Michael Thompson
When asked why customers choose you, seven out of 10 have no idea according to DIYMarketing.com Publisher Ivana Taylor’s reporting. When they do not know, you have a branding problem. How customers choose you is a short definition for branding. A longer one is that branding is the perception that buyers have of the values that represent you in their mind. Your brand is the box in which potential buyers put you in when they are considering a purchase. It is your competitive advantage or the position you hold in their mind that positions you above others they might consider so they see no suitable substitute for buying from you.
There is no real secret to creating a proactive brand for your business. It is a process, like most other best practices in business.
First, using a 3×5 index card complete this statement, “When I want _____ I go to______ (your business name).” List something that your customer wants, needs, or desires that your customers or potential customers want to buy what you are selling. Then get very specific and their “want” in the above statement. People do not buy from you for what you sell, but what you offer – what problem you are helping them solve. What gain are you offering that solves a pain they are experiencing?
Second, ask yourself what “values” represent your business and thus your brand? What are you committed to? Excellent service, knowledge leadership, trustworthiness? What can customers count on you to deliver day-in and day-out in meeting their needs?
Third, write a statement about your business that represents the results of the two exercises above. Write down all the words and phrases that describe or define who you are, what you do and how you do it. Then look at what others in your competitive environment are saying about themselves and record this statement. Sign up for their newsletters, review their websites, explore their blogs, then adapt them to what you want your brand to communicate.
Branding is an ongoing activity since the business environment in which you compete is constantly in flux. How you appear to your customer base needs to remain relevant throughout the changes.
Before you embark on branding or rebranding, consider the following:
Know your audience. Conduct market research to identify and understand your target audience. Learn about its demographics, psychographics, and pain points.
Create compelling content. Once you understand your target market and their needs, create content that resonates with your ideal customer by addressing their challenges, problems, and pain points. Your content needs to focus on the values that your brand represents. Too many times, small businesses consider the world at large their customer base, and when that happens, the messaging has little or no focus. Messages need to attract and inform a specific and targeted audience. You need compelling content to focus on your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Your punchline in your communication needs to be, “we know what your needs, wants and desires are and can service them.” Your USP is your value proposition synthesized into one declarative sentence that will engender an emotional response to “buy.”
Employ multiple channels. Buyers get their information from multiple channels. You need to be where they are. Using social media, email, SEO, PPC and content marketing to reach your target audience does not happen just by wishing it to happen or by accident.
Personalize your messaging. Customers want messages they receive to be tailored to their needs, wants, and desires. The best way to get your messages read and your brand to be recognized is to individualize your messages to specific customer segments and build on past interactions.
It all begins with trust. For buyers to reach out to you and embrace your brand they must trust you through the credibility, authenticity, and believability of your brand messaging. Your messaging must exude transparency to generate trust.
Create seamless experiences. For your brand to resonate in the mind of your prospective and current buyers you need to create seamless experiences via the touchpoints you have generated via your website, mobile, and customer-service interactions. To ensure that this is taking place, you need to have processes that continuously track metrics, analyze performance, and allow you to adjust your messages to your ideal customer.
Maintain your brand’s perception. How? By offering consistently high quality and customer service. It is critical to attract customers, but just as important is to create a brand connection to retain customers so they stick around to buy again and refer you to others. Quality is not just in the product or service, but in everything the organization does, from how it answers the phone, to delivery of services to the promotional content of marketing messages. A referral system allows you to take advantage of the power of your current customers to communicate your brand’s value to friends and acquaintances.