Marketing Outward in Word and Deed

By Andrew Schulkind, Andigo; Sasha Eileen Sutton, Sutton Creative; and Darcy Flanders, BaselineGroupNY

“Outwardness” is more than a catchy marketing word. It’s a response to older bullhorn strategies—a lot of navel-gazing with brand eyes installed backward. In those days, channels were filled with words like?us?and?we?and?our.?Then something better came along.

Why does outwardness matter? Ignoring it can damage your digital marketing, your site, and your content. Because it’s all about perspective and the story you tell.

Putting Clients First

If your website for instance mimics your org chart, or the first item in your main nav is “About Us,” or your home-page copy speaks in “we” more than “you,” you’re marketing through your own point of view.

Prospects may care about your history. But when they get to your site, they want to know whether your solution solves their problems. So your first task is showing them how.

Differentiation Is Second

Once prospects embrace your solution, they focus on the details of your solutions. They also start to vet you and care more about your brand attributes.

You’ve convinced a visitor to dig deeper. So give them the pages that deliver the info they’re after on a defined journey—how your solution works, who it best works for, and most urgently, what benefits they’ll realize. Become the expert and trusted partner rather than a vendor or supplier.

Story Above All

It’s been decades since anyone believed the hype about being?better?or?different?or?best. Your audiences will always argue with data. But if you tell a brand story that resonates, prospects will gossip about you in all the right ways. Story is pure outwardness, and no one argues with narrative. Someone may not relate, but as a business strategy, stories are more emotional, engaging, and finally effective.?

You might still quantify company results, but do so in a way that supports the story you’re telling about your approach, process, and services. Once someone cares about you, they’re more likely to take the scary first step of abandoning what they know in favor of what you promise. That equation rarely starts with self-congratulatory brand-boasting.

Be Visual

Stock photos continue to decorate web sites in less than compelling ways. Does your visual brand look outward as well? Do you feature handsome faces in board rooms shaking hands? Or do your graphics and photos and color palettes offer your targets a way in? Have you taken the time to create a complimentary visual system to which segments can relate and respond?

Breaking old habits is hard. But in the end, your prospects don’t care about you. Your prospects don’t care about what you do. Your prospects care about what you can do for them. Outwardness is all the rage. Write the word on a post-it note for easy reference.