Working Through Your Identity Crisis

It’s hard to come up with a killer marketing strategy when you don’t know who you are and what you want.  I was watching "Big Idea" late last night and this consistently came out as a critical success factor in what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. 

Whenever I talk to people about their business and what they do for marketing, the most popular question I get is "How do you choose what communication to use?  There are so many choices."  I always say that if you know who your ideal cutomer is and what’s important to them when they are buying what you are selling – the choice is often easier to make.

It’s Good to Have an Identity Crisis

Constantly evaluating who you are with relation to who your ideal customer is – is a good thing.  It’s easy to get wrapped up in the technical machnations of our expertice and miss the simple thing that’s most important to your customer.

No matter how technical or sophisticated your product or service people will only give you money for the emotioal gratification that it gives them. 

• What experience can you promise?
• In what ways will the user’s life be improved?

Sometimes we want to sound "more sophisticated and professional," yet our customers are people, just like us.  They watch a lot of the same programs, they read a lot of the same magazines, and yet we still try to prove to them how smart and sophisticated we are.

Wallow in your crisis.  Take the time to really understand WHO your customers are as people.  And finally take the risk to talk to them as friends and people who you want to help.