In our previous episode, we talked about how to create personas that represent your intended audience. But what next? How do you use what you know about your audience to communicate in a way that really resonates with them and helps them connect what they need with what you’re selling?

Brands grow through emotional resonance. At the heart of great brand messaging is a true empathy for the humans you’re here to help. When you start with empathy, you can offer relevant solutions (not sales spin), alleviate rather than agitate a problem, connect rather than coerce and pull people towards a decision that’s right for them (rather than pressure them through potentially unethical techniques).

In this episode, we’re talking about why leading with emotion creates the connection you need to sell, how to understand the emotional drivers behind purchasing decisions, and why storytelling will be one of your best brand assets.

Without knowing your audience, you’re shooting in the dark. It's essential for your marketing, messaging, and product development. As the adage goes: if you’re marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one. Really understanding your audience goes beyond demographics - especially in an increasingly diverse world. In this episode we’re talking about how to craft effective, inclusive brand persons (or buyer personas) by digging into the psychographics that drive decisions and avoiding bias and stereotypes.

And if you want to grab that free persona workbook we mentioned in this episode, visit www.markmywords.co.nz and hit the ‘DIY copy resources’ tab.

In this episode we’re joined by Gina Cook, a Partner at advisory firm, BDO Auckland, who shares more about sustainability - or ESG - reporting. ESG stands for environmental, social issues and governance, and is all about how an organisation can understand, and manage, its environmental and social impacts.

Sometimes reporting like this can be hard to start, because we’re not actually sure where or how to begin. Gina shares some simple first steps that we can do as businesses to actually make a start when it comes to measuring and understanding our impact.

Helpful tools mentioned in this episode:

Cogo

Carbon Trail

Sumday

Spotlight Sustain

Find out more about BDO’s sustainability and ESG services and learn about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).