You didn’t start your business to make $0.25 an hour, working 100 weeks, to work for someone you don’t even like. No! You had a dream. A dream of freedom, flexibility, purpose, and way more profit.
Then reality set in…
“The competition is tough!” “How can anyone make it in ‘this economy.’” “It’s not my fault; technology is making my job obsolete.”
These are common excuses I hear. That is just it; they are EXCUSES. You CAN run the business you always dreamed of. You CAN have freedom, impact, and profit in your business. You CAN work with people you actually like. People who honor your time, input, and value.
Sounds too good to be true? Well… It isn’t. If you want to live the life you dream of you have to change the game. When you do what you have always done, things will stay the same. If you want to differentiate from the competition, you have to do something DIFFERENT.
Here is a simple 6-part Brand Compass framework:
1. Identify Your Ideal Customer
2. Position Your Brand to Reach an Underserved Market
3. Create a Productized Offering That Solves A Specific Problem
4. Set Up Repeatable, Scalable Processes
5. Connect Your Values with Those of Your Ideal Customer
6. Put a Clear Communication Guide in Place
We are going to cover the basics of these 6-steps here. Click on each step to learn more.
Identify Your Ideal Customer
Connecting with the right customers is the cornerstone of all great marketing campaigns. If you don’t know who you are talking to, how can you get them to buy from you?
The secret that all major brands use to sell products is. In both cases, they are creating all the content and marketing to speak to one person. In the marketing world, they call that person the brand’s target persona or avatar.
We all want to feel like someone cares about us. People respond much better to brands that make them feel special. Brands that try to sell to everyone can’t prove their value. We each have aspirations and dreams we want to achieve. We also have individual problems we want to overcome.
Identifying the type of person you bring value to will help you use language they can’t resist.
It is impossible to write a message that will speak to everyone.
When you understand your customers, you will
Position Your Brand to Reach an Underserved Market
Positioning is the way the world sees your brand compared to the competition. It is hard to dethrone an existing company that is the leader in an industry or expertise. If an established brand is positioned as the leader in your space, good luck going head to head.
If you are in a crowded space, there is a good chance a lot of companies are positioned better than you. Trying to take them head-on is a challenge (hint, it usually involves dropping your prices). Instead, find a group of people nobody else is paying attention to.
Where is there a group of people you can serve better than anyone else? Find them, and you are on your way to a much more profitable and meaningful business.
Create a Productized Offering That Solves A Specific Problem
Now that you have niched to serve a specific person, it’s time to create an offer that solves a specific problem.
I know, the common advice is to find a segment of the market that is huge and offer them as many services as you can! If that strategy were working for you, you wouldn’t still be reading this post.
If you are stuck in heavy competition and have a hard time proving your value, it is time for a change.
When everyone else is running one way, there is money in the other direction. Instead of offering everything, offer a specific solution to a specific problem.
You see, people don’t pay good money for something they think is a commodity. They will pay good money for something that makes their life better. People pay for the VALUE something has to them, not the features and benefits.
A productized service is:
1. Easier to explain.
2. Easier to Scale.
3. Easier to sell.
Set Up Repeatable, Scalable Processes
The key to sales is creating a product that is easy to explain and ads a lot of value. The key to creating freedom and flexibility is creating processes that scale. Without processes, your business is doomed to being a time sucking machine.
Break down everything in your business into 3-4 steps. Then break each of those into 3-4 steps. Repeat this for every area of your business.
It is a lot harder than it may sound, but it is THE key to living a life of freedom. Clear processes can be explained easier. This will help you communicate to customers better as well as hire other people to do a lot of the work for you.
Processes make digital automation possible. Most businesses can automate a large part of their daily, mundane tasks.
Once you have started writing out processes, now we move on to values and vision.
Connect Your Values with Those of Your Ideal Customer
Why do did you start your business? What do you want to see in the future? These are vital questions to answer to scale the type of business you want! Having clarity in your vision will keep the boat sailing in the right direction.
Equally as important, what are your values? How do you view the world? Writing your values down will make sure you are sailing in a boat you want to be in.
How do your vision, goals, and values match your customers? Where do your customers’ values overlap with yours?
That is your sweet spot for communicating the why behind what you are doing. When you speak from your sweet spot, you can build a community of like-minded people around you. The people become your brand advocates.
Put a Clear Communication Guide in Place
Being clear will help you sell. The faster your customer understands what you do, the quicker they can buy from you. Having a communication guide will help your language stay consistent and clear.
Write out summaries of the key parts of your business and your customer journey. Use this to create your pitch, website copy, and social media content.