By: A.W.W. Barry

Between the uproar of contradictory advice, overcrowded markets, lack of a clear-cut path, and the laundry list of pre-launch requisites, the struggle is real for small business owners and e-Commerce entrepreneurs who are starting up. 

I won’t trouble you with the simple things like figuring out what colors match your brand. It’s important to be sure, but for now, I want to give you something to think about - something more “big picture,” in terms of running a successful business. 

And why, you may ask?

Because it’s our job at Barryscourt to forge the clear-cut path, lest you become entangled in minor details that will only prolong the already extraneous process. To this end, there’s nothing more “big picture” than coming to understand your target customers as a group.

1. Conceptualize your ideal customer

The first step to envisioning a brand is conceptualizing a semi-fictional buyer persona. Like a character in a book, except they’re your ideal customer. Things to think about when creating this person are their behavior, demographics, age (or age range), and the person's pain points. 

This is a pivotal practice starting off because it will help you visualize and gauge the people you are targeting and how best to approach them. These methods may include web design, marketing, and coming up with new products, but each demographic reacts uniquely to different techniques. In fact, one study shows 72 percent of marketing experts agree that understanding your customer base is the most important factor in cultivating a thriving business. 

Having an all-encompassing audience is a great long-term goal, but wrapping your head around who you’re selling to specifically is imperative when you’re starting off. Don’t worry - you’ll get around to expanding your horizons, but for now, narrow your realm of possibility to a specific niche.

2. Use the Golden Circle Principle

“People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it,” a quote worth a thousand words written by the author of a definitive marketing text “Start With Why,” Simon Sinek. The leadership expert coined the principle of the “Golden Circle,” a framework for conceptualizing target audience by asking yourself questions like why are you doing what you do? How will this help your target audience and what are you offering? 

This should be clearly defined since it will be key in serving as the foundation of your brand's identity when you create content geared towards appealing to your audience. In short, what are you selling and how will it change the lives of your customers? 

3.  Prepare a mission statement

Standing out is hard in this oversaturated marketplace, but having a mission statement that is original and moves people to emotion can do wonders for appealing to your client base. Overall, it will help sell your brand and make it stand apart from a crowd filled with bots and subpar products.

4.   Keep your brand consistent

Consistency is key in all aspects of professional success, and this goes for how you market yourself to your chosen audience. On your website and social media profiles, ensure that blogs or other website content maintain a similar tone, and keep your design uniform - down to photos and color schemes. In doing so, you are creating a brand that is not only consistently appealing to your chosen demographics, but also highly recognizable.

Of course, there’s entire libraries of books written to help you appeal to your audience, but before any of them can help you must first follow the above steps to determine who that audience is. From there, you can create more specialized content and ways to create appeal.

If you need help creating content that is high-quality, be it a lack of desire or time, that’s where freelance content specialists like Barryscourt come in, helping small business and e-Commerce leaders turn their visions into thoughtful, articulate, and engaging stories. If you’d like your story to be next, you can fill out a questionnaire here to schedule a free consultation!