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How to Have a Brand that Speaks to Your Customers
When you are developing a new business, or “renovating” an existing one, the issue of your branding will likely be examined. Your branding includes your company name, tagline, and logo, along with your mission, culture, and “promise” to your customers.
When creating a brand, it’s best to start with the intangibles of your business – the mission, culture and promise, then develop the overall “feeling” of your brand (via words, images, and colors) to convey this information to your prospects in a quick and intuitive way.
It’s important to have a clear vision of your brand before you have a website or blog designed, since their visual effectiveness depends directly on having the brand nailed down. There is a simple process I use with clients to help them create or refine their brand, if it isn’t distinct enough when we begin working together.
1. Who is Your Target?
First think about who you want to serve. It’s important to become very clear about this since “Everyone” is not a viable option. To narrow your “profile”, first consider what problems they have which you are equipped to solve. Are they in need of something specific mentally/emotionally (more self-esteem, new goals) or physically (to lose weight)? Are they seeking a change in their personal lives, or business? What are their specific challenges around resolving these issues? What experiences/circumstances in their life/business have brought them to this point, or are keeping them stuck?
Once you have a clear grasp of their problems, make a list of characteristics – both demographic (gender, age, geography, career/industry, marital status, number of children of certain ages, income, etc) and psychographic (attitudes, additional desires, strengths, weaknesses) which people with these problems have. Distill this into a descriptive paragraph or profile about your target customer that you can refer to easily.
2. What Are You Offering? How is it Unique?
Next, consider what you are offering to help these people with their problems. Make a list of the specific benefits they will gain by working with you. Generally a solution to their problem should be on that list, but their might be additional benefits they will reap through the process of that work.
Consider also how others (aka your competitors) provide solutions to these people. What benefits are they offering? How can you stand out uniquely in the marketplace? Do you serve a very specific type of client? Do you solve a very specific problem? Do you use a very different process to solve that problem? What are the benefits of your process to your customers (faster, cheaper, easier, more fun, etc).
3. What Feeling Do You Want People to Have?
Now that you know who you want to talk to and what you want to promise to them (your benefits), mentally put yourself in their place and ask – what feelings should they experience when then encounter you/your brand which will let them know that you understand their needs and have a solution which will be appealing? Make a list of keywords which invoke the mood you want to create for your clients – friendly, warm, fun, hip, serious, respectable/responsible, nurturing, tough, efficient, inspirational, etc. Try to narrow in on three main keywords to describe the mood.
Once again, take a look at your competitors, especially their logos, websites, and marketing materials. What mood are they conveying? How are you similar/different? Are their any adjustments you would make to your mood to convey some additional uniqueness?
4. Words & Images Create a Mood
Now comes the part where you make all this “fuzzy” stuff visually concrete. Work on choosing a company name and tagline which highlight your main benefit, and who you work with. Brainstorm several different names and taglines and play with them until you hit upon what feels right to you. Ideally, your company name positively portrays your benefit, and the tagline explains it in a bit more detail. Keep in mind the feelings you want to evoke for your prospects when they read or hear your name and tagline. They should be able to instantly understand and connect with your message. Keep working on this until you’ve got it crystal clear.
Next, play with the colors and images you want to use to portray this message. The visuals of your brand need to reinforce the textual message, so make sure they are going in the same direction harmoniously. When people see your logo or website, the visual design will impact them quickly and often subconsciously. Your visual message therefore has to be an accurate representation of your business and its promise. When choosing colors, consider the mood keywords you brainstormed previously. Colors have moods as well, both individually and in combination. Certain colors are warmer, or richer, calmer, more energetic, etc. If you don’t feel comfortable recognizing the messages with colors, work with a designer or branding expert to get this right.
Similarly, it might make sense to represent your brand with certain images, either abstract or representational. Make sure any images you choose reinforce your mood and message, and keep a positive feeling about your customers and your company. If you plan to use humor, make sure it is appropriate and understandable to your audience, and not in poor taste. Have any graphical elements created by a professional, since you want to avoid any hint of being an amateur.
You can frequently develop an additional list of keyword which describe the visual feelings you want to evoke which harmonize with your desired mood. Clean, open, busy, energetic, cool, warm, soothing, cozy, exuberant, etc. are all they types of words your logo and website designer will be glad to hear in order to make your vision a reality.
A Final Caution – It’s Not All About You
Though your business is in one sense all about you, your branding needs to balance that with the needs of your clients. Your favorite color might be red, but if it doesn’t work with your intended mood (calm, soothing, meditative, for example), you just can’t use it. Keep in mind that your company branding isn’t the same as decorating your living room. Colors have messages, and you need to use those messages to support the feelings of your prospects.
However, if you are a big part of what your clients are getting when they sign up to be a customer, you should make sure you feel comfortable with the colors and mood you have chosen. If you are really an energetic, enthusiastic person, but you are trying to create a calm and meditative feeling for your business, examine why you have chosen that mood. Consider whether it will create a major disconnect between your marketing and your actual service delivery. You need to feel comfortable about the way you are and the way you do business in order for this whole branding thing to work at all. Having a brand that portrays yourself and what you offer authentically is going to make your business more joyful and more profitable.
Web Action Steps
- Define your target customer
- What are their problems/needs?
- What are their current circumstances?
- Make a list of demographic characteristics
- Make a list of psychographic characteristics
- Write a short descriptive paragraph that describes your target customer.
- Describe what you are uniquely offering
- Make a list of the benefits your clients receive
- Make a list of what your competitors offer as benefits. How are they similar and different from what you offer?
- What are your unique benefits, which you will want to highlight to your customers?
- Decide on the “mood” of your business
- Make a list of all the keywords that convey the mood for your business. Choose 3 main keywords.
- Look at your competitors – what keywords describe their “mood”?
- How can you stand out a bit more? Which feelings can you bring out more to speak in a fresh way to your prospects?
- Create your company name, tagline, color scheme, etc.
- Choose a company name and tagline which clearly convey what you offer and to whom.
- Create a new list of keywords to describe the visuals that would express your desired mood.
- Select a color scheme which is appealing and reinforces the desired mood.
- Brainstorm possible graphics to incorporate into your website or overall brand.
- Hire a professional logo designer to turn your company name into a log which invokes the feelings you want your prospects to have about your business.
Once you have a clear brand, designing your website, blog, and marketing campaigns becomes much easier. If you’ve got a clear vision of your brand, and are ready to have a website or blog built to match, or if you need help through this process, please contact me today about how your business can have an online presence which speaks to your target clients.