As a sales-based business, your marketing strategy is probably sales-focused. That's understandable.
The goal is simple: find your target audience and pitch them your product or service. In the past, you might have rented access to a broadcast network audience in 15 or 30-second blocks. Today, you probably rent an audience on social media.
But there's a side-effect of marketing in the digital age: companies also grow their own audience. In a sense, a business today is also a broadcast network.
And with that, comes a new business opportunity...
If your business has a built-in audience, then you are also in show business.
At a certain point in your growth, it behooves you to address your followers as more than mere vessels for click-throughs and sales funnels, and speak first-and-foremost to their unique interests and motivations as people. Interests and motivations, by the way, that are NOT the same as the interests and motivations of your sales team.
~~
Audience-first content is content that prioritizes value for your audience over value for your sales team.
It is an indirect sales strategy, and certainly a non-intuitive one for companies with no aspirations to produce, say, a podcast, documentary, or web-series.
BUT... As your follower count rises, so too does your business’s potential energy to entertain and inspire. To create culture.
Perhaps it’s time to experiment beyond the boundaries of a traditional SaaS, e-commerce, or retail framework. Perhaps it's time to consider your potential as an audience-first content producer.
What would happen to your business if it became known, not only for Product X or Service Y, but for being an ongoing source of inspiration and entertainment?
Curious? You might kick off a brainstorm with a simple question.
If your business could talk, what stories would it tell?