Branding Tips: Turn your brand into powerful tool to boost sales
If your brand isn’t aligned with your growth strategy, it’s time to take action.
Here are a few tips to help you expand current customer engagement, while attracting the right (read: profitable) prospects. The process involves identifying your most valuable customers and moves on to developing branded touch points with them. From there, you custom design the experience, illustrate your value, and simply ask for the work.
It seems basic, but this effective branding advice will help you focus your marketing efforts, build stronger relationships, and ultimately help bring business in the door.
Tip 1: Focus your efforts.
Determine which of your customers and prospects are the most valuable to your bottom line and your growth strategy. Then focus your marketing efforts on that limited list. Look for ways to provide more personalized services to them. Position your image as a value-added organization that pays attention to the individual needs of each customer and offers more than other commodity-based companies (also known as your competition).
At my firm, we recently helped a magazine distribution company custom-design a sales presentation that was focused on one of their most desirable customers. Every detail was centered on the customer’s needs. The result was a value-based sales tool that easily convinced the customer to hire our client. Remember that gaining one new profitable client is more valuable than attracting a dozen of the “wrong” clients.
Tip 2: Have a voice.
Your business has a wealth of knowledge about your product, your market and your unique expertise. It comes with the territory of doing great work. The trick is to have a uniquely branded voice for your in-depth wisdom.
A brand’s voice reflects the attitudes, knowledge, and values of a company. It should be distinctive to who you are as a business. If your brand were a person, this is how he or she would sound-language, lingo, tone, tempo and frequency should all be considered. Imagine the brand voice of an expert on tween trends compared to that of a medical device company. Obviously they should sound very different.
Take time to determine your brand’s voice and the value you provide customers. How is your product or service different, better and more relevant to audiences? Really think about why a customer should choose you over the competition. The answers should be brief, easy to explain and based on what the customer values. And most importantly, they should be spoken with the tone and words that reflect your true brand.
Once you’ve nailed your brand voice, look for opportunities to pitch your company as the go-to resource in your field or industry via news media, trade journals, speaking engagements, guest blogs, articles or any other outlet that gives you an opportunity to create meaningful touchmpoints with new prospects. Remember to stay focused (see Tip 1) and only spend time trying to reach your ideal customers.
Tip 3: Create experiences.
Once you’ve focused your list and established a strong voice, you’re ready to bring your brand to life through branded experiences. They can be in person, online or even via a third party. The point is to look for opportunities to gain trust, strengthen brand awareness, and provide value to key audiences.
For instance, have a workshop or educational forum on a topic that matters to your customers. Bring in other experts, speakers, educators or partners that will provide added benefit. Host a Twitter meet-up. Invite a prospect to join you at an industry event. Send out an e-mail, blog, or tweet with a simple tip, useful article or new trend that affects your prospects.
Whatever you do, remember to use it as a way to prove your value and reflect your true brand. Every communication should look, feel, and sound like the experience a customer would have when working with your company. But don’t treat it as a sales pitch. This is a pull tactic, not a push. Hard selling via value-based experiences will have the opposite effect you desire. Strong business relationships are forged on trust, which is only gained through authentic behaviors.
Tip 4: Ask for the work.
Now that you’ve made a few new connections and gotten closer to your target customers, it’s time to turn leads into sales. If you want more business, you have to ask for it. It seems simple, but it’s true. Do some research on your top prospects and present consultative ideas to improve their businesses. Remember to also ask your current customers if there’s more you could be doing for them.
Once you’ve explored expanding your current client base, don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from your best customers. If they like you, they won’t have a problem recommending you to someone else. Be tactful.
For example, perhaps you take your current client out to lunch to thank them for the business they’ve given you, confirm that all of their needs are being met, and then don’t be afraid to say “Our company is looking to grow its business. We’d like to work with more wonderful clients like you. Do you know of anyone who might benefit from working with us? Would you mind introducing us to them? We think you know us well and would have a good sense of other clients that might be a good fit for us.”
And don’t forget to say thanks in a genuine way to the clients that do refer you. At our company, we send a personalized note along with a coffee gift card to anyone that provides us with a referral, even if we don’t get the work. If they go out of their way to help you, go out of yours to say thanks. You’ll be surprised how a simple act can build a stronger bond with your advocates and you’ll probably see more referrals come in again.
A powerful brand is the best sales tool you can have. It will help you focus on your core offerings. It will attract and retain the most profitable customers. And it will illustrate your true value as a business. Plant it, nurture it, and your business will grow.
