“I want to know who I should be talking to in my brand.”

When Tami and I access a new client intake diagnostic from our Empathy Marketing Discovery Portal, one of the first statements we most frequently see is, “I want to know who I’m talking to in my brand.”

We LOVE seeing this statement because it shows us the client is mature enough to make her business about her Right People.

She’s ready to step out of her own shoes and into the shoes of another. She’s willing to see the world through someone else’s eyes. She’s invested in making sure her business’s solution gets presented in the way that speaks to the true needs and the core desires of her Right Person.

But just who IS that Right Person?

From a sea of nameless, faceless ‘Unique Visitors’ in Google Analytics, to the best client you’ve ever worked with, to the guy who obsessively hits Like on all your Facebook page posts — how do you know who you should be talking to in your blog posts, through your web copy, and via your tweets?

The clearest answer to that question is: the person Most Likely To Buy your products and services.

Now, this is the answer we give to businesses — entities that exist to provide value in exchange for currency. This may sound obvious, but I’m defining what a business is because so many start-up personality-driven online ventures these days seem to have forgotten what a business must do: provide value to a segment of the market, in exchange for currency. Solve real problems. Be available to serve in whatever way they define, in the context of something bigger than their own ego gratification.

Two missteps I see microbusiness owners making in their brands that will keep Right People at bay:

→ Misstep No. 1: Blogging for themselves rather than for readers.

By this I mean, posts in which the business owner is creating content to soothe, heal, justify, or explain himself. (Sometimes we end up helping ourselves as a byproduct of focusing on our Right Person; other times, not.) The risk of self-focused, self-helping content is getting your brand, your message, and your Right People off-track. The cumulative effect of a lot of off-trackness is a diffuse, unfocused, unclear Brand Proposition.

The stumbling block here is the assumption that the reader is as interested in your own personal process of growth and development as you are. Navel-gazing and diaristic posts, while they may be eyebrow-raising, don’t necessarily help your Right Person move along to where he wants to go.

This does NOT mean don’t use your own life as anecdotal material. If you’re a marriage and family coach, YES, we want to hear the story of your divorce and subsequent moving in with your new partner and stepkids. It helps provide context for your work and gives you even more credibility (“oh, she’s been through it herself”). If you make vegan pet biscuits, by all means please tell us that you developed the recipe for your own pets because you believe eating a plant-based diet is best for all creatures, including our furry four-legged friends.

Blogging for readers means using your own experiences as supporting material to assist readers in their own journey rather than using your life as the focus of the brand.

→ Misstep No. 2: Blogging for peers rather than for the Person Most Likely To Buy.

If you’re a boutique owner, and you blog about the ins and outs of owning an online boutique, by nature of social shares and unintended SEO, your site will attract people who want to be boutique owners, want to pick your brain for all your shop-dazzling ideas, and may or may not be inclined to buy the wares you’re actually selling.

If you’re a life coach and you blog about the process of building your life coaching practice, you’ll attract fellow life coaches or aspiring ones who need guidance and resources for building their own practice. Whatever content you give people to share (i.e. blog posts, videos, pins) will get shared, and so you’ll get more of the same type of reader who was attracted to the initial content.

Google will semantically align you with the topics you most often write about. So if you’re inadvertently using the phrase “building my life coaching practice” three times a month on your blog, Google will say, “A-ha! She helps life coaches build their practices!” and will serve you up in search results for people looking for that.

Blog and create your brand for potential buyers, not for people doing the same thing you do. Caveat: blogging for potential buyers does NOT have to be sales-y. It can be: teach-y or preachy if that’s your style, a demonstration, an infographic, an image you create and brand, a list, a short video, a video you share from someone else with personalized commentary from you, etc.

The long and short of it is: you only have so much time to create content and so many precious online seconds to make an impact on your Right Person with your brand.

We are huge proponents of taking the clear, efficient, integrity-based road toward true, meaningful connection by designing your brand to meet core needs and respond to true desires — those of your Right People.

In the comments, we’d love to hear:

What type of blog content has been most successful for you in connecting with your Right People — those who then go on to buy your services and products? What have you found your people respond to best?

(Photo credit.)