Innovation For A Stronger Business
This is the time to stand out. To truly step into your brilliance and to own your talents and serve your customers well. I believe we are going to see small businesses rule. That’s because small business owners are brave and have the flexibility to be more agile, and the unique ability to adapt to changes easier than larger businesses.
This is the time to rethink. In these challenging times, I’ve seen great creativity. I’ve seen coaches step up and inspire the entrepreneurial community. I’ve seen a photographer come up with ‘drive-by photography’. I’ve seen a local salon & spa begin to sell DIY facials to keep money flowing. I’ve seen small businesses pivot and begin offering DIY art kits to hold virtual online parties – or at home with family. These are the entrepreneurs that are doing it right. They are finding opportunity in these challenging times and are creating new ways to serve their customers.
I challenge you to rethink how you can serve your customers. Serve your customers where they are… right? As entrepreneurs, that’s what we know and what we do. Right now, our customers are craving connection, craving ideas to connect virtually with their family and loved ones. That won’t change, even when we are able to get back out and can reopen our businesses. Those entrepreneurs that are open to innovation in their services will find ways to serve no matter the challenge. Is that you?
Four Essential Elements to Engagement
In the spirit of serving, I want to give you four essential elements to your digital story that will better connect to your audience and humanize your business.
More than ever we are all craving connection. It’s even more important now that we are authentic in our message. If you want better digital engagement, then connect with your followers and visitors through digital storytelling.
Your story is the bridge between your customers’ struggles and your superpower. It’s that story that sparks curiosity in getting to know you better. It’s that story that inspires. Through authentic truth in your message, your story becomes a powerful way to show people the humanity behind your business, putting a true face to your services.
So here’s the four pieces to crafting a unique story that is all YOU. A story that is spoken from your heart to your visitors.
1. Your WHY. Your WHY is important to you. It’s what gets you up each day and drives you to be your best. It’s also important to your customers. Your WHY should inspire your followers. It should give them something to aspire to. Inspiring your customers is a way to create true connection.
2. Make them FEEL. Connection only happens when an emotional connection is shared between two people. That happens when we go out of the way to make them feel. Our digital marketing can come across as that… digital marketing. Messages with no feeling, with no intent other than to “market”. This doesn’t work to build connection. Instead, make your readers feel something… something good about themselves, good about the world, happy, inspired, hopeful. All those feelings connect us on an emotional level and that is where true relationships are built.
3. The Experience of Transformation. We all want to know that we matter, and that comes from truly listening and going out of your way to show you care about your customers. Transformation is an experience and that is what we all crave – for someone to care enough about us to take our hand and walk us through to a solution.
4. Trust. No transaction takes place without trust. Trust is the one thing that must be part of your story. Your story must build trust in you, your expertise and your promise to deliver. Your experience, testimonials, customer stories, and more show your expertise to truly build a sense of trust.
These four things are essential elements of your story – of building that bridge to true connection.
A few noteworthy articles & resources
Here’s another recent article we wrote about story telling. Learn other tips to crafting the perfect story.
Now is the perfect time to conduct an SEO audit on your website. To get you started, I have put together a step-by-step guide to the tools that get your website connected to the search engines. Here’s that worksheet: Beginning Tips For SEO
Here’s a video overview of Google Analytics and the reports you can find there.
Google Analytics Reports Overview Video
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