What big brands know about customers that small businesses can use too

Big budgets buy scale, not insight. These habits cost nothing.

Big brands invest heavily in understanding customers, then apply that understanding relentlessly and consistently.

The good news: small businesses are much closer to their customers than any big brand will ever be. You speak to them every day.

The habits worth borrowing are simple. Write down what customers tell you. Notice the words they use and use those words back. Be consistent — the same message, in the same voice, over a long period.

That's most of what a big brand's marketing machine is doing. You can do it with a notebook and some discipline.