Today’s article highlights a crucial mistake that I bet 90% of you are currently making in your marketing.
Your problem is that your marketing is all about you when, really, it should be about the customer.
This problem is best seen with service-based businesses. They’re the ones who suffer from this issue the most, and they suffer comically. This problem is everywhere in marketing, but it’s easier to spot when it’s a person marketing themselves rather than an inanimate object.
Many business owners are caught in this trap:
They have spent years pursuing education, fighting for top marks, and dreaming of their names on the door. They’re accustomed to selling themselves, whether for school admissions, internships, or job interviews, where the emphasis is on self-promotion. But here’s the kicker: that me-centric approach needs to be revised when you’re a business owner selling your service. It’s time to throw everything you’ve learned out the window and completely flip the switch. Your business is not about you—it’s about your customers. It’s about making their lives better, easier, and more enjoyable. That, my friends, is the only way to win.
No One Cares About You.
The best marketing is storytelling, and it’s easy to say that you are ‘storytelling’ when you laundry list your own credentials and have a bio starting from your childhood traumas– this isn’t storytelling in marketing, and nobody cares.
In his iconic book, Building a Storybrand, Donald Miller said it right. I recommend this book to all of the top professionals I work with. The more right-brained the profession, the more this book is eye-opening to changing how you market and message your brand. The issue is that the ‘smarter you are’ (analytical/textbook brilliant), the harder it is for you to connect your solution to the customer’s problem. Simple is the best, but simple isn’t easy– especially when you are in a complex industry, and you are used to working in an industry that keeps you thinking and communicating in terms the average person doesn’t.
Thinking in terms of a story brand is essential because it gives you the framework to reframe and position your product in your customers’ terms. Let go of the overcomplicated, self-aggrandizing language and think in terms of the Google search. What would your clients Google? The search would be how the service would help them– they don’t know about you, they don’t care about you, they care about how you will make their life better.
Your Brand is Not the Hero.
Every business owner aims to create a brand that is admired and respected. Owners understand the significance of the story associated with their brand but they don’t know how to tell their story in an interesting way that sticks.
The best stories have seven plot points that serve as a framework that can filter and clarify your messaging to customers.
The seven basic elements begin with a character (hero) who has a problem; this problem can either be a life event, major issue, disaster or problematic person that unfolds upon them. This problem forces the character to go on a quest. The quest either leads to the addition of a villain or the development of the problem. While on this quest, they meet a guide. This is where you come in; you are the guide in the hero’s story. The guide (you) gives them a plan/aid to help them through their problem/journey. The guide then calls them to action and often leads them to a better life. In your brand story, you will always be the solution– the failure comes from not choosing to go with you.
To clarify, you are never the hero in your customer’s journey; your role can only be the guide. In sales, the customer is always the hero as they are on their own life journey. This is the #1 mistake most businesses make in their marketing, messaging and branding.
Positioning yourself or your business as the guide that aids in your customer’s journey is a license to print money because 99% of companies miss this. Your only role is to market and message how you solve THE problem your client is facing and, through this, why you are the best guide to lead them on their journey to success.
Your entire role as a business is simply to communicate why you are the best guide for the job. The customer is inundated with tons of options to choose from– many guides all selling the same service. Your role is to communicate to them why you are the best option and how you will best serve them to a better end result.
Use this framework to write out your story brand. Once you have the framework, use this guide as your blueprint to write your website, ongoing social media strategy, billboards, brochures, etc. This is the only way to communicate your offerings to your customers. This is the golden rule for how to separate yourself from your competitors.
Thanks for reading,