'Looking professional' is the standard by which many businesses measure their branding and content, but being authentic in your business is crucial. When starting out as a freelancer, I toiled over how to come across to my clients. Do I create an acceptably professional bog-standard website, or should I just be my own brand of weird (...I do prefer 'quirky') and hope for the best?  Small businesses are often faced with this dilemma when they start out. Make waves or conform for acceptance?  The thing is, being authentic in business doesn't mean you lose your edge. It creates it. Your unadulterated passion for what you do is crucial to selling your brand, more so now than ever. But why?

People just don't want 'average' any more.

Some might say the problem is down to the hilariously short attention span that we seem to have developed. Nowadays, we want 6-minute workouts, 5-minute meals ... expediency reigns supreme. But I believe it's more than that. We have simply become tired of 'mainstream'; bored of the blah, blah bland. We want - nay, need something spicier; juicier; zingier. So why do so many small businesses shy away from being themselves? During a down-turn, it's considered safer to hunker down in the middle of the 'bell curve' than to be different. "If we keep our heads down and cast our nets wide", we say, "we're bound to catch something". Surviving, not thriving is our focus at the moment.

Why 'Being Real' Matters

Unfortunately, this need for safety in difficult times creates a sea of similar-looking websites, and clients are switching off through a sense of ennui. Stock images and generic phrases offering the same 'great service/great value' just don't speak to them. It's like giving everyone in your family a pair of socks for Christmas. Practical, yes, but not inspired; and definitely not personal. But the tide is turning; more and more small businesses are beginning to cast off their old cliches with an honest effort to be authentic.  They are remembering that professionalism is not enough. And it's paying off;  Audiences are increasingly buying into businesses willing to break from the crowd and bear all with butt-naked authenticity.  Think about it. It's your key USP; no one - no one - can do 'you' like you can.

1. It shows you have a Head - and Heart - for Business

People want personal. Even if they're driven by price, clients want to connect with a brand that warms the cockles of their heart. Saying that you're innovative, or that you care isn't the same as showing it.  It's that 'Ratatouille' moment (ok it's a kids' film, but it had me tearing up), where something extraordinary connects deeply with your client's values. As a small business, we rely on that bond to build our brand. Think about how you're selling and who you're selling to - are they meaningfully connected? Showing your brand personality helps clients relate to you on a deeper personal level.

2. Your Blogs get more Interesting  ...and more Traffic

Keeping an active and engaging blog has always been great for SEO purposes, as well as keeping your clients engaged. But there's another good reason to let a little more of your personality shine in your content: BERT: not from Sesame Street fame, but Google's new algorithm which is changing how search words are matched with results. This groovy new algorithm (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers for you geeks out there) interprets natural language to grasp searcher intent (What the searcher is looking for, not necessarily what they type in). For this reason, conversational content is better primed to provide searchers with a good match. The more prolific you are in talking about your targeted content, the better, and your blog is the ideal way to add an extra dimension to your brand personality.

3. Because Faceless Brands can't Smile

People like you, will like you. This was my main driver for doing my own thing. I don't want to attract everybody. Which is just as well, because I can't. No one can. So if you're going to be selective, then, of course, you want to appeal to those you are most likely to work well with. And that really does mean being yourself. I'm not suggesting you tell them that you snore in bed, or eat your bread crusts because you still believe they make your hair curly (still undecided); just give them a real sense of who you are, share your ideals in your blogs, and expand in a personal way on your brand ethos and your products.

4. You'll attract Clients you'll want to work with

With targetted, personable content, you will attract the kind of clients you want to work with - and that's important. There's no point in spouting stock phrases used by powerful conglomerates if you are targeting the man on the street. Building a loyal bank of clients who just get you, can see you through tough months and allow you the headspace to work on growing it. (Read Seth Godin on micro-influencing - a persuasive read). And being authentic in your business tells your clients that you're proud of who you are - enough to lose the corporate cloak of conformity and put yourself out there. Perhaps your brand is unwittingly caught up in this tide of tedium. If so, it might be time to ask yourself what would happen if you revamped and emboldened your brand personality with a brave new (real) you.  Who might you reach that you're not currently appealing to? If you openly embrace your unique wonderful self, chances are, so will the clients that you want to meet. [DISPLAY_ULTIMATE_SOCIAL_ICONS]