Why did you go into business? What is it that drives you to be the best you can be in your field? What is it that makes your business so special?
There are so many answers to these questions, and the answers are always unique to you. If you’ve been in business for a number of years, it can be quite easy to lose sight of those initial sparks of enthusiasm that created the flame to launch your company. Even more so when times get tough and the lure of deviation into a wider field can become too irresistible to ignore.
However, the further you depart from your original outline, the greater the risk of losing your identity all together. This is especially so in the media business. After all, the media business is a sector that has certainly seen its fair share of change over the last ten to twenty years! The explosion of social media and digital platforms mean it can be easy to lose faith in the traditional, tried, trusted ways of doing business.
So, stop, breathe and refocus your mind. The route to success is staying true to what you genuinely believed when you first opened your doors.
Your USP isn’t something that is just for “sales speak” conversation starters with business associates. It’s something that should be taken seriously and followed like a mantra by every employee as they go throughout their day. Give your media company three or four simple USPs that you will be committed to and ensure your business stakes its claim amongst potential and existing advertisers. You will remain top of mind and be the chosen trusted provider for that service, product, quality, reliability, experience, creativity, humour, inventiveness, whatever it is that is unique to you.
So, take a look around at your competitors. What are you doing that they aren’t; or even better, what are you doing that they can’t? The sustainability of your media company will be upheld by owning a solid position in the marketplace, so take hold of your USPs, work on how you can invest into them to make them stronger, work harder for longer and stay true to your core values.
This focus will not only make the internal workings of your business so much stronger, but it will make the perception and confidence of your media company so much more attractive to your potential advertisers. The more you deviate in your offering, your business style, or your services, the more you begin to muddy the waters. So, if you’ve found yourself beginning to stray from the solid foundations you built when starting the business, it’s time to refocus and resist temptation to spread yourself too thinly.
You have a passion for media and your business, you truly believe in its potential and you’re proud of what you’ve built. So why lose that to try and please everyone else? This decade is now all about instilling confidence in your local advertisers, and ensuring your media company is the number one choice.
Confidence and consistency are key. And just like our personal identity, it is something we should hold dear to our hearts. Your business identity should never be ignored or quashed, for it loses its legitimacy in the marketplace. So, what are your USPs? It’s time to be proud of that identity, celebrate it, nurture it and guide it to success.
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