Posting more, boosting more, trying every new trend, and the phone still isn’t ringing. Sound familiar?
Usually it’s not the platform, it’s the plan behind it. When Steven sits down with business owners to go through their brand, the same three problems keep showing up. You’ve lost track of who you’re talking to, you’re not planning, and your brand doesn’t have a soul. Fix those three and your marketing finally has something to stand on.
Instagram Isn’t Marketing (It’s One Source of It)
Quick gut check before the fixes. Marketing is your whole top of funnel: everything that gets people to notice you and remember you, so they can later become customers. Instagram is one source. So are your website, your emails, your signage, an ad in a local magazine and a handshake at an event.
If you judge your marketing only by how one platform performs, you’ll make bad calls. Look at the whole funnel.
Fix 1: Know Exactly Who You’re Talking To (Your Ideal Client)
Steven’s take: the large majority of business owners he sits down with have no idea who they’re talking to. They don’t have an ideal client, and most don’t have a brand guide at all.
Your brand guide is the map. It’s the foundation of the house and the chassis of the car. Inside it lives your ideal client, which is just a fancy way of saying “the one person you’re talking to.” That person has:
- A name
- A favorite music choice and favorite colors
- Opinions (they love cars, or they hate them)
- A life you can picture
How to use it: before anything top of funnel goes out (a post, an ad, a flyer), ask one question: will this person love it? If yes, make it. If not, trash it, or park it in a folder for later. Keeping a “not for now” folder makes it easier to say no to ideas without feeling like you wasted them.
Fix 2: Plan Every Post and Ad by Reverse Engineering It
Everyone knows planning matters. Most people still don’t do it, and Steven admits he’s guilty too. When a post, thumbnail or ad flops, look back and you’ll usually find it wasn’t planned.
His favorite planning tool is reverse engineering:
- Picture the result first. What should happen after this goes out? A booked call, a DM, a sign up?
- Work backward. If I post this, what happens? If I run this ad in this magazine, who sees it and what do they do next?
- Plan the pieces. Hook, visual, caption, thumbnail and the next step, all decided before you hit post.
Think of it like a seven layer bar. There isn’t one layer, there are seven, and each one has to be planned. “Just yap at the camera” skips six of them.
Go deeper: keep a simple planning sheet for every piece with three lines: the goal, the person it’s for (your ideal client) and the action you want. If you can’t fill in all three, it’s not ready.
Fix 3: Give Your Brand a Soul So People Can Attach to It
Trend hopping makes a brand thin. People attach to things that have souls, which is why we love our dogs, our cats, and (if you’re Brianna) bats, which she calls puppy dogs with wings.
There are two parts to giving your brand a soul.
Part 1: Build the digital front properly. Logo, colors, fonts, website, tagline, mission and ideal client, all flowing together and all written down. Your ideal client should recognize themselves in it.
Part 2: Put a real human behind it. For a small business, that’s usually you. Steven is doing it right now with Dork Social Club, and he’s done it with past companies. Do it right and people remember the person behind the brand long after the sale.
How Nike, Vans and Apple Give Big Brands a Human Face
Big companies do the same thing at scale. They build a strong digital front and rarely change it. Then they attach a person to it:
- Nike and Vans sponsor athletes and skaters their ideal clients would want to be friends with.
- Apple had Steve Jobs on stage introducing the new iPod, iPhone or computer. Love him or hate him, people connected with him.
For your business: you don’t need to sponsor athletes. Build the brand around a real person, usually you, and show up on camera so people have someone to connect with.
Recap: 3 Fixes for Your Marketing
- Know who you’re talking to (ideal client, written in a brand guide).
- Plan everything, and reverse engineer from the result.
- Give your brand a soul, on paper and with a real human.
None of this is flashy. It’s the stuff that makes everything else work.
Not Sure Which Fix Comes First? Take the Dork Build Bold Quiz
You just read three fixes. Now find out which part of your brand needs the most work. The Dork Build Bold Quiz is free, takes a few minutes, and shows you exactly where to start.
Take the free Dork Build Bold Quiz and find out where your brand stands.
