What’s Stopping You Building A Brand For Your Business?
Building a brand is the process of creating a unique name, message and image in a consumer’s mind. The goal is to differentiate yourself from others in the market and to attract and retain customers. The importance of branding your business can’t be underestimated.
A business with ‘good branding’ will be able to experience customers and potential customers holding a very positive opinion of it. And this is important as people buy from brands they, know, like and trust.
A business with poor branding means that people will generally avoid it and don’t want to be associated with it. You can probably think of at least one organization which you would not want to be associated with. Obviously, you don’t want your prospects or customers think about your business and brand in this way.
5 Mistakes Business Owners Make That Stops Them Building A Brand
You must be proactive to ensure that your reputation is managed online when you have any type of business, but especially an online business. One misstep can take years to undo and can even ruin an entire business.
Many business owners make very common mistakes when building a brand online. These can ruin a reputation very quickly and push prospects and customers away. Take charge of your business and your online reputation now so that you can avoid these 5 mistakes.
1. Responding Negatively to Comments
The online world has set up a system by which consumers can make comments about your company online in many spaces, from their own blog to your business Facebook page. When someone puts a negative comment, you sometimes have the choice to remove and block them. But, other times you may need to leave the comment up, respond to it as kindly as possible, and then move on. Respond quickly, professionally, positively and helpfully – or not at all.
FREE Checklist: How To Build A Brand For Your Business
2. Not Working to Build Your Online Presence
One way to prevent building a negative reputation is to build a strong, branded online presence. Express your brand’s vision and voice on all social media platforms that your audience uses. Then work toward sharing everything that you add to any platform so that it gets traction among your audience and beyond. Plus, the more activity you start, the more likely that activity is to show up in search engine results.
As well as focusing on the weaknesses that you need to improve in order to make your business stronger overall, you should consider where your strengths lie within the business. For example, you might not sell the cheapest version of your product compared to competitors, but maybe you offer the best support to your customers. Or maybe you really excel in breaking things down into simple, easy-to-understand terms. Whatever your strengths are, play up to them and use them in your steps to building a brand.
3. Not Going to Live Events
While you can build a great reputation online, it’s imperative that you step out and go to live events that your audience attends. If you can speak at these events, that’s even better. Even if you don’t get paid to speak, it can boost your reputation as an authority on your subject and niche. Going and networking with your audience will let them view you as a genuine and more trustworthy business owner.
One of the ways you can appeal to people’s emotions and make them more interested and engaged in your business is to tell an interesting story. This could be something to which people can easily relate, or you might want to tell a story that really pulls at the heartstrings and makes your brand and voice memorable. Although people might not remember you as the most powerful and wealthy company in the world, they’ll be able to have a way to remember you, and that can often be much more important.
4. Creating Online Groups and Not Participating
Many business owners like to use social media to get more fans and followers. One popular way to do that today is with online is with Facebook groups. The problem is that they forget that any social media site requires frequent and regular engagement and often abandon the group to spam and predators who will lead their members astray. If you’re going to start a group, you need to monitor it, make rules, and personally communicate with your members outside of selling to them.
People like things when they feel they can connect and relate to somebody or something. Rather than trying to be so professional that you become out of touch with your audience and target market, you should ensure that you create a good balance and therefore appeal to a wider range of people and in the best way possible. This means creating your own brand that shows your human side. If you’re a one-person show then that might mean showing your personality. If you employ others, you can still add emotion and personality to what you do.
5. Not Setting Up Industry / Brand Alerts
A great way to monitor the buzz about your industry and your own brand is to use Google Alerts to set up alerts based on certain keywords. Google will automatically send you information regarding those words. This will give you a great way to comment on industry issues as well as your own brand issues.
Free Checklist: Building A Brand For Your Business
When you’re running a business, whether large or small, one of the things that can make or break to your success is getting your branding and voice right. One of the key reasons why branding is important is when you’re competing in a market that is very competitive. You have to know how you can stand out and what you can do in order to get the most from your marketing, customers and business in general.
There are many different aspects for building a brand. Download my free checklist, Building Your Business Brand that provides actional tips on how you can reach your target prospects, provide a positively memorable experience related to what you have to offer and improve customer retention.
