Marketing: Finding YOUR Business Voice

Joe, this blog's for you.

Finding your business voice was such an incredible challenge for my business partner and I. Once we did find it, it was like a hand in a glove: just right. When I wrote Finding Our Business Voice I kind of copped out, saying that it just takes business experience to figure it out. It dawned on me (thanks to a little nudge from Joe) that everything takes a process. So, here are a few guidelines to find your voice:

• Meet your customer. Go out and meet several people you think you might be selling your product to. Asked them what sort of sites they go to. Ask them what magazines they read. Ask them what do they do for a living. Learn about the voices they gravitate to.
  
• Visualize your customer. Aw, hell, mock up a picture and tape it up to your desk along with a list of attributes that make them up. What kind of socks do they wear? Do they take public transportation? How old are they? Make it as detailed as possible, and prune it down later. This will help remind you every day who you're talking to.
  
• Know your product. One of the trickiest parts for us was understanding where our niche really laid. We learned that the more focused your product line is, the easier it is to market to your customer base. Even if you want to market to a wide customer base, make sections that appeal to specific interests. If you use this guideline to build your website as well as your marketing campaign, you'll win.
  
• Don't be afraid to be yourself. As most bloggers will tell you, their readers are drawn by their personality as well as the quality of their information. If your collateral is a personality as well as marketing material, people will feel more inclined to relate to your voice, and if they feel like they've gotten to know your company, they'll be more inclined to stick around. Look at Freshbooks, for example.