3 steps to create a human-centred marketing strategy
This article is about how to show up with soul and your ethics, to tactfully apply a human-centered marketing strategy that values sales as much as human connection. One of my guiding principles is how what I do, makes the people who buy from me and invest in my services think and feel. It might sound silly or like a natural thing to occur to you as a business owner- but you’d be surprised how many companies lose sight of their customer as they grow, focusing instead on the profit margins and the quickest ways to financial success. As a copywriter and marketing expert, I think there are lots of quick ways to fail in business, especially when you’re a small brand or a one-person band. So, I’m going to start exactly there. Failure. Or more specifically…
Let’s start with why small businesses are prone to failure without it!
When I graduated from university, aged 22, I got a paid role in the university’s centre for small business research and community program to help small and medium businesses with growth. It was called the Centre for Enterprise.
I worked alongside the Marketing Director and watched her work to transform a stiff, stifling, lacklustre strategy into something that spoke for itself. So much so, other departments started to commission us to do their marketing. A Lot of people fail to recognise that a university, like any other business, is expected to make money. And just as we see with other large corps – when selling something it’s hard to get the audience buy in if there’s no brand personality or face to put to the name.
You see, the Centre for Enterprise had mastered their and others’ strategy by literally, making it a ‘human-centred’ marketing strategy.
People had become the profit-maker, or at least their stories. A quarterly magazine that not only shined a light on smaller businesses, but it showed the impact of what they helped that business owner to achieve.
From case studies to first-person narratives about the specifics of the team member’s jobs inside our department, to the magic they were doing outside that meant someone else could find the formula to show up and sell as themselves. There was transparency and flair in the approach they took to market themselves. I was living any marketer’s dream.
The business arm of the university supported small and medium businesses in the North West of England. The job was epic. My manager shared everything she knew with me and gave me every opportunity I asked for. I got to meet customers, interview them and my own bylines!
During my time at the Centre for Enterprise, lots of business owners had stories of this uphill battle; putting on their armour to go out and build their business in a sea of confusion about what supported and informed their business.
A lot of the bottlenecks were failing foundations – growing exponentially without the infrastructure due to the unexpected ascent, for others it was fighting to make quarterly targets and retain good staff. Failure to create a human-centred marketing strategy was and can be a problem in both of those scenarios for the following reasons:
Growth = growing pains. If you’re struggling to keep up with the growth of your business, I’ll bet you’re struggling to communicate changes, new directions and the relationship you already worked so hard to get with your customers.
Profit and people. Your marketing efforts can have a direct impact on your profits which should come as a given (just take a look at X examples latest influencer campaign). Market your business in a way that resonates and people want to buy from you, but miss the metrics and fail to seek feedback and you’ll lose good staff and profit too.
I’ve met lots of leaders who underestimated how important an expert with strong marketing expertise, communications skills and copywriting confidence is, to share the right brand and product benefits with potential customers.
Job interview failures and where your marketing strategy could be going wrong too.
After several months in my job, I interviewed for the permanent post at the Centre for Enterprise. Too confident in the work I’d already done, I undersold my skills and expertise and expected the manager I’d worked with to bring all of their previous experience of working with me along with them on their clipboard. What I failed to remember, just like sharpening up your strategy, is that the interview (just like how and where you show up) is an isolated opportunity for someone to get to know you, or remember why they bought into you in the first place.
Every interviewee, just like every brand will be judged on a level playing field amongst everyone else that seems to offer the same – until you tell them exactly how you’re different and stir your potential consumer to think of something more than indifference.
I needed to show up and sell. When it came down to it, I was spinning in the wind during my interview, guessing at my message and what would stick with the audience in front of me. I had no strategy and was so busy trying to be what I thought was needed, with no real foundation – no data – metrics – no sign of me. It’s safe to say, I didn’t get the job.
Human connection at work: Our own worst enemy?
Learning how to navigate “toxic workplace culture” for the first time as a young graduate in the industry at large was a real eye-opener, and to help me through it, my Manager taught me a motto that I think about often until this day: “Kill it with kindness”.
To always meet resistance and pushback by showing up and showing love to people hell-bent on making life, or your business difficult. Well, sometimes as a solo business owner – the person making your life or your job difficult is you.
We’re hell-bent on it as business owners some days too. That’s the truth. We’re always last on our to-do list, or incredibly pinched for time trying to be involved in every business decision, or save money by not hiring someone – without really sitting down to evaluate the true cost of the dead ends, delays and plot twists. Slowly and shakily, stumbling through finding our way – without a sustainable marketing strategy.
So before you struggle through another quarter with too much or too little on your plate, read my top 3 tips to make your marketing and profit margins memorable.
1. Understand what a good human centred marketing strategy is
A lack of strategy can make it feel like a near-impossible task when deciding how we show up to promote our business. The truth is, I don’t think you’re doing it on purpose. You’re doing things that look like marketing and feel like marketing on the surface of it all! But..(and this is a big one), what guides you through creating the ethical marketing strategy that underpins it? Is it relatable, does it align with your core values and are you happy to listen to your customers to improve their journey?
The formula for a sustainable and human-centred strategy looks a bit like this to me:
Ideal audience and research (budget, time, social proof and available data)
+
Copywriting in the formula of your unique brand voice
+
Test, test, test, review, refine and test some more and…
2. Create digital marketing assets based on customer research
- Websites
- Email flows – (welcome and post-purchase flows to name a couple)
- Lead funnels – (for attracting people to you)
- Visual Media
Leading to conversion, i.e. people who will pay to hear from you, hire you and invest in your offers.
This isn’t something you can achieve by fluke, (at least not for any sustained length of time).
I’ve seen many business owners spend unimaginable time and money on marketing, yet, still struggle to take time away from the marketing cycle because they’re holding on to all the tasks. Looking left and right, replicating competitors without really understanding the why of others’ business strategies, and failing to differentiate with their own identity in any meaningful way.
3. Be clear on ethical marketing strategy and what it means to your business
Failure to be clear about what we stand for, who we’re for and how we work with people is a recipe for disaster in the long run.
- Especially when we don’t communicate who we are (even if we know what we stand for).
- Even more so when we haven’t asked our people if what we’re offering meets their needs.
- If we don’t listen to what they want done differently and take action on it!
So, I’m giving you a little nudge to dive into asking meaningful questions about what underpins your sustainable marketing strategy. If you’re unsure, maybe now is the time to ask for help.
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Until then, keep living La Dolce Vita 
.
Dee x
If you didn’t know who I was before reading this, you can check out my expertise and recommendations over on LinkedIn where I post about how to build your brand and your business every week.