“All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of the customer or prospect… The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion,” say Al Aries and Jack Trout in The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.
First we DISCOVER all about you and how you perceive your business. Now, how do customers, prospects, suppliers, and workforce perceive your business compared to your competition? What are the factors that lead to that perception?
ANALYZE, the second step of ETSZONE’s Seven Step Process, gathers assertions, facts, and opinions from the relevant world around your business. These include web traffic and referrals, search positions, statements from customers, and competitor websites and their keyword and traffic statistics. List the major competitors, allies, and important industry groups and organizations. Then apply critical thinking to compare and analyze how customers, prospects, and prospective employees may perceive your business as compared to how you perceive your business.
Do they match, is there a gap, is there a new angle or differentiating surprise to explore? How do your and your business’s authority, expertise, and capabilities appear to the world you care about?
Now we can draft the underlying story and its narrative components. These include the current situation, conflicts and opportunities, and business goals. What value does your business produce and how is it unique and differentiated from the competition?
Let’s tell your story. Craft your brand message. Describe its look and feel and what it emotes. This will shape everything in the steps to follow, whether developing a new website, landing page, logo, tagline, infographic, series of articles or videos, or promotional web campaigns.
Identify and locate sources of content that can be used to support your narrative, including existing materials and media, suppliers, partners, and knowledgeable specialists and experts within the company. Gather the applicable industry certifications and credentials your business may have. Round up the customer testimonials. We now have the briefing materials leading to the next step, CREATE.