Authenticity and Emotions Drive Successful Sales, Branding, and Social Media Presence
The Entrepreneur Essentials: Sales & Marketing event this morning (October 2) attracted a full house of entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, and students. Expert presentations offered fresh insights and sparked discussions around reaching the right audiences, building powerful and trustworthy brands, and standing out among millions of others on social media.
Tommi Virkama, Director of Startia, opened the event by encouraging both aspiring and active entrepreneurs to be courageous while also reminding them not to be afraid to ask for help. Hendrik Morkel, Mentor and Community Builder at Vaasa Startup Factory, also welcomed participants with a brief introduction to Vaasa Startup Factory, an open space for students, startups, researchers, and innovators.
The focus then turned to sales and marketing, with three experts providing three different perspectives. A common theme throughout all presentations, however, was the importance of authenticity and evoking emotions to connect customers with your products or services.
– Be genuine, they will know if you are not for real, they will see it on your body language. Adapt a consultative, problem-solving approach to selling instead of being too pushy. Let the customer know that you are here to help and what they will achieve with your help, Kalle Smeds, CEO of Creamarketing, said in his presentation.
Drawing on his own experience, Smeds explained why a consultative approach is far more effective than pushy sales tactics and shared five key principles for consultative selling:
- Prioritize Deep Understanding
- Shift From Seller to Advisor
- Be genuine and show a real interest in the customer’s success
- Invite your experts to share their opinion
- Let the customer close the deal
Next, Elin Nyman, Graphic Designer & Founder of Studio Elin Nyman, spoke about how to make a brand stand out and build trust. She emphasized that branding is not the same as a visual profile. She said that branding is what your company is all about, in other words the “why?”. This includes company values, vision and mission as well as brand promise. The visual profile on the other hand is created based on the brand.
– A brand is not just about looking great – it is all about what you are selling. If you work on your brand and get people to connect with it, they don’t matter if you mess up sometimes, Nyman said.
She stressed that customer satisfaction comes down to aligning expectations with delivery and left the audience with some thought-provoking questions to help them develop their brand:
- Review your visual identity?
- Define your tone of voice?
- Look at how you interact with customers?
- Consider the look and feel of your physical space, etc.?
With sales and branding insights noted down by the audience, the final session focused on storytelling for founders and creating social media content that people actually care about. Maria Erikslund, Account Manager at Someone in Vaasa, explained:
– The three “E: s” that every content needs is entertainment, education and emotion.
She highlighted that social media posts don’t need to be very professional. In fact, authentic content such as origin stories, lessons learned from failures, and success stories resonate more strongly with audiences.
– People want to see the process, Erikslund said.
She also emphasized the importance of knowing which platforms your customers use and when. Since most people browse social media in their free time seeking entertainment, content should match that mindset rather than looking like a website info page.
Erikslund also highlighted how social media presence is part of building the company’s brand. She encouraged everybody to try posting content and rather posting a lot and evaluate the data than perfect one post.
Do you want help with building your branding, your website or your social media presence. Be in touch:
Did you miss this event, check out these events:
Företagarträff i Korsholm: nycklar till lyckad branding och marknadsföring på sociala medier (in Swedish)
Yrittäjäaamu Laihialla: Somekatsaus 2025 yrittäjille – trendit, ilmiöt ja algoritmit (in Finnish)
The event was organized by Startia in cooperation with Vaasa Startup Factory and Startia's expert partners: Creamarketing, Studio Elin Nyman and Someone.
