Anyone who owns any form of a business or sells any type of product or service has a brand to uphold. What is your brand saying about you or your business? How do others view or talk about you or your business?
You’re not only building a business or company, you’re really building a brand. What kind of a brand are you building?
It’s as important as ever to build a great brand. Competition is as strong as it’s ever been. Consumers are able to change services or buy products across the globe within seconds. Creating a great brand that creates long-term clients continually coming back for your products and services is the goal.
To develop or increase your brand, you first need to identify who your customer is. What type of clients do you want? I covered this in a past post, Who’s Your Customer? Once you know who you want to speak to, you can create your message.
Your brand, creates your clients. Carefully craft your brand message to make your product or service standout. Create content that speaks to them. All great brands tell a great story. What story is your brand telling? Can you tell a great story that nobody else can? Is there a story none of your competitors are telling?
What makes you, your product or service different from the others? What do you do different, or can you do different from everyone else? Show how you stand alone and provide something that nobody else can match. Be extraordinary at it.
When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one. Think of it like standing on a stage with five of your competitors. You're all talking to the same crowd, at the same time. You’re talking over each other and your audience of prospective clients can’t decipher you from any of the others. Many of you are saying the same thing. You try and talk louder and louder. But you all do. Therefore nobody stands out. You're all doing the same thing.
Focus on a certain group and tailor your brand to them. Shrink the pie to your advantage. Carve out your niche group from that audience of people. Think of it as now you’re alone speaking to your niche audience in a small group setting. Now you’re the only one among your competitors speaking to them. Who do they hear clearly now? It’s you and only you!
Become an expert to that select group. This group could be from a certain demographic, career/occupation, gender, location, traits, beliefs, values, hobbies, activities, income status, groups or memberships. There are endless opportunities for groups to target. Play to your strengths.
Your differentiator can be anything. Make sure that your brand highlights and communicates this message clearly and consistently. Show why you’re different and not like all the others. Make it clear across all the areas you advertise and where your targeted client’s eyes are. Websites, billboards, social media, print, mailings, etc. Be loud and clear across all platforms.
Solve a problem by providing solutions. Show solutions and create value to help people. Provide value and a plan to help get them from point A to point B. Every business has a client or prospective client that’s in need of a product or service to solve something. Deliver deep value to your clients. Quality stands above all else.
Take the focus off money. All companies try to brand off of money. If you make it about money, it’s going to be about money. Save this, discount on this, paying too much. We hear it all. It’s targeting money based buyers. Money based buying decisions don’t yield long-term clients. Prices always fluctuate which means your clients will also fluctuate.
Stop doing the same thing everyone else is. Your brand will stand out from everyone else by being different. Be different!
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