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll tackle how to come up with brilliant content ideas and topics.

In the meantime, download my delicious free Content Marketing Cheat Sheet with tips, tricks, and best practices to attract new fans and convert more sales.

Some past posts that may be of interest as you build your strategy:

The ABC’s of Good Content Marketing

The Art of Seduction: 5 Ways to Woo Your Audience With Good Content

Want to dive even deeper on how to actually create great content and attract more customers, visibility and sales? You’ll love the MOMENTUM Pro digital course – self-paced and stress-free!

Image Credit via Réginald Sion

Good vs. Bad Customer Friction

Your organization, business or work will induce friction. Accept that.

Friction is anything that makes a client or customer unhappy or prevents them from fully getting value from your work.

Some people will embrace what you have to offer. Others will reject it. But, inevitably, some humans who find barriers to consuming, accepting, buying, and supporting your work. They will hit bumps in the road rather than have a smooth, seamless, happy experience with your work.

The trick is to judge good friction versus bad friction so you know which is worth removing….and which is not.  (Tweet This!)

Good friction–the kind you can improve upon, tweak, clarify or change to better serve people–looks like this:

  • “It’s not clear from your website what you do or if this solves my problem”
  • “The bottle pour spout is too big and makes too much come out all at once.
  • “The instructions were confusing so I didn’t use the product.”
  • “I thought you were delivering x, y or z but you never wrote anything down.”
  • “The course did not deliver what you promised on the sales page”
  • Your website typos give me the impression you’re not professional.”
  • “Your customer service rep never responded to my multiple emails.”
  • “You were late to all our meetings.”

Bad friction–the kind that you can politely address but still stand your ground–looks like this:

  • “I want my money back for the course because I didn’t have time to do the work.” (That’s on you, not us)
  • “I’m not your target audience and would never buy your product but I’m offended by your social media posts.” (Sorry about that, but we’re serving our tribe, not you.)
  • “Your work was useless. Of course, I never implemented your recommendations but, still, you didn’t do good work.” (Really? I delivered solid, expert advice. How do you know it’s not good unless you take action?)
  • “Your work/art/book/song/brand/message sucks!” (Not everyone has to like what I do. Are you my target audience? If you give me something tangible to respond to perhaps I can improve it.)

Good friction is a valid criticism that can help you improve and bring you closer to a customer. It helps you improve, refine and clarify things to make it easier for people to love you. You can address this kind of friction and pave a smooth path to adoption and adoration.

Bad friction is just noise, excuses, and whining. If people are not willing to put in the time, implement your advice or thoughtfully judge your work, it is not friction you should worry about removing. Because that kind of friction is not real.

Before you spend cycles acting on customer or client friction, make sure you know which kind of friction it is.

Why Lack of Empathy Will Destroy Your Brand

You’ve probably heard all the outrage over how United Airlines forcibly removed a doctor from his seat, injuring him, simply because they needed his seat to accommodate a crew transfer.

This is straight out of PR brand crisis hell. David Dao, the victim, is a doctor, grandparent, and Asian-American. The police dragged him from his seat when he refused to get up, broke his nose and caused a “severe concussion,” according to Dao’s lawyer.

United’s CEO Oscar Munoz has apologized profusely and publicly, taking full responsibility for the airline’s behavior. They are reviewing and changing policies to earn back customer trust.

The brand damage is bad. But like any virtual monopoly, we’ll probably have little choice but to have to fly United again. Their stock price took a devastating hit but has since rebounded (as of this blog post writing).

The good news is that there have been Congressional hearings about the airline’s behavior and air passenger rights. Other airlines like Southwest and Alaska are proactively reviewing their own policies to avoid any issues in the future. Dr. Dao has received a hefty settlement for his pain and suffering (good for him, I say, poor man.)

@United showed us how lack of empathy destroys your #brand via @redslice #PR #values Click To Tweet

If you make policies that only serve your interests and do not think about how they impact your customers, you will lose. United put their own needs above a paying passenger with no thought to this person’s schedule, convenience or feelings.

All United had to do was create a fair, compassionate policy to accommodate their customers and crew. I’ve always thought overbooking as a practice was nonsense (but admittedly, I don’t understand the financials). But then, to add fuel to the fire, you had airline personnel on the front lines making all of these bad decisions instead of being empowered and inspired to come up with a more empathetic, creative solution.

My own family has issues with United recently, flying home from London Heathrow. My husband has airline status which gives him access to their worldwide lounges. He and I tried to get into the lounge at Heathrow with our three year-old but were told he was only allowed one guest with his current status.  Even though our son was only three, he’d have to pay full price for an extra pass. Really? What are we supposed to do, leave our kid outside? Maybe they don’t want whole families coming in on one pass, but I doubt many parents with six kids were trying to “game the system.” We were livid. Did they not understand how often my husband flies their airline, away from his own family? Why can’t you create a policy that says any child is only charged $10 or something?

Absolutely no empathy.

CEO Oscar Munoz has said, “This is a turning point for United. For the last three weeks, I have spent every day thinking about how we got here.”

Really? You don’t know how you got here? I’m calling BS. Have you even flown a commercial airline as a paying passenger in the last decade? We got here through consolidation, lack of competition, squeezing customers for more money and fees while offering them less, shrinking their legroom and generally making the flying experience horrific.

I know. I fly a lot. And back in the mid-nineties, I flew United weekly in my management consulting job – and loved how they treated me with kindness and respect. Wow, how far they’ve fallen.

Empathy has to be baked into the brand values and DNA of a company. 

If you're not using company values as useful tools to RUN your company, you've failed @redslice #United #brand Click To Tweet

Values shape what policies to put in place and which people to hire.

Until companies figure out that brand starts from the inside out and that it all has to start with customer empathy, they will never learn.

How to Create a Simple Marketing Plan That Brings You Joy

Do you want a simple marketing plan that actually works? If you're looking for easy marketing tips that won't overwhelm you, click through for marketing advice from an expert!

Are you narrowing your eyes at the title of this blog post, thinking “There’s no such thing as a simple marketing plan, Maria”?

If every marketing plan you’ve ever tried has made you feel overwhelmed, allow me to explain simple marketing via a story about milk and pasta.

Picture this:  Your husband opens the refrigerator and removes a carton of milk. He asks, “How long has this been in here?” and you shrug.

He opens the carton, takes a big whiff, and recoils in disgust. You think he might actually start crying.

“Ugh! I think this milk has gone off! Here, smell it.”

Are you kidding me? You have very clearly shown that what awaits me is horrific. With that ringing endorsement, no thank you. I’ll pass.

But…

You’re in a restaurant with your bestie and, upon tucking into her gorgeous pasta dish, she rolls her eyes in ecstasy and moans in a very inappropriate way.

“Oh my gosh! You have got to take a bite of this. It’s amazing!”

With that kind of enthusiasm, hell yes. Of course, you take a bite. And enter into blissful euphoria yourself.

Whether people are trying to persuade you to take a whiff, try a bite, or buy that must-have new product, their excitement or disgust is what will–or won’t–sell you.

Now imagine if you asked the store owner if the milk they sell is good. And they said, “It’s okay, I guess.”

Or if the head chef said, “Here’s your meal. It’s no big deal. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t.”

If makers and sellers don’t talk about their own work with passion…or worse, talk about it with disinterest or disgust…are you going to be convinced to buy from them? 

If you hate marketing your “thing” and don’t promote it with passion…or worse, talk about it with disinterest, that’s exactly what you’re doing to your prospective clients, fans or customers.

To find more joy in promoting your work, simplify your marketing plan. Click To Tweet

It’s the overwhelm that’s killing you.  You’re trying to do everything and doing it all…badly. And you think they can fool people by plastering on a sweet smile and phoning it in.

Not only can people tell your heart’s not in it, but you probably aren’t consistent and effective with your marketing efforts. If you hate blogging, will you really commit to doing it on a regular basis? Heck no.

Relax. You don’t have to be everywhere. In fact, you CAN’T be everywhere.

Here’s my simple marketing plan for you

Consider two factors:

  1. What do I enjoy doing? My joy.
  1. Where is my target audience? My tribe.

Seriously. That’s it.  This intersection of your joy and your tribe will give you your marketing plan. And the great news is that if your target audience plays in several places, you have a choice.

You may be crystal clear about #1 but if you’re clueless about #2? Ask them where they like to hang out and how they like to get new information about work like yours!

To simplify your plan and find your joy…and your tribe…please download this handy dandy little free worksheet I made for you (it’s actually a Sneak Peek Playbook from my powerful coaching program, MOMENTUM, so enjoy the free taste!)

It’s yours for free. My gift. Because this issue is killing you and I want you to love marketing your work, not detest it.

Try it. Seriously.

What is a Brand Strategy?

What is Brand Strategy

Doing this work for, ahem, decades, it’s easy for me to forget that the most basic yet game-changing concepts can often be misunderstood.

I sometimes assume everyone understands what I mean when I talk about “brand strategy.” But with new readers and fans, it’s worth revisiting this important topic and clarifying terminology so your business can soar.

A lesson for all of you: Don’t assume the information you take for granted is something “everyone already knows.” This is still one the most popular question I get:

What is a brand strategy?

And its related cousins…

Where do I even start creating a brand strategy? What are the right questions to ask when building my brand strategy?

Just to ensure we’re all on the same page, let’s first revisit what we mean by BRAND.

Your brand is your core, your essence. It’s the soul and reputation of your company, project or even non-profit and informs everything from who you target to how you price to what your website needs to look like and include….so many other business decisions, big and small. And not just marketing ones, either.

If you think of your brand as your business’ reputation, you can see how this informs they way you look, talk and act as a company or a personal brand.

You convey your brand in three crucial ways: visually, verbally and experientially. I call them this concept the Three-Legged Stool of Branding.  And like a stool, if you are missing a leg, the whole thing falls down. The “legs” ensure you have a firm foundation to make all your efforts more effective.

A brand strategy is a statement of direction that answers key questions around why you exist, what you stand for, who you target, what value you provide, your pricing and packaging strategy and your business’ unique personality or vibe that you will present to the world.

Why do you need a brand strategy? Unless you want to overwhelm yourself with a ton of wasted effort (and expense), you need this “strategic map”. Like a compass, a brand strategy guides all your marketing, operational and even hiring and partnership decisions. a Brand Strategy helps you say yes to the right things and no to the wrong things so you not only save money and time, but your specific actions are much more targeted and effective. Otherwise, you will run yourself ragged trying to blindly figure out the right move to make next.

Simply put, a Brand Strategy prevents you from performing random acts of marketing and getting distracted by every new shiny object

Stop performing random acts of marketing. Craft your Brand Strategy first. Click To Tweet

Remember: the format of a Brand Strategy is not the most important thing. Yours can be three paragraphs, two pages or even a slide deck or other graphic format. What matters is that it answers high-level questions such as who you are, who you serve and the value you offer and at a detailed level, outlines:

From this, you can create a Core Value Proposition (CVP), a super useful brand tool that wraps up all your answers into a clear statement (this can serve not only as your company descriptor but as your elevator pitch – and can lead to a great tagline, too. )

Here’s an example of a Core Value Proposition from a past client:

Umault is a boutique video marketing agency that helps B2B companies create captivating content, engage the right people, and drive sales. We concept, script, and oversee video campaigns that make the complex simple and sexy, transforming ordinary businesses into extraordinary brands. 

This tells me everything I need to know about the company: what it is, how it is positioned, the target audience, the three core benefits it wants to stress in the market, and the voice of the company.

Once you have these core brand questions answered, you’re in a much better position to create a solid plan of marketing tactics: taglines, advertising, campaigns, sales strategies, social media, content. You’ll even better understand how your website needs to look and what it needs to say to appeal to your target market.

Internally, you can use the Brand Strategy to inform hiring decisions, operational processes, customer service policies, partner program criteria and even fun company culture practices and rituals.

Your Brand Strategy is your internal bible for making smart business decisions, not just marketing decisions. The more clarity you have about your answers, the more your business will attract the right people with the right message at the right time. Otherwise, good luck navigating the marketing maze of options that exists today.

Ready to create your own Brand Strategy? Click here to download my free 10-question Brand Strategy Worksheet to guide you along!

6 Links Small Business Owners Should Click

6 Links Small Business Owners Should Click

Facebook ads. #Winning hashtags for your small business. How to still be productive when WiFi goes down. Just a few of the latest and greatest things I’ve found on the Internet the last few weeks, curated just for you. You’re welcome!

8 (relatively) easy Facebook tips that will help your business by Sarah Von Bargen @yesandyesblog PS, I tried the one about the Facebook cover photo and it seems to be increasing email signups!

You can make excuses or you can make progress. By Alexandra Franzen. Damn. If this little boy doesn’t inspire you to get off your butt and stop whining about why you can’t succeed, nothing will.

Popular Twitter hashtags to promote your small business every day of the week. For when you’re like, “Why don’t more people notice my Twitter awesomeness?” from @smallbiztrends

When you need clarity around your mission and why you’re doing all this work in the first place: Why I turned down a $100,000 deal on Shark Tank by Lisa Binderow, founder and CEO of Nicepipes Apparel @nicepipestweets

No Internet? No Problem. 12 tips for staying productive offline by Lindsay Kolowich  @lkolow.

62% of small business owners says that Facebook ads don’t work. Here’s why experts disagree by Marla Tabaka @MarlaTabaka

Now, you know I can’t be everywhere so help me curate! Got a link you’re dying to share with the tribe?  Post it to the Facebook page right now and share your sensational find! Cute animal videos count, too.

5 Ways Your Business Can Make the World a Better Place

Flashback: I’m seventeen and my mom and I are driving somewhere, talking about my future career goals. College application season was in full swing so the topic weighed heavy on me. What did I want to study?

My mom would have loved for me to pursue acting or journalism, but I wanted to study business and go into advertising or marketing. Rebel.

Some people know exactly what they want to do and go for it. But I was never the person who had an early calling on any one thing. Maybe you can relate? My attention span is too short, my interests too varied.

From age ten, one of my older brothers wanted to be a lawyer. And at fifty, he’s now…a successful lawyer. How I envied such clarity.

Some of my friends wanted to be doctors, teachers, scientists. Wanting to make a difference myself, I was torn up by my non-philanthropic career goals. I longed to create, communicate and impact in my own way, like running marketing for a city arts or theatre company.

“Maria, it’s okay to do something you love,” Mom said. “Not everyone can pursue a ‘noble’ profession. Things still need to get done. But you can still do good in the world, no matter what you do for a living.”

This conversation is a hazy memory, I’m not sure if it was real or imagined. Regardless, it has shaped my world view.

My deeper purpose has always been to engage, inform and delight with my work in order to make the world a better place. And it informs one of my primary values: With great success comes great responsibility.

With great success comes great responsibility: 5 ways your biz can make the world better @redslice Click To Tweet

We don’t all have the drive to join the PeaceCorps. We can’t all run into burning buildings to save puppies. Our work may not involve curing cancer or advancing world peace, but we can do many philanthropic things with our businesses.

Here are five ways your business can make the world a better place:

  1. Donate a percentage of profits: You can use your good fortune to help worthy causes. This type of social entrepreneurship is getting more and more popular. Why not make yourself successful so you can in turn support honorable causes? You can do this consistently or with special promotions. You could become a one-for-one company and donate an item to people in need for every item you sell like Tom’s or Embrace Baby Warmers. If you can’t be in the trenches, find a way to use your profits to support those who are.
  2. Give the gift of giving back: I do this every year at the holidays. Instead of useless mugs or pens that will just get lost or thrown away, I thank my clients and partners by allowing them to choose from a selection of my favorite charities and I give a gift in their name. They remember my brand with respect, feel good about not cluttering their desk, and the organization gets the resources to continue its good work. #winning
  3. Take on a pro bono project: My friend used to run a design agency and every quarter they would take on one pro bono project to help a community organization. They had deep values in promoting social good and did a lot of paid work for socially responsible companies. Those paid gigs enabled them to generously donate their time and talent to help local worthy causes with tiny budgets. And side bonus: the PR was priceless.
  4. Choose your clients wisely: No one says you have to serve organizations who pollute the environment or product marketers who scam old people. It’s your business! You absolutely have the right and responsibility to define your values and work only with people or brands who do no harm. This includes partners. The more you support those kinds of people or businesses, the more we all win.
  5. Be a good, authentic person: You can choose to add to the scandalous marketing trash out there polluting our hearts and minds or you can rise above. Stay truthful in your advertising. You are called to create something that matters, so offer value and substance. Be good to your customers and clients. Show empathy. Keep your word. You can only control yourself, so be the example.

Image Credit via Flickr