If Your Business Has Been Typecast, Here is What to do About It

The source of all good blog material is the endless archive of Seinfeld episodes. One of my favorites is the one where Kramer and Mickey pick up a gig acting out medical diseases at the local University. Kramer does such a great job with his disease that they keep casting him with the same disease. He yells out, "I've been typecast." Well, Kramer is not the only one. Many of our businesses have been typecast. I'll start with an example that's close to home.

We at The Content Squad have a mutual friend who insists on referring to us as an SEO firm. It doesn't matter how many times we correct him he will refer to us that way. Now to us that's the ultimate pigeon hole. It's degrading. We do so much more. We do inbound marketing, better yet, we show businesses how to integrate sales and marketing online. Sure there are tactics involved like corporate blogging, email marketing, content marketing, website design, copywriting, social media marketing, and search engine optimization. This list isn't even exhaustive so to call us an SEO firm is the ultimate playdown. I'm sure you're just like us. You have customers or prospects who typecast your business. It's frustrating and we want to tell you what you can do about it.

Here are two things you can do:

1) Don't worry about it. Realize you can't change some people. Well, most people. Now that's liberating. Realizing we have little control over others, and not caring what everyone else thinks of us, is empowering. It was Bill Cosby who said, "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone."

2) Tell the story. Then keep telling the story. Whatever your story is, keep preaching it. In season and out. Develop your mission and stick to it. Eventually, many will come alongside you and pick up on it. They will become a fan, then a follower, then an advocate. That's golden. Use your blog, your email newsletter,  or your social media accounts to keep telling that consistent story.

I like both options. It just depends on the situation. Choose one. Choose both. Choose neither.