So you want to attract more business, right? To stand out from the crowd and be seen as unique and special, start with the items listed below to assess your current circumstance and gauge your future ability to grow business while building your brand.
The purpose of the listed steps is to build a strong foundation for success. Similar to building a house, we must first build the foundation. This ‘platform’ will allow you to build from the ground up and provide you with a multitude of options to build your ‘dream home’. A strong brand is the springboard for this strategy.
1. Clarity:
Take the time to discover what makes you different. Do this with a professional who can help you in new ways of looking at your business and yourself. List five to ten key strengths. When you know what makes you special, you can go ahead and build a platform for success based on these unique factors. Your business will now have structural integrity and your attraction quotient will consistently increase. Market niches will be easier to identify.
2. Communications:
Once your unique qualities are discovered, it is much easier to speak to your audience clearly and in a way that they can hear you. Your communications will become less stressful and you are more likely to reach your intended goal. A clear path will begin to unfold. Create a slogan or ‘personal mantra’ to easily express your unique qualities and benefits. Practice with a mentor until you find the best one. Create a plan for communicating with your audience (such as direct mail, advertising, promotions) and start implementing it.
3. Consistency:
With steps 1 and 2 complete, you can now be consistent in your ongoing campaigns to educate future prospects. Apply your new mantra language to each piece of your promotional material and/or collateral. Formulate tangible business practices; Review and plan your business development vision and business model so clients can be sure you’ll reliably deliver. All visual communications must also be clearly linked, and the elements mentioned above will be put into practice.
4. Credibility:
Consistency in product, product delivery, and all corporate communications will lead to credibility in the marketplace. This cornerstone of success stands firmly on the shoulders of the previous steps you have taken. The internal and external experiences of your business must align. Measure your effectiveness through customer feedback. Collect customer testimonials to integrate into promotional materials. Keep modifying and adjusting to meet the needs of your market.
5. Creativity:
Another important element is your creativity to deliver and build a brand. It’s challenging to present your business in innovative ways that will keep attracting more potential customers. By following the steps above, you are much more likely to stay creative. Have fun and think outside the box. Enjoy this exercise and you will play the game to win! How can you stimulate your creativity?
6. Connection:
Always remember what it is like to be a consumer of your goods. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers at all times to test the feasibility of their choices. Will you serve the customer in a way that will appreciate it? If not, how can you steer the ship in that direction? Organize focus groups if possible. Take a client to lunch and ask for an honest review. We do not operate in a vacuum. Our audience must engage with us as we grow and develop. The client depends on the retention of it.
7. Skills:
To remain competent in our endeavors, we must continue to grow and learn. To give our customers what they deserve, we must evolve and educate ourselves to be at the forefront of innovation in our industries. I love to learn and think in new ways and your knowledge will keep you ahead of the crowd. Always look ahead as you measure the past, and learn whenever you can. Join organizations, hire the best, find mentors, coaches and advisers to help you. Share these experiences with staff and colleagues to stay engaged and energized.
Using and reviewing these principles on an ongoing basis can produce the results you want. This information can also be an excellent method to review with your marketing professionals to ensure the correct application as you create additional strategies for building your business. Brand strength is indeed a critical element for success.