Is Your Branding Working?
Your company needs successful branding if you’re going to have any longevity in your business. That makes business branding one of the chief concepts you should examine. Now, for those not familiar with the idea, branding your company is merely building an identity for your business with buyers and potential customers. Therefore successful branding will create loyal customers while bringing existing customer relationships to a higher level.
The Importance of Branding
Why is this important? Simply put, buyers and returning customers are the keys to profitability and longevity, so you must have successful branding. That’s why you should make sure your branding is working.
And how do you achieve that exactly? Start by having a solid plan to brand your business. Below are a few suggestions to consider:
1. Provide Consistent Quality – Everything from customer service to the products and services themselves need to always have the same high quality to help establish successful branding.
2. Create Your Own Look and Feel – In other words give your business its own personality. You’re building an identity for your business, so don't copy others.
3. Deliver All That You Promise – No one likes empty promises, in life or in business, so say what you mean and mean what you say. For example, if you have no intention of honoring a 100% money back guarantee, don't offer it. If you want successful branding, then give your buyers honesty.
4. Put the Customer First – Everything you do – from writing your web site promotional copy to speaking directly to your customers – should focus on what you can do for them.
Three Tests For Successful Branding
First, keep track of your customer records and see if they are returning. If they’re not, look closely at the four points above to see if you’re falling short somewhere.
Second, compare yourself to your successful competition. How are you stacking up? Again, you don’t want to copy others, but you should make sure you’re providing those fundamentals for successful branding
Third, and possibly the easiest way to find out if you’ve got successful branding, is to ask. Have your customers fill out a short questionnaire about their experience, touching on the four points mentioned above. If you have trouble getting feedback, offer them a discount on their next order for taking the survey.
If you follow these steps you’ll start to get a picture of whether or not you’ve got a successful branding campaign going. If you do, that’s wonderful. And if not, at least you’ll learn the areas where you need improvement for a successful branding plan.
