It’s estimated that the average adult makes 35,000 remotely conscious decisions everyday. If you’re a business owner, that number is even higher. The responsibility behind some of those decisions can be daunting if you don’t have a proper framework that helps you avoid decision paralysis, or that state you can reach where you’re unsure if making any decision is a good idea. We’ve adopted a system that helps us, and can also help you, make quick, efficient, and consistent business decisions that are always in line with your company values.
This is where we believe keywords can be helpful for your company. These 5 words can serve as guiding pillars for business decisions whether it be who to hire, what type of content to create, and how you want operations to run within the company.
It’s important that, when you and your team embark on your search for your own keywords, you let the brainstorm flow and throw out as many words as possible. No judging. Don’t pressure yourself to find the perfect word right from the get go or get too fixated on any one word that you like which may close you off from hearing another word that might be a better option. This can be a great team exercise because the more heads there are, the more words can come to the surface. Challenge yourself to go beyond the obvious words and get as descriptive as possible. These keywords will be solely for your internal business use and you get to decide what personal meaning to assign to them.
The 5 questions to ask yourself to create your keywords are:
1. What do you think is most inspiring about your business?
We all love that feeling of inspiration. When your company is able to inspire people with your vision and awaken them to new possibilities, they will be more likely to listen and be inspired to buy your products and services. Identify the defining keyword that resonates with your company ethos and that gives you and your employees a reason to come to work everyday.
For this first question, we chose the word STORYTELLING. In every aspect of what we do, we aim to tell a story and bring the audience to a new place of awareness.
2. What makes your business different?
You already know that competition is rampant in every market so we’re not going to tell you that again. What’s most important here is to define the ONE THING your company does better than any of your competitors. That unique selling point that will differentiate you and set you apart. Brainstorm a list of words with your team and choose the one that you believe you can focus on that will highlight your company’s strength.
Our keyword here is INTENTION. We approach every project with the aim of finding solutions for our clients' problems by asking ourselves, “How will this help?”
3. Who is the ideal customer for your business?
There is no better investment of time than to clearly identify your target audience. As a business, you provide a service or product that is specific to a certain type of buyer. When you can clearly identify who is interested in what you have to offer, then it will create more focus within the company regarding how to reach out and speak directly to those potential customers.
In our company, we choose to work with clients that have an awareness of the bigger picture and are actively trying to change the world for the better through their sustainability or strong positive message. For this reason, we chose the word CONSCIOUS.
4. How do you want your customer to feel about your business?
In the world of storytelling, businesses and their customers must co-create together. Empathy is extremely important since you want to insert your business into your customer’s story and create an emotional response within them. This is a question that ties in with your business’ branding. How do you want your customers to feel about the products and services that your company offers? When this is clear for you, it will help you make decisions that are in line with your company’s mission. Take some time to make a list of emotions you want to generate within your customers and pick the one word that sums it up best.
We want our company to feel REMARKABLE to our customers. We pay close attention to detail and we ask ourselves “what else?” regarding every aspect of every project. In our work we strive to combine excellence and the unexpected, challenging ourselves to find creative solutions for every problem.
5. How do you want your business to impact the world?
We encourage adopting storytelling and value-based content marketing to every company. The world and the various businesses that exist within it are all led by humans. We have to take a step back and try to create something that can be of value to the largest number of people possible. By bringing the human side to business, we can collectively make a difference because it’s less about the profit we make and more about the amount of value we create.
We truly believe that profit is the inevitable byproduct of doing good, feeling good, being good, and having a clear mission.
Take the time to get very clear on the vision of what your company stands for and how you want to impact the world with your products and services. A strong vision will get like-minded people to want to join you in your journey. You'll need others to help you realise your big vision.
We believe bringing empowering stories to light can change the world and inspire others to take action. We want our employees and any customers who work with us to feel EMPOWERED as a result of working with us.
Once you have defined the 5 guiding keywords for your business, write them out visibly in your office and make sure that all of your employees are informed regarding:
What your keywords are.
Why keywords matter.
How to use keywords as a guiding framework.
If your employees have been a part of the brainstorming process, they will care more about implementing the keywords in day to day decisions they make when they are working for you.
Use them to evaluate whether or not the work your team is doing is touching on all 5 keywords, and if it’s not, revisit certain aspects of each project to see if you can bring it to the next level and encompass all 5 keywords every time.
Understanding these keywords will not only help your team make decisions in a consistent, unified way, but it will also make you feel more confident that your company’s products and services stay in line with your mission, leading you to grow in the right direction.
Next time you’re facing a business decision and aren’t sure of how to handle it, go back to your keywords for some insight.