Most people don’t start a business because they love marketing.

They start because they’re good at something. Because they care. Because they saw a gap and thought, I could do this better.

Marketing usually comes later — squeezed in between client work, admin, family, and the rest of life. At first, it might feel manageable. You post a bit. You share updates. You try to stay visible.

Then things get busy.

Weeks pass. The pressure to “say something” builds. And when you finally sit down to write, it doesn’t flow the way it does when you’re talking to a real person. The words feel stiff. The tone feels off. You start second-guessing yourself.

So you look around to see how others are doing it.

You borrow a phrase. You soften your language. You try to sound more polished, more professional, more like what you think a business should sound like.

And suddenly, your marketing sounds fine — but it doesn’t sound like you.

If your business feels genuine, thoughtful, and human in real life, but oddly generic online, that disconnect can be surprisingly draining. It makes showing up feel harder than it needs to be.

Why This Happens So Often

In Aotearoa, 97% of businesses are small businesses, according to Stats NZ. Most of them are built on relationships, trust, and word of mouth.

Yet online, many of those same businesses blur together.

That’s rarely because the owners don’t care. It’s usually because the internet encourages a kind of flattening. We write differently when we’re not looking at someone. We default to safe language. We focus on what we do, not how we do it.

Over time, marketing becomes something separate from the business itself — a task to complete, rather than an extension of the way you already work.

And when that happens, consistency becomes hard. Not because you’re lazy or disorganised, but because it doesn’t feel natural to keep repeating words that don’t quite fit.

Authentic Marketing Is Less About Expression — More About Translation

There’s a lot of talk about “being authentic” online, and it can sound like you’re supposed to share more, say more, or put more of yourself out there.

But authentic small business marketing isn’t about oversharing or performing.

It’s about translation.

It’s about taking what already exists in your business — your values, your way of explaining things, the tone you use with clients — and translating that into words that can live online.

When that translation is clear, marketing stops feeling like something you have to psych yourself up for. It becomes quieter. More grounded. Easier to return to.

Letting Your Values Do the Heavy Lifting

One of the simplest shifts you can make is to stop starting with content ideas and start with values.

Most business owners already operate from a clear set of principles, even if they’ve never written them down. You know what matters to you when you’re making decisions, setting boundaries, or dealing with clients.

For some, it’s care — making sure people feel supported and not rushed. For others, it’s clarity — explaining things plainly and cutting through confusion. It might be fairness, calm, honesty, simplicity, or practicality.

Alongside those values sits personality. Not in a branding sense, but in a human one. Some people are warm and conversational. Others are direct and no-nonsense. Some are quietly thoughtful. Others are more playful.

None of these are better than the others. The problems start when the tone you use online doesn’t match the way you naturally communicate.

How This Changes What You Share

When values and personality are guiding your marketing, the question shifts.

Instead of asking, “What should I post?” you start asking, “How would I explain this to a real client?”

A reminder about a deadline becomes a chance to acknowledge how stressful that time of year can be. A service update becomes an explanation of why you do things a certain way. A behind-the-scenes moment becomes a quiet insight into how you think.

The content doesn’t need to be long or clever. It just needs to sound true.

Before sharing something, it can help to pause and sense-check it. Does this reflect something that genuinely matters to me? Does it sound like how I’d speak if someone were sitting across the table? Is there a small, real detail that grounds it?

If the answer is yes, that’s usually enough.

A Familiar Example

Think about how often end-of-year reminders go out from accountants or bookkeepers.

Many focus on urgency and deadlines. There’s nothing wrong with that — those dates matter.

But a values-led version might also acknowledge that people feel behind, that paperwork piles up, and that needing help doesn’t mean you’ve failed. It might explain what actually matters most to sort first, rather than overwhelming people with everything at once.

The service hasn’t changed. The difference is the experience of reading it.

And that difference is often what makes someone feel comfortable reaching out.

Where Doing It Yourself Can Get Hard

Everything above is something a business owner can do on their own. Many do — especially in the early stages.

Where it often becomes challenging isn’t understanding the idea. It’s keeping it going.

When you’re close to your own business, it can be hard to see what’s obvious to others. When you’re busy, reflection gets pushed aside. And when every post starts from a blank page, momentum tends to stall.

This is where support can make a real difference — not by replacing your voice, but by helping you hold onto it.

Good agency support doesn’t invent personality or values. It helps draw them out, put them into words, and build systems so they show up consistently — even when you’re focused elsewhere.

It’s the difference between knowing what you want to say, and having it actually appear online, week after week.

A More Sustainable Way to Think About Marketing

You don’t need to sound like anyone else.

You do need a way to make your marketing feel connected to who you are and how you work.

That might start with one honest post. One clear explanation. One small moment of reflection.

And if, over time, you decide you’d like help carrying that voice more consistently, that’s not a failure or a shortcut. It’s often a sign your business has grown.

The aim isn’t to outsource authenticity.

It’s to make sure it doesn’t get lost.

If this way of thinking about marketing feels familiar — or like something you’ve been circling without quite naming — you don’t have to figure out the next step alone.  It’s not about changing your voice or handing everything over. It’s about making sure the right words show up, regularly, while you get on with the work you do best.