Use your brand to crush marketing anxiety.

Businesses need more business. Managers and directors aren’t satisfied unless we’re hitting this quarter’s numbers. The stockholders demand it.

On top of this pressure is a flood of new technology to remind us of how much we are falling behind. New technologies to manage social. Inbound. Content marketing. Marketing automation. Analytics. CRM. CMS. DAM. OMG.

Is your head spinning? Mine too.

Want to know a secret?

I want to offer a little secret that no one is talking about. The new technology startups don’t want us to know because they want us to feel the anxiety of not being able to keep up. After all, their technologies will promise to make it all anxiety-free. They are all clamoring at our door (which is funny, because that in and of itself creates more anxiety for us.)

Now about that secret. Here it is. None of it matters.

No, really. None of it matters. None of the technology. None of the tracking or the automation. None of it matters if you don’t take care of one thing first. Giving your prospects and customers a reason to care.

Once you do that, the technologies can augment your efforts. But they cannot replace this fundamental requirement for every business or product.

Yet we find our attention and our efforts being driven by keeping up with the technology instead of where it belongs – keeping up with the needs and desires of our prospects.

A bit of a confession

I have decades of experience. I have launched hundreds of successful marketing efforts for companies. I’m a technology junkie – I love to explore the tools and toys. And I’m like you. There are those times that I feel overwhelmed. There is too much to learn. Too much to explore. And not enough waking hours. So what do we do?

Let’s step back, take a deep breath, and remind ourselves of the thing that really matters. The most powerful factor for winning the hearts and minds (and business) of our prospects. It’s not a technology. It’s a purpose. A meaning that is at the heart of what we are offering.

When feeling overwhelmed, we need to focus on this core idea. Get it defined and refined. If we do that, decisions about everything else become significantly easier. Especially which of those anxiety-mongering technologies to use.

Giving the brand something extraordinary

What is that idea that is at the core of your brand? Have you really defined it? No, I mean really. Can you say it out loud and believe it gives your prospects and customers a reason to care?

If you find you’re doing a lot of rationalizing to justify why it matters, you’re not there. It’s time to revisit your brand and get beyond rational positioning or lightweight lifestyle benefits.

Want to get there quickly? Clarify your Big Audacious Meaning. That’s the impact your brand can have on an individual life, a community, or the world. Brands that clarify this build a powerful conduit straight to the emotional part of their prospects brain. That’s the part, by the way, that’s responsible for all decision-making.

Anxiety crushed

Imagine this world. You’ve revisited your brand and really refined the meaning that you bring to prospects. Better yet, you’ve clarified your Big Audacious Meaning. Now you’re faced with that decision about that technology. But, oddly enough, that old anxiety isn’t there. Why? Because now you're weighing the relevance and role of that technology against the most important factor. The reason to care that you have given your prospects and customers. In fact, you’re weighing every decision against your brand’s purpose.

And guess what? It all feels less overwhelming.

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Dan is an expert brand strategist and author of the forthcoming book Big Audacious Meaning — Unleashing Your Purpose-Driven Story. He is a founder at Will & Grail — a brand innovation company, helping organizations find their unique, undeniable and unshakable sense of purpose and create innovative experiences that bring it to life. He regularly shares his insight here on Linkedin and at dansalva.com.