I’m no fan of the business trumpeters and I’m not suggesting there is a burst of the glorious “Fanfare for the Common Man” (and woman) every time someone opens your website, but how much do your potential customers know about you?
In listing your unique selling points in your business plan, did you list yourself?
I am English, hence a huge fan of understatement. You won’t find me walking in front of an American marching band brandishing a placard featuring a perfect-teeth photograph of an unnaturally tidy me sporting a cheeky smile and twinkle in the eye.
But I am also a writer, and given that our life and ethos are cornerstones of the Mother’s Garden fresh olive oil business I tell the story, to the extreme degree of books, magazine articles and monthly newspaper chronicles. I know better than most how such provenance supports what we do and what we believe in.
As a consumer as well as small business adventurer I appreciate substance and simple facts over window dressing and clever names and catchphrases, and I am pretty damned sure the majority of people out there are nauseous with all the spin too.
I truly believe we are turning the corner again, back into the community-orientated High Street, be it real or internet-based, where people want to know and trust who they are buying from.
So tell them, simply and honestly, who you are and what you know, even what your aspirations and driving forces are. Consider giving your business a face and telling the story of how and why you do what you do – a page or a paragraph on your website devoted to this.
Any product or service with such background is more memorable, while a true, personal story behind a product or service can foster trust and loyalty.
Keep it real, keep it simple.
You have to measure up to every word, but as people realise that you do then the word will spread.
You have made it your business to be an expert in a certain field, and that makes who you are a unique selling point without the need for fanfares.
