What’s Your Why Now?

It’s often said that the most important question to ask a startup founder, and for founders to ask themselves, is: Why now?

Why start this company now?

Why solve this problem now?

It’s also the most important question to answer in your marketing. Why now?

Why should I solve this problem now?

Why should I buy this from you now?

Why should I give you any of my time or attention now?

To know how your ideal customer would answer these questions. (Not how they should answer. But how they would.)

That’s the crux of building a brand — and timely, relevant, useful content — that attracts the right people, connects with them, and inspires them to take steps towards becoming your customer (or remaining that way).

What’s your why now?

It’s ok to start with answering this from your own perspective. As long as you don’t end there.

Why did you build this thing? Why did you build it now? Why is now the time for this to happen?

From there, get into what matters most to the people you want to matter to most. What’s important to them now (regardless of what you’re selling — this is about them)?

Then find where it all intersects. Where does your why now overlap with theirs?

(By the way, this is a big part of what I do in my Marketing Master Plan. It’s pretty hard to get out of your own way and get to these answers by yourself. But it’s totally doable with someone guiding you.)