Why Brand Stories Matter More for Small Businesses —Time
Brand Stories matter more for small businesses than for larger ones. Beyond having a service or thing of value to offer, a brand story may be the most important consideration for a small business because it simultaneously focuses operations while qualifying customers. The efficiency and clarity provided is a key to making the most of a small business’ scarcest resource—Time.
Small businesses are lean. Owners and employees must manage many competing demands on their time, and not all actions have the potential to return value in the same way. It’s imperative that a business knows the time they’re spending is impactful.
A properly defined brand story can do this in two ways. One, it clarifies action. It provides a clarity to your business purpose that allows you to focus time on the things that are most impactful to your operations and customers. Starting a consulting business? What’s your specialty? Knowing that you can provide the most value by focusing on the impact of CRM adoption gives you somewhere to carve a niche. Creating a story around your unique knowledge of CRM use can help you find your value proposition, which also leads to the second benefit of a properly defined brand story.
It defines your market. Extending this example, if you are uniquely qualified to discuss the ways a CRM can improve customer service, then your brand story is telling you who your market is. Looking for potential clients with service or product offerings where customer service is lacking helps you find leads. Properly communicating your brand story in promotional materials allows leads to qualify themselves as well. Companies looking for CRM expertise pertaining to sales, may automatically remove themselves from considering your services because your promotional materials (website, social, branding, etc.) specify an expertise in benefitting customer service. In such a way, you’re ensured you are spending time efficiently, offering your services where they can be most impactful, creating marketing materials that communicate that, and spending valuable time where the potential return is maximized for both you and the customer who has already been qualified to value the same thing.
Serving the right customer with the product or service you are best qualified to offer is ideal for all involved. Yet, it can be surprisingly difficult for small businesses to align purpose with operations. Defining a brand story is the necessary first step in that process. We can help.
