RESOLVING THE MYSTERY BEHIND BRANDING
By Hilary Rogers writer for
 http://www.hotpokerbonus.com
 

 

In the realm of new business, there’s a lot of misconception and debate over the subject of Branding. And there are a couple of main reasons for this - people either don’t understand exactly what branding is while many others think it’s all about advertising. And in a way it is, but the main objective of branding is not selling your product. It is selling yourself - getting people to know, like and trust you. Because you can tell a potential customer that you’ve got the best product ever made – and maybe you do – but that’s not going to get them to do business with you. They hear that every day, numerous times, from an abundance of merchandisers – they’ve been there, done that - and most likely, more often than they care to.

 

Branding is the art of convincing and engaging the trust of your prospective and existing customers and providing them with value. Understand right now that it is not about your logo or your tagline. It’s about you. Whether you’re selling online or off, you’ve got to convince people that you are the one who can help them. You are the one who can solve their problems and you are the one they can trust – especially if you are an unknown entrepreneur with a new business and/or product.

 

Believe it or not, the bottom line is that branding is all about the experience you provide for your customers. It’s about how your techniques direct the world in their perception of you and your products or services - you are ultimately stamping your brand on the world – remember that. And then start thinking about what you want that perception to be in terms of your business ethics, products and salesmanship. That should be the main objective of your branding strategy. Ask yourself - What do I want to be known for?

 

 

 
There’s lots of domain hosters out there, but it’s not their job to brand your business, although some offer services that can help with that effort. But the major role is yours. So make sure that when you choose your domain name, you keep it simple. Try to stick as close to your company name as possible without going overboard. Customers have a ton of choices and if your URL is too long or hard to remember, they’re not going to bother revisiting or worse yet, even visit your site in the first place. You put a lot effort into your website, so do you best to get them there and also keep them coming back. Additionally, you want to be able to incorporate that web address on something as small as a business card, so do yourself and your customers a favor and keep it simple.

 

 
Can not emphasize this enough! The experts all agree and you should too – you have got to provide value to your customers. You’re working hard to brand your business and bring in new clients as well as keep the ones you may already have so what’s the point of selling a worthless product or providing an unsatisfactory service? Because not only are you going to aggravate and lose your customers, but once word gets out, you can forget about any type of expansion as well. Which leads us to the next point…

 

Being a consumer yourself, you already know that when someone recommends a product or service to you, it becomes more appealing and can also steer you in the direction of at least considering that product. You and your business will benefit in exactly the same way once word gets out that you ‘know your stuff’, are providing value and are someone people can trust. Word-of-mouth is actually one of the greatest ways to brand your business and the best part is – it’s free!

 

If you get to a point where you recruit others into your business or if that is already the case – ensure that they are aware of and practicing the same level of ethics and customer service that you provide and promise your customers. One weak link is all it takes to dissolve the relationships you worked so hard to obtain for your business. And keep in mind also that word-of-mouth can hurt your business as much as help it. One dissatisfied customer can to lead to many more and even deter people from giving you the chance you deserve in the first place.

 

The last thing you want is for your customers to feel like you’re ignoring them. If your obligations make it difficult for you to reply to inquiries immediately, set your customer contact service up with an auto-responder. It will automatically send out email replies to those inquiries and this way, both your and your clients will have some peace of mind knowing that they’re being acknowledged. Very important tip here – set the auto-responder up to provide a realistic turn-around time. If you can’t reply in 24 hours, don’t tell your customers that you can. A 48-hour response time should be the maximum timeframe that you provide.

 

Consistency Breeds Familiarity

Your logo is not the main objective in achieving the success of branding yourself. Yes, it plays a certain role, but not nearly as big as people think. The best advice in terms of how to choose your logo is to keep it relative to you and your business – it should be a reflection of you so that people remember you when they look at it. And be consistent! Use the same logo on everything you put out there – business cards, letterhead, direct mail pieces, newsletters, your website, etc.

 

 
Once you take the right steps, getting customers to know, like and trust you will benefit you at unbelievable levels. Think about the brands you know and trust. Don’t you pick the ones you know have proven results over others that may be even better just because you aren’t aware of them? Customers will do the same thing once you successfully brand yourself. So do what you need to do! Achieve that necessary edge over the competition – because there’s a lot of it going around.

 

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