Many of us have heard of Simon Sinek’s book “Start With Why”. Knowing why you do what you do, why you started your business, and why you want to help others with the problem your business solves can greatly simplify your marketing.
How Knowing “Why” Helps Your Branding
Branding in a small, owner-led business, like many construction and trades businesses, is simply an extension of the owner’s personality.
Most of us started our business for a reason.
I started marketing because I realized that most small business owners don’t have the time, energy, or expertise to market themselves effectively. I wanted to help them market effectively.
An extension of branding is building a connection with your customers. Most of the people you will attract will feel strongly about one or more of your core values, which will allow you to build an emotional connection with them.
How Your “Why” Affects Your Advertising
Knowing what drives you is a great advantage when making advertising decisions. It helps you create a consistent message across all your physical and online marketing channels. This consistent message fosters trust in your prospects and lets people quickly identify you and your company.
Another benefit of understanding your motivation for being in business is that it helps you market your product or service’s benefits instead of its features.
Stiletto Tools is a hammer manufacturing company that understands why their hammers are made from titanium instead of steel. They can tell you the benefit of buying their $200 hammer instead of a $20 hammer from the bargain bin. By using their hammer, you will go home less tired at the end of the day and their 15 oz hammer is just as effective as a bargain 28 oz hammer.
I’m going to move on to another hammer manufacturer to discuss the next point. Scott Douglas Coonrad, the maker of the Douglas hammer, set out to make the best hammer possible. His passion for excellence quickly set him apart in the already crowded hammer market. His unique design and the hammer’s great performance created a group of raving fans who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for his handmade hammers.
The uniqueness he created is what marketers call “differentiation”. Scott’s “why” is the driving force behind what makes his product different from the competition.
Why Knowing Your Purpose Is Important
Knowing your “why” is one of the foundational elements of marketing. It gives you a leg to stand on when making branding, advertising, and customer service decisions. It guides your business to do the things it does every day, especially when you help your team understand the vision that drove you to start and operate your business as it is today.
By the way, I wanted to include the links to Douglas and Stiletto here so you can see them yourself.
Also, here is a link to Simon Sinek’s book, “Start With Why”.
Would you like to have a brief conversation about your marketing strategy? Book a discovery call today! (https://calendly.com/chad-beachy-northvalleymarketing/30min)
Credits:
Chad Beachy, the author of this article, lived and worked in the construction industries of North Carolina and Montana for 14 years. 5 of those years were spent in the portable building industry.
He now operates North Valley Marketing, a marketing agency for the construction and trades industries and is based out of Hardin, MT.
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