Finding your purpose (and so much more…)

In my past life I was once an auditor.

I know!  That sounds just RIVETING, doesn’t it?

Recently I’ve had reason to be working with a colleague from those days, and it’s reminded me of some of the fun of being an auditor.  One of the more tedious aspects – yet SO critical – is in the data quality control.

Because garbage in => garbage out.

So, when you’re getting your audit team together (regardless of what they are auditing) it’s SO critical for them to know the long term goal.  Who is going to use the information you’re collecting?  What is it going to be used for?   How does it need to be used?  What happens if they don’t get it right?

What’s auditing got to do with … well, anything, really?*

The point is – yes, I’m getting to it -that  everyone works better with a communicated purpose.

That includes me (as I sit here with a world of chaos on my desk, and a jumbled up list of things to do).

And you.

Now, I don’t begin to think that I know what it is that’s on your mind at the moment, but whatever it is, try asking yourself this:

What am I trying to achieve?

What do I need to be able to do with this when I’m finished?

Does thinking about those things change how you feel about what you’ve got to do?

Now, given that I’m clearly going to move this towards marketing, since that’s what I do…  Let’s think about how that applies to key areas of marketing.

Feel free to answer the questions above in your head for these categories (just as a sample):

• Website –
• Advertising –
• Public Relations –
• Social Media –

No cop outs like “because I have to have one” for website – that won’t get you anywhere.

Sometimes if we REALLY think about what our goals are, we’ll realise that we’re not really in the game. That what we do on those things ISN’T actually achieving them.

A company whose blog I follow shut down their Facebook page, even though they had 38,000 followers.  Seems odd, doesn’t it?  Wouldn’t we all love to have that many followers?

The thing was they were spending a lot of money and time on Facebook trying to engage with customers, but it wasn’t getting them what they were aiming for.  Whatever the reasons for that, and regardless of other paths they could have taken, their decision was to let their Facebook page go and invest in other more beneficial platforms. They evaluated their purpose for their page against the results, and realised that something had to give.

Knowing your purpose is the beginning – of everything really.  Life, the Universe and Marketing.

Write when you know why you are writing.

Build when you understand what you’re building, and what it will be used for.

Create once you have a vision.

Find your purpose.

That’s the point.

From there, you know where you are going.

Happy travels.

Heather x

*No offence intended to anyone who is an Auditor – I’ve worked with plenty of them, and they are lovely people.  They too, need purpose… 😉