From the course: Small Business Marketing

The value of your brand

From the course: Small Business Marketing

The value of your brand

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If you had a choice between Lowe's or Home Depot, which would you shop at and why? Your decision probably comes down to the brand that you align with. And branding is how you convey the main message of your company, essentially what a customer should feel when they hear about your brand. It's the experience that pops in their mind. The way it looks when they see it in person, when they read your messaging, and when you surprise them with a gift or advertise to them. You need this brand strategy to not only convert customers but to retain them. A good brand strategy is going to be as simple as possible, consistent across all channels, and a true expression of your company. A brand is a set of beliefs, and it's a promise that you want your customers to know you'll never break. Your brand isn't a logo, instead your logo is there to be representative of your brand. Everything points to your brand. And your goal is to make sure the image of your brand as it appears in your mind is the same way it shows up in your customer's mind, because whether you like it or not, every customer will be able to arrive at an idea of what your brand is, and it might be good or bad. Truthfully, a good brand hardly needs to introduce itself. Within your target market, people will already know your business, its personality, and the promise it makes to customers all based on the positive impressions you've made and they way that they've locked into their minds. Now when it comes to branding, I've got three steps that you can use to shape yours. First, you've got to understand that the most prominent person at the company is going to leading your brand. They will embody the brand and have to be the champion for it. This might be your or it might be someone else, but this person needs the time and the authority to own the brand. You're going to go a lot further by accepting this fact now and making the changes necessary either in your mindset or in the team structure to give that brand ownership to the right person. Next, create a list of what your brand is and a list of what your brand is not. It's easy for us to know who we are, but you also need to consider who you aren't. What are things your brand would never do, where you would never advertise, what you would never say and so on. These help you critique whether or not you would handle a marketing campaign in a particular way. And finally, agree on your voice and tone. How do you sound, what words do you use, what would you say, and again what would you not say? Your brand is like a character, what does your character sound like? Think of this as you establish a tone and voice guideline. Now if you want to go even deeper into creating a brand strategy, take a look at my course on Advanced Branding, or one of the other branding courses in our library. If you're not completely sold on your brand, investigate it more and tap into these resources to polish it before going deeper into your marketing efforts.

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