If you swapped your logo with a competitor’s, would anyone notice? For most local businesses the honest answer is no. Same photos, same “quality service”, same promises.
Looking like everyone else is expensive, because when customers can’t tell you apart, they choose on price. This worksheet helps you find what’s different about you, then say it on purpose.
Part 1: what does your industry keep saying? (10 minutes)
List the habits, beliefs and bits of standard advice in your industry that you don’t agree with, even slightly. Aim for ten. Think about advice, pricing, how jobs are run and how customers get treated.
Examples from businesses we work with:
- “You need to post every day.” (We’d rather post three good things a week.)
- “Customers only care about price.” (Ours care about not being let down.)
- “Quotes take a week.” (Ours take two days.)
- “Fine dining has to be formal.” (Ours plays hip-hop.)
Your ten:
Part 2: what do you believe instead? (10 minutes)
Next to each one, write what you believe and why. Circle the three you feel most strongly about. Those are your content pillars: the ideas you’ll come back to again and again.
Part 3: give people something to recognise (10 minutes)
The local businesses people talk about have a few things customers come to know them by. Fill in what you can:
- What you’re against: a problem you and your customers both hate. Not a competitor. Example: tradies who leave a mess.
- A name for how you work: so people can repeat it. Example: “The Clean Site Promise”.
- The faces: the people customers get to know. The owner, the head chef, the apprentice.
- The why: the moment that made you do it this way. The job that went wrong at your old work. The day you opened.
Part 4: repeat it
Pick your three circled beliefs and say them everywhere, for months:
- Your homepage headline
- Your bio on Instagram and Google
- One video a week explaining one belief
- How your team answers the phone
It’ll feel repetitive to you long before it does to your customers. That’s when it starts working.
Where to next
Start with the Brand Direction Worksheet if you haven’t, or see how we build brand strategy and identity on our Branding page.
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