Why purpose is the most important metric for startups

Whenever clients throw me loose questions like what can you do for me through digital marketing? I respond with, "What do you want digital marketing to do for you? What purpose do you wish digital marketing to fulfil for you?"

Purpose is such a strong thing that it gives you laser sharp focus, cuts the clutter, and makes you see nothing but your goal. And marketing is no different.

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Marketing without purpose keeps you wondering about what’s wrong and why things aren’t working?

Extract purposefulness from marketing, and you make the job tough for the entire team, while otherwise, marketing activities become obvious and the entire team is kept in a state of ‘informed action’.

A 20-year-old boy named Hammad Nasir asked me the same question but a little differently.

I dream big. I dream to change the world around us by helping the less privileged, homeless, and poor. I want everyone in the world to come together to form a community on my app to quickly, share the coordinates of a homeless person in need or trouble, and let others, who are nearby, help him as and when required. Can you bring 100,000 people onto the app?

Wow! This boy is so focused on his purpose that you can’t help but look for ways to contribute. And so I did.

You see, as a digital media agency, we fail with some clients and we do great with others, and what differentiates the two sets of cases is the clarity of purpose for all the stakeholders, especially the client.

In a true sense, you can’t really do it the other way around. You can’t design a solution first, and then relate it to a problem to define your purpose. … Are you thinking of ecommerce and food-tech startups too? We have seen this happening here.

And on the other hand, what if you are really stuck in such an unfortunate condition? Is it a dead end? Relax.

In such a case, I’d advise you to #HaveAKitKatBreak. Sit, relax, take a pen and paper, and ask yourself why you started all this? Why are you building what you are building? Will it help people out there in some real meaningful way? Who will be the beneficiary of your product? Are you a ‘must have’ or ‘good to have’ product? How are you are adding some real value to society? And how valuable is your value proposition?

And listen, the world won’t come to an end if you conclude that you are building something meaningless. Get up, dust yourself off, and start looking for some real problem to solve and make an impact as an entrepreneur. India is filled with both problems and opportunities.

Product startups built upon intense purpose make it easy for a media agency to help them grow. As they say, even the best marketing team can’t sell a bad product.

Don’t waste your entrepreneurial energy on building a replica of something, even if you can do it easily, and even if you have easy access to funds. Realizing your entrepreneurial talent, and using your zeal to build something of greater purpose will be a far better ‘success’, than merely raising funds and chasing mediocre press coverage.

By the way, Hammad’s app- the HumaneHelper- is available on Google Play. And you can also participate on Facebook by posting pictures of such needy, homeless and helpless people using the hashtag #NotSoLucky.

Website- Contentory.in

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)