Branding and the Importance of a
Clear Consistent Message
Welcome to the Make It Happen podcast, brought to you by Strategies For Small Businesses, #SFSB, Christina Littrell-Williams, lead master tactician. My team and I have been working as online marketers for over a decade supporting entrepreneurs as they grow, achieve goals, and even surpass them. We love what we do. It is our intention to give you something you can take away from every episode; an idea, a sense of encouragement, a new tool, and/or answers to any questions you might have submitted to the team.
Thank you in advance for joining us, and we look forward to engaging and inspiring you
In this episode I talk about Branding and your Business.
I'm working with a couple of clients who are struggling with understanding branding, why they need it, and what happens when it’s not in place.
You might also be struggling with this and I felt this was a good topic to discuss.
Branding, what is branding overall?
It is an identifying force for your business that will tie what your business IS and what it DOES for potential clients/customers. This is a consistent visual “icon” along with your business name and tag line.
Sometimes it's a logo with a strong message. By sharing it consistently with the right audience you build a recognizable brand and people take one look and KNOW.
Think of the Nike swish. Before it achieved worldwide familiarity, no one would know what that image was just by itself, but they paired it over time with their tagline “Just Do It.” After a strong conviction to their vision and message they have taught us all to say “Just Do It” upon seeing the swoosh logo.
Nike’s consistency and staying strong with their message has built their empire.
Maybe you aren’t looking to be a mega-giant like Nike, but the framework for building your brand is the same.
It's important to structure your overall BRAND. It’s not just the image logo that builds your brand. It also includes the colors you use consistently. It includes cohesiveness and consistency across the board, from your website to your emails communicating with current and prospective clients, to your social media post messages. It is important to remember it is not just the images people associate with your brand, but also the tone of voice when you write, how you challenge people or don't challenge people, and even how passive you are. Are you nurturing or are you just sending “special offer” messages?
Based on your brand, your actions within your business will guide prospects into next steps with you/your business. And always know your customer service practices and how your team works with other people should also reflect your branding.
It is SOOOO Important
Being consistent and having cohesiveness among all of these aspects of your brand will be reflected across all of the avenues and it makes you a solid force for prospects and clients/customers to know exactly what to expect when they're working with you or purchasing something from your company. Having clients/customers know what to expect helps when getting MORE business as it leads to Word of Mouth clients/customers.
It is important to make sure you're solid in your branding and in addition to that making sure you're solid in the purpose for your business. These two elements should complement one another and reinforce one another.
As entrepreneurs we tend to come up with products or services we want to add into our businesses. Be sure you analyze your ideas to make sure they fit with your branding and purpose.
I invite you to go over to StrategiesForSmallBusinesses.com and download the Branding and Purpose Checklist. This will help you work through the questions you need to answer and really helps you have a focused dive into all of your Branding.
If you have any questions, remember we're always here for you. Just utilize the question button on the website and will get back to you.
Thank you
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1. There's a “questions” form right here, use it and send us a question. We will get back to you within 24 hours!
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