Maybe it’s the fresh smell of a steady rain or the satisfaction of matching every pair of socks in your laundry. It might be clicking off the gas pump at exactly the dollar you planned to spend. Or it might be the smell of fresh coffee in the morning.
Experts say that it’s not just the big moments that bring happiness: the new babies, the graduations, weddings, promotions and sports victories. Happiness can also be found in the smaller moments, the tiny doses of satisfaction that bring joy and add up to a pretty great day.
You might love to peel a banana that doesn’t have a single bruise, hearing a song that reminds you of a day at the pool or feeling the crunch of an acorn under your shoe. It may be that feeling of completion that comes from an empty email inbox or the smell of crisp clean pages in a brand-new book.
Humans tend to think that it’s the big things in life: income and job satisfaction, marital happiness and other family dynamics that make for a satisfying existence. But have you ever noticed what makes for a bad day?
It Goes Both Ways
It’s the hangnail that gets caught over and over again on your clothing, making you wince in pain. It’s the overflowing trash can that your teenager keeps walking past. It’s the gas tank on empty when you’re already late for a meeting. It’s every time you’ve ever tried to neatly fold a fitted sheet.
Or it can be a straw that breaks the camel’s back, like when you make it through a series of social events, all hosted in your home, only to wake up on your first quiet morning to a broken coffee pot. Oh, yes. You’ve been there.
Experts also say that people tend to get hung up on results, like thinking happiness will occur at the completion of a goal. Once you lose 30 pounds, earn that graduate degree or finish paying down your debt, then you’ll be happy. But happiness actually occurs more frequently in the pursuit of goals, not in the achievement of them.
Have you ever received something you’ve wanted for a long time, only to be surprised that it didn’t quite do the trick? Maybe you longed for a vacation to Europe or to own your dream car, and then were disappointed when you didn’t feel as different as you had hoped.
Happiness doesn’t just hinge on the big moments, but on the little moments, too, as well as a whole host of moments along the way as you reach for your next goal.
And in many ways, marketing is the same way. You might think that it’s just about having the right product idea or the right amount of capital to start your business. It can be tempting to focus too heavily on where to locate your business or designing the perfect logo.
These things matter, for sure. But there are some smaller things that, when they add up, do a lot to help your company achieve growth. Take a look:
Adding Value: This is a subtle difference among some thriving companies. You can focus on making money, but you’re likely to make more money if you focus on helping others.
When you produce content, don’t talk about your product or how great your company is. Create content that is designed to help your audiences, such as a how-to, a discussion of current industry topics or ideas for solving common challenges.
Know Your Audience: Your product probably isn’t for everyone, so do you know exactly which segments of the market are most likely to buy your brand?
Identifying the age, gender, income levels, profession and hobbies of your most likely customers helps you divide them into segments and then create content that speaks personally to each group.
Understanding Your Value: What makes you different from competitors?
Don’t be afraid to ask your customers in a survey or on social media what made them choose your brand. You may find out that while you saw your brand as the luxury option, your customers perceived it as a down-to-earth, affordable brand. Know what makes you different in the eyes of your customers.
Data Analytics: You’re sending emails, posting on social media and running some online ads. But do you know why?
If you don’t know the success rate of your marketing efforts, you’re essentially playing darts with a blindfold. Your investment in marketing should be based on a strategy, with measurable goals that can be compared against actual results.
Just like achieving those life goals that you think will make you happy, a lot of the excitement with marketing happens along the way. You may eventually see the kind of engagement on social media that you had only dreamed of, but on your way to that goal, you’ll see growth and conversations with customers that are driving you closer and closer to your objectives.
Happiness is often in the small stuff, and marketing success is often tied up in the small stuff, too. You may believe it’s all tied up in big decisions, but small marketing decisions can add up to a lot of measurable growth. Contact us at SJC Marketing to learn more about small decisions that deliver big results.