GarthBox

Everything you’ve done so far for your brand has been about making a promise, keeping a promise or breaking a promise.

At the start, you promised to meet expectations that people have of your kind of brand going forward. A bank is expected to be trustworthy, a bakery is expected to be fresh, a bar is expected to have a selection.

The promises you’ve made and need to keep on top of expectations are ones of worth and delight and connection and community. They’re of making the right choices when push comes to shove. They’re of mitigating risk or maximizing reward.

Alas, there’s the near inevitability of breaking a promise. More often than not, though, is that a promise was broken that you never intended on promising.

When you’re building, it’s important to know what you stand for, who your target is, where the funds are coming from, but just as important (and more forgotten) is to know and communicate what you’re promising, the change you are telling the customer to anticipate, the delight one will experience when they choose you.

It’s about making the promise clear.

Stay Positive & Make It Something Worth Talking About, Too

Photo credit

At the root of getting people in the door, to sample or to try something is risk and reward.

Some marketing is about mitigating the risk. It’s a free sample, it’s a money-back guarantee and it’s backed by 3 of 4 dentists. For some customers, reducing the risk is what will get them to give your brand a try.

However, some marketing is about magnifying the reward. It’s having something worth sharing with friends, it’s something that brings a treasured memory back or a big dream forward and it makes you feel good.

Risk or reward.

What’s at the root of what you do to get customers?

Stay Positive & A Touch Of Both Works, Too

Photo credit

Chances are likely that you need a significant amount of capital to start what you’ve dreamt of starting. (Significant amount to you, of course.)

Unfortunately (or more fortunately) the days are fading in which you can raise the funds needed to start and then, all the sudden, you get the green light.

More likely is that you’ve started to sell some form of your product.

It might not be specifically what you’ve dreamt up, but it’s a start.

It’s having someone else brew your beer and distribute it before you do. It’s running food tours before you open a restaurant. It’s doing freelance work before breaking off into your own agency.

Sure, quitting today, going to the bank tomorrow and starting your new endeavor next week is a possibility, but it invites unnecessary hardship.

And it’s not even that we can take on the challenge; it’s that we’ve gotten smarter.

Start small. Start selling. Drip drip drip.

Stay Positive & This Journey Is More Fun Anyway

Photo credit

We are what we say and – more importantly – do.

That’s why to get a good read on who we are, we can look to what others expect us to do next.

Not in the moment, not what we’ve done, but what do they anticipate our next move to be?

Do they imagine that we’ll thrive through the turbulence we’re facing or cop out early? Do they expect us to be generous or selfish? Do they anticipate us to reach out or wait to be selected?

The beauty of this analysis is that there’s still time to change that expectation and improve on who we truly are.

Stay Positive & Our Reputation Is At Stake If We Don’t

Photo credit

There are so many things that can shift once we start.

There are the obvious things like budget and team size and the idea.

Then there are the less-obvious things like stakeholder expectations, personal relationships and incoming, but unplanned additional responsibilities.

The point here isn’t that you need to plan for every single variable, predictable or not.

What matters is to be ready to shift for whatever will arrive.

It’s the mindset that matters most, not necessarily having a plan B through Z.

Stay Positive & Better To Lean Into A Shift Than Run From It

Photo credit

Adding a “Learn More” button isn’t very persuasive. It’s almost passive.

“Hey, if you liked what you learned, there’s more where that came from. No biggie if you don’t, but it’s here if you do. Thanks!”

The “Learn More” button is times more important than a “Buy now” or “Request a Quote” button. Not because “Learn More” results in more conversions, but because it results in better ones.

People interested in your brand before a conversion are more likely to be loyal to it, to tell friends about it and to come back again.

What’s more is that you know your marketing message is a strong one if you can pique someone’s interest. After all, your target doesn’t need to know everything about your brand.

Just enough.

And just enough is usually right before you add what you need to end with a “buy now” CTA.

Stay Positive & Just Enough Is Enough

Photo credit

Saying “sorry” to a customer doesn’t do much. What does do much is action.

The same can be said for your brand story.

Preaching it might get attention, but not loyalty.

Elevator pitches are changing from what can you say in one minute to what can you do? What can you have the other experience? What story can you tell that shows what you stand for?

No one is listening anymore. But they are looking.

Stay Positive & What’ll They See When They Look To Your Brand?

Photo credit