When you have worked in marketing for as long as I have and owned a brand and digital agency, you can’t help but comment on everything you see. A TV ad, billboard, websites, Facebook ads, Instagram posts. I just can’t help myself looking at what’s great or “oh, why did they do that!” and no doubt it’s painfully annoying to my husband and anyone in my proximity.
It’s no surprise that I scour the internet looking for inspiration and ideas all the time. I’m a bit of a geek that way and hold no shame in admitting it. The thing I’ve noticed is that, amongst all the ‘noise’ out there with brands competing for our short attention spans, sometimes brands forget to go back to the basics.
Brand Strategies To Propel Yours Forward
Here are three, simple brand strategies you can do easily and right now to build your brand. This doesn’t cost you anything, isn’t rocket science and you can do it right now to drive your brand forward. Ready?
1. Be refreshingly real
That’s right, you don’t need to be a robot. Be yourself. Being a professional doesn’t mean that you can’t be a little quirky or fun even. When you’re your normal conversational and authentic self, you can still be a pro.
It’s difficult and quite honestly, it would be exhausting if you had to button up and hide who you really are every day. Showing a little side of your personality shows you’re human and makes you memorable. The same goes for your team, if they’re allowed to be themselves your clients will want to work with you*.
How do you implement being real?
When I work with clients in the Brand Story Selling segment of the Growth Code®, we work on a few exercises to scoop out and uncover your brand values. We then work on what those mean and assigning adjectives to each of the values. This helps to shape your tone of voice.
What examples of brands do you know of who stick to being themselves in all formats whether it's on Twitter or in customer service emails? I'd love to hear examples of brands you admire.
2. Be open and build trust
As you carry out the ‘day-to-day’ operations of your business, things blend into the background and they become the norm. Is there anything in how, why, or the way you run your business that customers would love hearing about?
Open up a little, you can build trust through transparency and it could be a great proposition builder. Stick your head up, take a look around, what would your customers find interesting? I'm not suggesting that you have to give away the crown jewels but being open is good.
How can you be open?
As I said, you don’t have to give away the crown jewels but Volvo did that when they invented the seat belt. Volvo is open about their dedication to safety and they share their knowledge with the car industry. Safety ahead of profits, nice work Volvo.
In my coaching business, I share all sorts of freebies and resources to help anyone crack the growth code for their business - client or not. It's all on my website to grab and some of my mini courses are on the house too.
3. Sales
It’s no secret that ‘hard sales’ isn't everyone's favourite thing, it wasn't always in my DNA (I even have another podcast on sales and marketing without feeling like you're selling your soul). But, sales really should be beating to the heartbeat of your brand. When you are real, open, and you put it out there plainly why people should buy from you, it happens naturally. The trick is to follow up by asking people to buy from you. Do you ask?
Since I was a child, my sister was always ahead of the game and I can still hear her saying, “if you don’t ask, you don’t get”. Ain’t that the truth!
How do you ask for sales?
Nicely and in your own way. Check these guys out, an awesome brand from the States called Marine Layer. They’ve got it out there plain as day on their website, “come buy some shirts and help us pay the rent.” I love it.
There you have it, three simple brand strategies that you can steal right now and implement easily and quickly. Which one are you going to do today? Are you, or do you have any other examples of brands being real, open, and asking for those sales? I would love to hear from you.
Before I sign off, I have a bonus strategy to share!
Have an utterly irresistible and compelling offer
You have to have a hook. I'm not saying that you have to give away your products and services for free, but think about an irresistible offer to tempt your potential clients in, let them take something for a test drive, add more value so that you're making deposits in the bank that you want to draw from later.
Often we don’t realise that clients aren’t ready for the whole hog right there and then. What else can you offer in the meantime? What value can you add for them so they’ll be running back to knock down your door when they do need what you’ve got? You need to have your path to profit well planned out.
If you're ready to create an utterly irresistible offer, head over to Offer Fix and you'll have a step-by-step repeatable playbook for crafting offers. From how to start, pricing, and messaging.
*PS. Have you seen my 404 page? The blooper real sums me up!
