“Values” has become a bit of a buzzword in the age of online branding. Buzzwords aren’t exactly our favorite thing, but behind the buzz, we do believe there’s a lot of value in seeing and identifying your values–both as a person and as an organization.
What do you want to see in your business?
Once you’ve been in business for a while, and things feel well-in-hand, you might start to notice frustrations or ideas for what you’d like to see more of. Behind the nuts and bolts of day-to-day operations, there’s a vision of what you want your business to become! That vision is centered around your values.
Do you want every product that comes out of your shop to be made with renewable materials? Sustainability is one of your values.
Do you want your organization’s work to create opportunities for marginalized groups? That makes Equity one of your values.
Do you want to have a crew at your office that genuinely loves working together and supporting each other? Teamwork is one of your values.
By seeing and identifying your values, you can remind yourself of why you’re here, and set the standard for how you and your team approach your customers, each other, and the work itself.
These values can inform your branding, too. Being a bit vulnerable with your audience by showing them the reasons why you care about your work helps you build a lot of trust in them. Just be sure they’re genuine values that you actively work towards daily–your audience will also be able to tell if you aren’t walking the walk.
What do you want to see in your audience?
The most powerful brands out there all understand one very important thing: their offering isn’t for everyone! And, neither is yours. Embrace that, and you’re already one step ahead of the game.
Once you know that, you can get specific. Consider what values you want to see in your audience. Are they the kind of people who care about work/life balance? Do they volunteer in their communities? Do they love the outdoors? Do they just get really, really amped about pizza? You can connect with the people you want to work with by speaking directly to their values, and therefore, making it feel like you’re speaking directly to them.
Something we’ve been talking about lately at Upswept HQ is the values we’d like to see in our clients. Sure, getting paid is always nice, but the work feels so much more gratifying when we’re helping people who are helping others, and bringing some good into into the world.
We’re stoked about orgs who are helping marginalized populations, empowering people, supporting community and creativity, or simply running their businesses with integrity and joy. Does that sound like you? If so, we could be a good fit for each other.
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