Photo Credits: Israel Andrade from Unsplash
Brands are important regardless of whether you are a start-up or an established brand, working as a side hustle or full time. Your brand exists as soon as you hang your shingle up so how can you nurture your brand to have it work for you? Kim Speed shares her insight into how to create a client-attracting brand.
Seth Godin’s View on Branding
Branding can be stressful and confusing, but you can analyse the success of others to help yourself. Popular American author and entrepreneur Seth Godin described a brand as “a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that account for a person’s decision to choose a product/service over another.”
Notice how Seth doesn’t say that a brand is a logo, even though they are a huge part of a brand. Using Seth’s description, we can replace the word “brand” with “reputation” to make it easier for us to define and understand its importance. Seems simple enough, right?
Below are some steps to create a client-attracting brand.
Photo Credits: Magnet.me from Unsplash
1. Define What Your Brand Does
In order for your customers to know what you do; you need to clearly and simply define what you do so word can spread. A good gauge of this is that if you leave a room, can someone explain what you do, who you do it for and what experience you provide without error? If they can, you are on your way to creating a successful brand!
2. Describe Your Brand in 3 Words
Choosing words to describe your business (i.e., professional, luxurious, inspirational) will help guide you to figure out how your brand should look, sound and interact. Think about how you want your audience to describe your brand to someone, how you want them to feel and the impression they should have. Remember that brands grow and evolve with time, so these words can be expanded on or changed when you feel it is right. Do not get caught up on them!
3. Decide Your Brand’s Experiences
As a brand, you want to stand out from your competition. In order to do so, you need to think about what special moments your brand creates for your audience and how you can let them know you are thinking about them. In the case of a chiropractor client, she provided family appointments so mothers could bring their kids in with them and have back-to-back treatment which elevates the headaches with booking multiple appointments in order and keeps families together rather than splitting them up to treat them individually. In addition to this, she also added specialty services for pre and post-natal care and added practitioners to ensure her clients had all the resources they could need with her.
Additional Tips!
Look at yourself to help narrow down your niche. Your ideal client is typically similar to you, so figure out who you are, who you can help and what you are an expert at!
Not only will these steps help you understand your brand more to make future adjustments easier, but it also helps to develop a clearer image for your customers. Do not stress though, good brands aren’t built overnight! Take your time, put the effort in and have fun with it.
Speaker's Specifics
Kim Speed is a Brand Visibility Expert, Business Mentor and the owner of Purple Moon Creative, Brand and Marketing Boutique. Kim has helped more than 500 people around the world through her 11 years of working, providing brand strategies and designs for growing small businesses and entrepreneurs. With her help, you can turn your business into a super-powered, shine-in-the-spotlight, profitable success!
Interested in branding on a shoestring? Get Kim’s book Branding on a Shoestring here!
Awesome post! Thanks for the Branding tips Kim and Jelly Social!! 😊🙌🏼💖