Wishy-washy is out. Decisiveness is what is needed. | COCO

Another important aspect of the aura that an entrepreneur or an entire company exudes is decisiveness. The aura of the company is an essential building block of trust, made up of several components. Decisiveness clearly indicates what the company is doing and the direction in which it is marching. This makes the company look trustworthy. How can decisiveness be shown and with which content-related building blocks can it be implemented?

Some people have it more difficult

You certainly know the type of person who always first looks for what doesn't work. Then they quickly talk about problems that could arise instead of simply tackling them. Of course, this type of person is only rarely an entrepreneur. After all, entrepreneurship thrives on looking positively ahead and daring to do something. Nevertheless, even in mixed teams of founders, there is often the doubter. Or someone takes over the craft business from their parents without having been given the entrepreneurial gene.

These characters have a difficult time. Not only because they often get in their own way. No, also because they lack decisiveness and potential customers notice just by looking at the website that someone doesn't know exactly what they want. Or they are simply too modest. As the saying goes: modesty is a virtue, but it's better to live without it. Why is that? Because someone who hides something, be it his own person or his own successes, seems intransparent and thus untrustworthy.

Even doers need the right content

And there are stumbling blocks here for real doers, too. You must be aware that new customers are not yet able to recognize what kind of grenades they are before they make personal contact. They have to show it. Textually. Pictorially. And thus radiate confidence and convince with the right content.

Dispersal seems indecisive

A major problem for many entrepreneurs is the dispersal in too many different activities. As an entrepreneur, you usually always have at least 2-3 new ideas about what else you could tackle in an interesting way. Gaps in the market are constantly opening up and needs are being identified that are not yet being adequately served.

Personal experience with agency & startups

I have experienced it myself. In addition to the agency, I founded a number of startups. Two I was able to sell successfully after a few years, one failed. pleyces as the fourth is a social network for people who love to travel. Due to Corona, the website and apps are currently dormant and will surely be reactivated until 2022, probably a bit longer and maybe never again - even though I of course wish that we can all travel carefree again as soon as possible. For me, this has led to the beautiful state of being able to focus entirely on COCO. This is very good for me because all my attention and manpower is focused. At the same time, it is good for our customers, because they know that I am working resolutely to optimize our services and satisfy our customers. And that's a better way to build trust.

Company perspective

This can also be applied to companies. Conglomerates have been out for years. Siemens and GE are probably the most prominent examples. Just a few years ago, they were a conglomerate of very different products and services. Even though numerous subdivisions have been spun off and parts have been floated separately on the stock market, what remains is a very broad range of products and services. Or can anyone say in one sentence what Siemens actually does? It's different at Tesla. At Biontech, too. And at Adidas, too. With such clearly focused companies, there is automatically a higher level of trust, because I know that they are working with all their strength on optimizing what is ideally a core competence. It doesn’t matter if it’s electric cars, mRNA vaccines or sportswear. We as content marketing service provider have worked for many industries. For us it has always been nice to deal with companies that can tell us clearly what they stand for right away during the briefing.

Focus is therefore elementarily important. What am I good at? How does this help my customers? And above all, what do my products and services ideally mean to my customers?

What does this mean for marketing and content on the website?

Textually, it is important to make it clear at first glance what the company stands for. After all, you can't assume that this is already clear to everyone who visits the website. Quite the opposite. Especially the potential new customers are the most interesting visitors of the website. For them, one to three striking introductory sentences are a great support. Ideally, after quickly reading these sentences, they think, "Good, I'm in the right place. " Anyone can see that this is not a matter of course on the home page of Siemens. Or the much better option at Biontech. It is only through such examples that people realize how important it is to work with the right partner when creating content.

Good photos of all the people involved are another important building block. As a visitor to the website, I want to see who is driving the action. Content is also the be-all and end-all in areas like social media. I remember well the photo shoot at a client - a very technical company with over 1,000 employees. Of course, we wanted to get to know the boss and feature him on the website with words and pictures. To our great surprise, we learned that he doesn't want to show himself and is generally rather shy of people. He had inherited the company a few years ago from his father, who had built it up. How is that supposed to look to customers? Certainly anything but confidence-inspiring. In the meantime, the company has been sold to an American competitor.

Further content modules

If you look at the content of a website, you will find a whole range of content where decisiveness is sometimes better and sometimes less well expressed. Here is a short list of what matters in selected content:

• Home page: concise first sentences that make it clear what the company stands for
• Products: Show why they are among the best
• Applications, industries: Underline the benefit very clearly
• About Us: Explaining why the company does what it does
• Vision: Clearly show where the company wants to go
• History: Show that the direction has always been, or at least has been for a long time, in the same direction
• Management: Making it clear that the people in charge stand behind the company and its goals with heart and soul.
• Stories, blog or podcast: Show the passion with which the products and services are further developed
• Contact: Name why it is worth contacting

As a final point, I would like to mention the call-to-action. Even in something as simple as a button that is supposed to lead to contact, the decisiveness of the company can be expressed. If it simply says contact, it doesn't seem very decisive. But if I read, "We look forward to talking to you on the phone. Call now!", a completely different message comes across. Someone wants to talk to me. That's good. I pick up the phone right away.

Summary

Decisiveness ensures success. As the responsible CEO, you are required to organize the clear focus of the company and to communicate it to the employees. As the person responsible for content marketing on the website, you should have decisiveness as a building block of the aura in the back of your mind for all content. Then the reader gets the feeling, "They know what they want. And why. And where." and thus trust in the services offered.