Where is your brand’s home field advantage?
In football, home field advantage means your crowd roars while the opposing offence tries to organize and execute in front of your eager-to-destroy defence.
In baseball, home field advantage means you get last bat and the final opportunity to smack a dinger and another “W” onto your record.
In hockey, home ice advantage means you get last change and the chance to put your players against who you think, as the coach, they have the best chance of executing a “wheel, snipe, and celly” against.
In basketball, home court advantage means your fans, if they’re from Duke University and devilish by name, trick opposing offences into thinking they have three fewer seconds left on the shot clock than they actually do.
See: your home is a place where you have a slight edge over your competition.
If you’re a brand living in the digital world, home field advantage for you might mean:
- You have a great website;
- You have an interesting and useful blog;
- You have a personality on social media; or
- You have a used and talked about mobile app.
Yes, your brand could have all these things. And it could have more than one of them. But, to always know where your home is, your brand must always ask:
Which one matters most?
No, two cannot have the same top-tiered value when it comes to your brand. Sure, you might enjoy the tranquility and solitude of your cottage two hours from your home but when your home burns down will that tranquility and solitude allow you to maintain your normal every day life? No, it won’t. So, you’ll rebuild your home with the insurance money. And I’ll rephrase and ask the question again:
Which of your brand’s digital platforms matter the most?
Once you’ve answered the question, you need to decide what your offence is going to look like — i.e. what will make people flock to your home?
But I’m not talking about using social media to generate web traffic, blog posts to increase landing page signups, or any other strategy along those lines.
I’m talking about a firm answer to a simple question:
Why?
Yes, I just became the 46,897th blog to lead into a Simon Sinek reference. Get over it. Sinek isn’t wrong about this. Just look here and here then ask why will people look at your brand’s main digital presence and think it’s shinier, more appealing, sexier, more dangerous, or cuter than your competition? Why will a consumer care and visit?
With your answer determined, it’s time for your brand to execute and own it. And like the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, put it:
“What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
So, your brand has to be ready to put in the effort to make its home stand out and consumers take notice.
Perhaps you are a food truck just starting out. You call yourself Baconatos. No one knows who you are. No one knows that your spicy bacon tacos are the best spicy bacon goodness in town. Yet.
People have told you to make a website. People have told you to make “viral videos.” And people have told you Ello is where you need to be because: “Well, it’s where all the cool kids are, right?” But you choose Instagram. You know foodies embrace the platform. And you know you have something foodies on Instagram will care about: badass, delicious, spicey, bacon charged goodness, of course!
So, you open Baconatos, signup and get Instagram, and document everything: pounds and pounds of bacon, the variety of spicy sauces you have to choose from, your eclectic staff, and what a finished baconato looks like — complete with badass and tantalizing names for each one like Spicy Piggy Market and Grease Spiced Salad.
It takes time. Maybe even A LOT of time. But people start showing up. They’re digging what you’re tossing down. And they’re hungry for it. So hungry they start showing up before you even open. And they don’t mind waiting. As odd as it may sound, watching Baconatos do what Baconatos does is a joy for your loyal customers.
That’s right: your loyal customers.
So, get out there and decide where your brand is going to play its home games.
Then own it.
