Craft Your Brand For Powerful Online Success.

Your Brand matters, it is your first impression.

In the todays fast paced world, Google has become as much a verb as it has a name. Consumers have boundless information being available instantaneously, its no wonder that 75% of consumers “Googling” products and services online only bother to view search results that show up on “page one”. It has never been more important to Build Your Brand For Online Success. Your branding matters!

Conscious or unconscious brand. The choice is yours.

Unfortunately for the vast majority of small businesses have what I call an “unconscious” brand. Sure, they may have had a logo designed , and perhaps they selected company colors and may even have a company slogan. Unconscious brands take a life of their own, it is in how their staff conduct them selves, and in the way clients and customers are treated that forges their brand. It is in what things are said about them. It is true that all brands success is measured in what customers are saying, the difference is that the unconscious brand is built with out much thought going into it.

The Conscious Brand.

The alternative is to build a “conscious” brand. A brand designed with end in mind. One that resonates with customers, and assures a great customer experience. A conscious brand sets businesses apart from competitors. To maximize efficiency and return on your marketing investment their are two things that you must focus on number one your brand, and number two your reputation. You can spend all the money in the world to drive traffic to a site to lose the consumer if they discover bad reviews, and unimpressive branding. Building your brand and a five star reputation should be where your initial emphasis is placed. This is where you will get the most bang for you buck.

Defining Your Messaging.

Defining your brands messaging for online marketing success by keeping in mind that it is important to remember consumers resonate with clear messaging and a distinctive voice. Successful brands are the product of proactive planning, and creativity. Consider the golden arches of McDonald’s, or the P for Pinterest these trademark elements instantly convey brand information and command instant recognition. It is the promises these companies are making that consumers recognize.

Position Your Brand For Online Success.

Are you ready to build your “conscious” brand? Great! Let’s go! We will begin our journey together by reflecting on the elements needed to build a successful brand. Below you will find suggested topics that you can use to help define your brand, be as detailed as you can be and you will gain the insights you need to build a brand from scratch or take your existing brand to the next level.

Branding Considerations, Your Why and Promise.

• Your Why: What is the reason your business exists? Why is it, that you, do what it is you have chosen to do? Why not do something else? What are you looking to achieve? This is where you have fun explore your goals, objectives and your dreams.
• Your promise: What is the experience you strive to provide your customers? Will you provide the high end solution or will you offer value? Your promise is the foundation of your branding. Be specific.
• Who are you making this promise to? Who is your ideal customer? It is really important to build your brand to attract those you wish to do business with.
• How does your promise differentiate your business from your competitors?
• How will you deliver your promise?
• What will you do if your business fails to deliver on it’s promise?
• What sets you apart from the others?
• How will you manage your brands reputation?

Define Your Brand.

With the insight gained from the above reflections you can begin defining your brands promise. It is time to kick things up a notch. It is always useful to conduct a S.W.O.T survey of your business. For those unfamiliar with what a S.W.O.T. survey is, it is an exercise where you identify your companies Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is one of the most effective tools that any business owner, planner, or marketer can ever implement. Now take the insights you gained by defining the direction of your brand, and combine it with a S.W.O.T. marketing survey you will have every thing you need to build your conscious brand for online marketing success.

Conducting A S.W.O.T. Marketing Survey For Online Success

Complete your S.W.O.T. by completing a detailed analysis of the below line items.

Strengths: Let’s begin defining your brand. Take your time, do not rush. Think carefully about, and document what your strengths are. What are you good at? List the things that set you apart from your competition? What are your differentiators?

Weaknesses: By being truthful about your weaknesses you gain insight into your opportunities. Imagine how much you would grow by turning your greatest weakness in to strengths. Your old strengths would become your new weaknesses.

Opportunities: Now is the time to analyze your opportunities.

Threats: What are your greatest threats?

Your Ideal Customer.

In the next exercise take all the information you gathered from the above exercises and do a deep dive into who your ideal customer is. Define the promises your brand will be making to them. To accomplish this it is extremely helpful to identify who your ideal customer/client is. Imagine if your ideal customer standing right in front of you. Resist the trap that many Entrepreneurs fall into, wanting to be all things to all people.

• Do you need to reevaluate who you have been specifically targeting?
• Who is that ideal customer/client of yours?
• How old are they?
• What social media platforms are they visiting?
• What are their hobbies?
• Where do they go?
• What car do they drive?
• Where do they live?
• How much money do they make?

You get the idea, dig down as deep as you can on exactly who your ideal client/customer is for your area and your niche.

Crafting Your Brands Identity.

Customer loyalty is a product of building a unique identity for your brand and the delivery of your brands promise. If you have an existing brand turning to your existing customers to discover what they think about your brand can be enlightening. You might be surprised how much customer feedback can benefit your business. Carefully assessing what your customers currently think about your brand and what it represents to them through surveys often provides invaluable information. You might be surprised to realize that you and your clients are disconnected, and they do not agree with your intended brand vision. That presents great opportunity to regroup and better position your business.

Word of Mouth.

Reaching out to existing customers is a great way to learn how your brand fares against your competition. Very often stakeholders are too close to critique their brands objectively. Online surveys, automated review requests and in-house questionnaires are effective tools to gain insight into how clients view your business and your brand. It is a great time to build your reputation by requesting reviews. The key to gathering great information is to ask the great questions that are clear, and get straight to the point. Questions on a scale of one to ten will make it easy to analyze results.

You might be surprised how much you can benefit from customer feedback. Carefully assessing what customers currently think about your brand and what they think it represents through surveys often provides invaluable information. You might be surprised to realize that you and your clients are disconnected, and they do not agree with your intended brand vision. That presents great opportunity to regroup and better position your business.

Brand Building Assets.

All successful brands are associated with a specific blend of colors, fonts, and slogans. For your creative elements to resonate with your target audience, consistency is key. Every aspect of business, your website, your social media pages and even your business cards, should feature the same creative elements.

A logo is a basic part of brand’s visual vocabulary that will create a specific look and feel for your brand. Your logo be consistent throughout the various platforms you will use to promote your brand. Think of logos that you love.

Brand Color Considerations.

The colors you choose will set a tone for your brand. Think of Home Depot orange or Cokes Red. Keep your colors consistent across your assets for the purposes of building brand recognition.

Key Messaging.

Taking all the information and insights gained by the previous steps, it is time to begin work to craft and define your messaging.  If your aim is to make your brand memorable and profitable remember the K.I.S.S. acronym keep it simple stupid. Complicated messaging leads to confusion which leads to inaction. Inaction is not very effective at generating sales or meeting your goals. You want to make the decision for your clients to act as easy as possible.

Catch Phrase.

Develop a catch phrase, perhaps three or four simple words that communicates your business promises and what it does well.  Think of it this way, what phrase would you want your clients to use to describe your brand if your brand was a person? The identity of your brand should be carefully aligned with the value your ideal customer/client. Communicate what they would appreciate. Your messaging goal is for your clients think of your product or service as being exactly what you want them to think. Is it to be the best quality, or the easiest to use, the most affordable or even the most durable? Be creative and resist selling hype. For longevity the goal is to establish trust to build your brand. Always remember great brands deliver on their promise if they want to remain a great brand.

Social Media

Social media allows you to reach the right people, with the right message. There are many social media platforms just waiting to help build your brand. All you need to do is post the kind of content that will attract potential customers, engagement is the key to social media success. What are the social media platforms your ideal customer is using?

URLs

Having a great URL(s) is an incredibly important branding element today. Well thought out digital marketing strategies may employ multiple URLs. Having your niche and location in a URL can be invaluable.

Web Site/Funnel/Landing Pages

Take the elements that you have created and it is time to build your online tools. The key is providing outstanding customer experiences with our getting to confusing. If your goal is to rank on the first page of Google you will probably need the help of pros. If you are driving traffic from existing sources and are on a tight budget drag and drop options are available for the diyer.

Reputation

A great reputation is your number on ally. In todays world, on line reviews are word of mouth referrals, only better! Online reviews are the gift that keeps on giving. Online reviews serve as on going word of mouth advertising. By building a great brand, and a great reputation you position your business to be perceived as a market leader. Market leaders do not have to compete solely on price, they often enjoy higher margins. The exposure gained from page one allows for more predictable flows of leads and new customers. Having a steady and predictable stream of business makes it easier to attract and maintain employees which makes it easier to grow and to scale. The steps to forging a great reputation is to a) build your reputation, b) manage your reputation and c) effectively market your reputation. For more information about reputation marketing see our Reputation Management services.

Digital Marketing

The reality is that the largest percentages of businesses will fail to rank on page one and will locked themselves out from 75% of customers actively searching for exactly what it is that these businesses provide. The majority of businesses are competing for the smallest percentage of consumers, and often the ones that are often the most difficult to do business with. Be a market leader. Ready, set, grow!