Here at impactshakers, we are passionate about brands. We are also passionate about empowering you with knowledge and possible ideas to help you. This blog discusses how the power of branding can be leveraged to draw in your audience.
We’ve all seen the queue at the London Apple store in the past when they release a new iPhone; the Apple brand is very strong. Although we might not see many crowds this year, branding has become critically important in establishing a clear point of difference for businesses and is a very powerful tool.
As a small business owner, you will have noticed that marketing your company has changed so much over the last few years. We’ve moved away from the old annoying, ‘interruption’ mode (examples being telemarketing or spam) to a more subtle, ‘pull‘ mode.
Digital technology and social media allow today’s customers to access more information about products and services than ever before, allowing them to source information at will.
Interrupting people during the day with irrelevant offers, text messages, emailers and phone calls just doesn’t work. Why? Because social media, the internet and smartphones have changed everything. The customer has changed. Buying behaviour has changed. And the advances in digital technology means we can be so much more targeted and engage with customers more effectively. We are all time poor and information-rich now. We are intelligent shoppers, able to navigate through reviews, ask friends via social networks, read recommendations on third party sites, search for comparisons and much much more.
Today’s customer won’t always respond to your advances, they are far too busy. Their jobs may be on the line and they have to be seen to be producing effective results. Everyone is under a greater level of stress. So we need to be even more creative and even more focused on the user journey.
All these changes have meant that customers are more likely to make purchasing decisions when they are good and ready – no sooner. We must embrace those marketing channels that will get our messages, or story, out there in the most compelling way possible.
But before we begin it’s vital to ensure your brand messaging is right. We must ensure we focus our attention and business on the customers that we really want to attract and work with.
Your business and therefore brand must stand for something. It must be different. It must be unique. It must pull customers towards you. It must be mysterious, alluring or even charming. It must be warm and welcoming. It must encourage people to learn and explore, without being overly pushy.
Some of the better tools that work within this pull strategy are social media, SEO, marketing automation, your website design, focused brand strategy, webinars, seminars, or white papers sharing your knowledge.
All of this marketing activity must be backed by a really strong brand story that is based on an idea or philosophy, not just products and services. In our business, there is no point in telling customers that we do ‘website design’, ‘are creative thinkers’ or ‘use the latest tech’. That’s like saying that we having electricity and running water – these things are a given!
Companies need to talk to audiences about purpose, why they exist and why people should work with you as opposed to other agencies. Our purpose is what should – and will – make us different and therefore help us stand out against other similar agencies. We exist to help Surrey businesses and charities to raise awareness, attract visitors and convert more leads. In other words; succeed. And we do this by being focused on the user experience, website performance and inbound marketing.
Here are a few helpful tips to take away:
- Sell to ‘someone’ instead of ‘everyone’
- Sell ‘something’ instead of ‘everything’
- Be ‘someone’ instead of ‘anyone’
- Sell an idea, not a product or service
- Talk benefits not features
- Talk about ‘them’ not ‘yourself’
Feel free to email us if you want more advice. We believe in sharing our knowledge so that you can become better informed and grow your business.
Until next time.
Let’s discuss your brand…
