Hunter to Hunted
Authenticity
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”
Authenticity is hands down your most powerful marketing asset. In a market saturated with carbon-copy brands and generic messaging, being yourself is your secret weapon.
Trying to be perfect, worrying about being weird or unprofessional, caring too much about offending or alienating people are one-way tickets to being boring and forgettable.
No one wants to be generic. No one wants generic. Authenticity means your business communications are an extension of you. People want to work with people, not companies. So show the human side of your business.
Do this and you'll attract clients who resonate with the true essence of your company. But project a shiny, shallow version of who or what you think your business should be and you’ll likely attract customers who don’t see your worth.
Your brand character
Your brand is more than a logo or a service. It's the personality of your business. It's the foundation of why you do what you do. It's the meaning and story behind how you discovered the solutions you provide and why you approach their implementation the way you do.
This is about knowing your core values, your mission, and the deeper purpose that drives everything you do. Not just writing them down and forgetting about them but ensuring that you know them, that you embody them and, if you have staff, that they do too.
Your brand voice
If your brand character is the body, your voice is the fingerprint. It's the mark you leave with your marketing. It's how you communicate, the words or images you choose, the energy you bring. Your uniqueness is your power. Embrace it or die.
It’s action time!
1 - Define your brand character
Write a raw, honest statement about your brand's core purpose. No douchey corporate speak - just be real, speak from your heart.
Dig into:
What do you stand for?
Why did you start this business?
What change do you want to create in your clients' lives?
What principles are non-negotiable for you?
2 - Define your brand voice
How do you naturally speak? What sort of words would you use? What sort of things do you say? Are you direct? Playful? Deeply analytical? Do you use slang? Profanity? Particular turns of phrase?
Tips on keeping it real, homie:
Record yourself talking about your business
Write it exactly how you'd explain it to a friend over coffee
Drop the corporate jargon, talk like a normal(ish) person - and yeah, I actually use the word homie in real life…