Many consumer-facing businesses aim to fill a need or solve a problem for their customers. In some instances, the business concept stems from a personal need that hits close to home for the founder or a member of the founding team, and the business provides the solution. As female founders, your job is to communicate how effective your solution is, and to do so in a way that resonates with your customer base. You have an advantage. If you conceptualized your business as a solution to a personal need, then you share at least one thing in common with your target demographic: your need for the solution that your business offers.
If your product or service worked for you, your business model is built on the presumption that it will work for your target demographic as well. Who knows that process better than you do?
This is where authentic marketing communications can boost your bottom line. As female founders, you can carry your customer through the experience of solving their problem with your business solution in an authentic way, in the same way that was authentic to you.
As co-founder of Bammies, a fashion solution that fosters female empowerment, authenticity is paramount. Building authenticity into our marketing serves our company well in this instance, and can provide similar success in your small business strategy, no matter the niche.
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Here are three ways to make your marketing more authentic:
- Become your brand’s own influencer/be your brand’s spokesperson
No one else knows your brand as intimately as you do. As female founders, we can leverage that. If it works for your mission, insert yourself in the public storytelling of your brand as much as possible. After all, you are the one who generated a solution for a very specific problem that you and many others share. Who better to speak to its effectiveness than you? Plus, it gives you face time with the consumer. You can simultaneously humanize the brand, lend its authenticity and create trust with your customer.
- Treat your content like a product or service
Today, it seems almost everything is media-based. All the content you produce around your business, including social, marketing, web content, video, etc., is an extension of your product. In effect, it is educational information that supports and, in some cases, is supplemental to your actual product or service. With that in mind, how can you present your content as a value-added product that further establishes your brand as an authentic source? How can you use content to create an authentic relationship with your customer?
- Your marketing can also provide a solution
Yes, your product or service makes your customers’ lives easier, more entertaining, more successful, etc., but can your marketing also do that? Your marketing may be the first touchpoint the consumer has with your brand. If your product or service solves a certain problem, then how can your marketing deepen an understanding of how to solve that problem, or even solve any additional spinoff problems?
An example: We applied this at Bammies to address a customer pain point around determining how to wear our clothing in a way that suits their personal style. The original problem: make dressing in the morning easier, quicker and more comfortable. Spinoff problem: a customer needs to know how our clothing can be styled to fit their lifestyle. Our marketing solution: we are developing a robust style-guide database to support our customers in their shopping process.
If you’re building a product or service that truly offers a unique value or solution, then make the corresponding marketing just as unique by infusing it with an authenticity only you can deliver.
