Do you want a build a brand that people are passionate to buy from?
Do you day in and day out see people coming and going from your website and they don’t contact you or buy from you?
Do you talk to people at events, networking meetings or on the phone and people seem to “get” you but you never hear from them again?
Does your sales funnel seem to take a long time to close sales and it leaves your checkbook emptier than you would like and your frustration level sky high?
Perhaps your story is one where people are constantly looking at your business but for some reason they are not buying in the numbers they should?
Perhaps the customer or website visitor is checking you out but they are unsure of what they want or why they are even there?
If that is your experience it can be changed fast!
Last week I was at a networking meeting near Washington, DC and it was that time in the meeting where we are allowed to share our 60 second commercial.
They started across the table from me and I could see the look of panic on virtually everyone’s face as they wondered to themselves:
- What am I going to say?
- How will what I say be received?
- Will anyone in the room have an immediate referral?
- Will anyone be interested in buying from me?
- Should I even be here?
One by one they made their way around the room. Unintentionally the “pitches” were passionless, boring and void of any real emotion, let alone anything valuable that would contribute to anyone’s business.
I was the last one… I stood up confidently and asked:
“What business are you “really” in? What do people think of when they think of your business? What do you think of when you think of your business? Do those two things align?”…
Within twenty seconds I could tell I had them.
As I sat down, the lady sitting next to me immediately said that she needed to talk with me.
Another person in the room said he needed a consultation immediately.
What’s the point in my story?
People don’t feel your passion after the fourth time they meet you or the third time they come to your website, blog or social media pages.
They either feel it immediately or they don’t and the truth is that people are inspired to buy on emotion that is real, authentic and genuine.
There is no second, third or fourth time to pique their curiosity.
I teach that at any given event, or blog article for that matter, that only 20% are ready, able and willing to buy… but you must be specific to their needs, problems, wants or desires.
Why are So Many Exciting Brands so Boring and Feel Passionless?
Every company and every person has within them passion.
The problem is that we’ve been taught to present ourselves on features and benefits and on logic.
Features and benefits are logic based, not emotion based.
Don’t get me wrong, we absolutely need BOTH!
But, rarely do we speak to both. The majority are stuck on a passionless logic that is uninspiring and puts people to sleep.
Think of the great companies that invoke passion on the behalf of their consumers and that people never forget and are deeply loyal to:
- Apple – Think about it… a phone that is more expensive than a laptop.
- BMW – A car that can be as expensive as $60,000 – $100,000+ with maintenance costs that are outrageous.
- Southwest Airlines – Low fare airline that gets you from one place to another with no frills.
- Lands End – If your backpack ever, for any reason, breaks they replace it free.
- Starbucks – How do they continue to sell a cup of coffee for $4?
Each one of these brands has a core message that they are passionate about and can at a seconds notice communicate with relevance, inspiration and in way that is moving.
The loyal following of a brand listens to what they say and in the end; these companies always say the same thing but perhaps in a different way.
If you want to create a passionate, loyal following that is able, willing and ready to buy from you, allow me four ways you can build a passionate brand:
#1 – Know Your Passionate Message and Deliver It with Inspiration
The first step to creating and living a passionate message is to discover it.
It’s there, it’s always been there and it will always be there.
But it’s buried.
Some struggle with this because they tie their passion too close to the business. But if discovered, it really doesn’t matter what the business is; the business is just a tool to experience the passion.
Your passion can be transferred to any business, non-profit or anything you so desire that helps you fulfill it.
You cannot fake passion, make it up on the spot or be consistent without it.
Many business owners struggle with apathy in their business’s or lose interest in it because it was never tied to their personal passion and seen as a way to find meaning and fulfillment through it.
As a result, the majority of businesses end up talking about themselves and how wonderful they think they are and just try to sell, sell, sell; without connecting the dots for the consumer.
There is no passion in that…
People get excited by brands that are relevant to their needs, problems, wants and desires.
How do you discover your passion and then message it relevantly in any environment (either online or offline)?
I take my clients through a life changing process that helps them identify these things:
- What are the “specific” problems you are passionate about solving?
- What are the tangible values your customers experience and how do they feel about the experience?
- What are the “specific” problems you solve for each tangible value?
- Who are you “specifically” solve each problem for (in detail)?
- How are your products or services “a” part of “a” solution?
Once you know your message it’s easy to deliver it with passion because passion is the emotion behind your business.
Passion is the reason that people connect with you.
Passion is the important part of the experience that links the business to the customer
Without a passionate brand for your business, you’re just another business trying to manipulate people into buying the same thing someone else sells for a lesser price in hope of just getting some cash flow.
Who wants to be there?
#2 – Never Stop Repeating Your Brand Message
The next mistake that many businesses make is that they either get lazy around their message or they get bored with it.
This morning I was drinking my cup of coffee when I saw a commercial for Kohl’s that was a complete disconnect.
What were they thinking?
The commercial started with a couple who had an infant in a stroller. They were comparing different restaurants and what they could afford to eat in calories based how many they would burn running there.
It’s all that was talked about in the commercial and it left me wondering what that had to do with their brand?
They immediately confused their audience because they got cute and in the process wasted millions of dollars.
They left to chance that people would identify the clothes they were wearing and come into the store to buy fitness apparel.
The problem is that the message was completely lost; the subject was calories not clothing and the problems, needs, wants or desires as clothing related to fitness and healthy living.
For those who have read my blog for any period of time, you realize that I seldom talk in my blog about what I directly do.
I could say that I do brand consulting and coaching, help develop their audience and create websites and digital marketing strategies that contribute to a business’s short and long-term growth.
Those things are just tools and without my audience understanding “what business I am ‘really” in’ those things don’t matter.
Opportunities ultimately are like the Kohl’s commercial… a distraction.
If you have a passionate business and message, never abandon it for cuteness in any way, shape, form or manner.
You will only create confusion and confusion creates complexity.
Complexity abandons passion and when passion is gone; so is loyalty to your brand.
#3 – Never Stop Getting Your Brand Message Out There
Today it’s harder than ever to consistently get in front of our audience.
Did you know that there is more content created on the internet in one day than in all of human history up to 2014?
We are told we need to create the following basic things to find new customers and be credible and relevant:
- Website
- Social Media
- Video
- Audio
- Offline Networking
- Advertising
If you miss your passionate message in any of these tools, you’ll miss the opportunity to grow your business.
Your website is part of your message and vital to your business’s success.
Are you creating a message that unintentionally tells your website visitor they are not important by taking content from one website and putting it in yours?
Are you taking shortcuts and only sharing features and benefits?
In a recent article titled “How To Build a Valuable Website that is Profitable” I shared how your website ought to be contributing to the profitability of your company but for many it’s actually costing the company money.
Why?
Because it’s focusing on the business or products and services instead of the problems, needs or desires of the audience.
#4 – Build Your Community
Last, but not least important, passionate companies with incredible loyalties are built on a two-way street.
They focus on building incredible communities of loyal customers who become an extension of their marketing and sales teams.
We all know that there are few basic truths in business:
- It’s easier to keep a customer than acquire a new one.
- It’s easier to sell to someone who was a referral.
Yet, most companies are chasing new customers instead of cultivating the ones they have and rewarding them for their loyalty.
Building a community takes work and resources, but it’s a lot less work and much less expensive in the long run than it is to keep buying customers.
The old adage of “half my advertising budget is wasted, but I don’t know which half,” just doesn’t cut it anymore.
You are always buying customers.
The question is how are you doing it?
Build your community online and engage with them. They will become loyal followers, referrers and customers.
Use the tools:
- Include a blog in your business website and use it every single week to contribute value (i.e. solve one problem, meet one need, or fulfill one desire; for one person)
- Don’t just talk about yourself on social media. Include others liberally.
- Connect with those who may never buy from you but serve the same audience you do but in a different way and become networking referral machines for one another.
- Bring your offline contacts online and your online contacts offline and grow your network.
Do you have a thought, idea or question you would like to contribute? If so, please share below in the comments section and let’s chat.