Think about someone that you deeply trust and turn to for advice when you’re faced with a challenge.
Chances are, this person is not an expert on the subject matter of your life — they don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of your relationship or understand the political dynamics of your career. But what they do have is a deep understanding of you. What’s important to you, what your goals are, and what makes you tick. It’s because they’ve demonstrated that they have your best interests at heart, that you can let your guard down and trust their guidance in times when you can’t see your own situation clearly.
This concept that understanding is deeper than knowledge applies to any relationship. And for businesses, the most important relationship is the customer relationship. Your brand is a result of what your customer walks away thinking and feeling about you.
How have you, as a brand, demonstrated that you deeply understand your audience’s obstacles, desires, challenges, and motivations? If you haven’t clearly communicated this, what is encouraging your audience to believe what you say?
In order to earn trust with your audience, you must first understand them. In order to lead someone, you must know them.
Try putting yourself into the shoes of your customer, and asking these questions:
- What is stopping them from choosing you?
- What is their biggest question or concern?
- What misconceptions might they have about your industry that causes them to be sceptical of you?
- What do they get excited about?
- How do they like to be spoken to?
- What stakeholders do they need to consider?
- What’s their main motivation when making decisions?
Develop a mindset of being of service.
When you position your purpose as providing value and solving problems that you know the customer is facing, you are no longer pitching or trying to close a sale. You are there to help. You become a trusted resource and you place yourself on the same team as the customer.
One of our core philosophies at REX is understanding is deeper than knowledge. You’ll hear us talk about the importance of this concept during Brand Discovery, where we dig deep to reveal and articulate the identity of your brand, the story, unique distinctions, and value to the customer, so they remember and trust you as the market leader. Once we deeply understand your target customers from your perspective, and vice versa, we develop the insight necessary to craft marketing messages that engage, impact, and influence your audience.
Ready to Start With REX?
Want to start talking about a strategic approach to growing your business? Contact us for a free 30-minute consultation! REX Marketing + Design Inc. is a multi-award-winning agency established in 2006 that focuses on strategic branding, marketing, and design. REX has a mission to contribute to the trust economy by catapulting values-based purpose-driven businesses to success. Discover more about REX Marketing + Design’s unique approach to building competition-proof brands.