Most marketers are taught that you should first pick the market to go after and then literally alter yourself to become appealing to them as a choice. Believe me, I’ve tried and found that it’s just too hard and too expensive for most small businesses.
My preference is to build a brand from the inside out. When I say “brand” it doesn’t have to be this big multi-million dollar recognizable logo – I mean a recognizable and desirable promise that you make to your customers about the experience they’re going to have with you and your offering.

But where do you begin with something like that?

Here is my recommendation:

Your first goal is to clearly understand what an experience with your organization PROMISES. The best way to do this is to identify what your strengths are and what you do well.

1. If your organization is heavily influenced by the owner: Get the book “Strengths Finder 2.0.” The owner should take the assessment to find out what his or her natural strengths are, and how these strengths differentiate them from others. Not only will you get a clear and concise explanation of what sets you apart, you will actually get words that you can use in your marketing materials.
2. Review and debrief any and every job that you’ve had and keep asking yourself the question “WHY did I do these things?” For example, if your job was to do competitive research, why did you do that? What were you hoping to find and why?

Work with this information to identify what your mission and purpose in the business is. WHAT DO YOU DO AND WHY?

The next thing to do is take the interview guide I’m offering below and ask every employee these questions. Your goal is to identify what sets them apart and what they provide NATURALLY to the business.

inside-interview-guide

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