If you don’t have a clear stance on something, then you stand for nothing. (Yup! We’ll take that stance.)
In business, that’s deadly.
Seriously, when was the last time you bought something that had wishy-washy marketing? That’s the stuff that doesn’t even hit your radar because it’s so bland.
If you don’t have a clear cut reason to open your wallet, you aren’t going to do it. It’s the same for your business and your customers.
You must have a clear direction for your brand voice and your thought leadership. That’s what will attract the right people to you. And they’ll love what you have to say.
Do it well enough, and they’ll start praising you from the rooftops. Why?
Your stance helps them reinforce their own identity. They get to say PEOPLE LIKE US do things, wear things, buy things, and say things like this.
People don’t own an iPhone just because they like the tech. They choose the iPhone because of what it says about them. Same with their Starbucks, Nikes or Jimmy Choo’s.
Your unique stance brings in the customers that you really want to work with, instead of the ones who make you sigh in resignation when they call, email or walk in your door. (We know you can picture that person right now!)
It can be a difficult or nerve-wracking prospect to take a hard stance and narrow your business to a very specific niche. Afterall, there are many people who can benefit from what you sell, right?
But if you don’t have a distinct focus and a specific stance, then you simply can’t connect in a meaningful way, with the people who matter most.
You just end up shouting in the masses with all the other businesses, trying desperately to be heard, but not saying anything relevant enough to fully capture someone’s attention.
If you’re not getting the kind of traction you want in your business, this is definitely part of the problem. There could be a lot more going on, of course, (check out this blog to help you diagnose other problems in your business) but this will be tied into it for sure.
The bottom line is, you have to pick the hill you’re willing to live and die on, but not without doing the research first, to back it up. That will give rhyme to your reason, and make sure that you actually have a viable product or service. That’s what market research does for you. When it’s done properly, anyway.
Based on that, you can then define your stance and create a unique brand voice, solidifying your exclusive position in the market. We’ve written a great blog on that here, so we aren’t going to reiterate everything in it. Check it out for yourself.
When you have an exclusive position in the market, the way you speak about what you do becomes crystal clear for you and everyone engaging with you.
You have to make sure you’re saying things differently than everyone else in your niche, in order to own it exclusively. You might cover the same topics, but your angle on it needs to be fresh. No one wants to read the same old same old. Give them something new and a reason to definitively choose you.
Your angle is going to define all your content, including your elevator pitch, the copy on your website, your sales material, blogs, articles, social media posts, talks you give…in short, everything you do.
But once you nail it, you’ll be so glad you did, because you’ll finally have the business, customers and income that you’ve always wanted.
Be sure to lead your business evolution with our white paper: 6 Future Trends That Will Affect Your Business.
