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Posts tagged ‘Branding’

3 Ideas To Ick-Proof Your Brand

Do you ever feel like your brand is out of alignment with your values system? Like you have to do things in your marketing that you wouldn’t want your mother or your mentor to see?

If you said “yes”, I’m curious: why is your brand icky?

Your brand is made up of the look, the feel and the experience of doing business with you.

Does it look like a mess? Is your design all over the place? Have you outgrown them and become more sophisticated and evolved?

Does it feel pushy or sleazy? Are you using tactics that you think you need to use to make sales? Do you find that when you market, you wind up feeling like a slimeball?

Is the experience in your brand one where your clients feel comfortable, cherished and welcomed? Do they understand what’s going on every step of the way with you, so that they know how to make the most of their time working with you? Or do they feel like you’re just trying to get them to buy, and then rushing through the deliverable so you can move on to the next client?

In any case, an icky brand is no fun. It’s gross and uncomfortable, for both you and your clients.

Join me in stamping out ickiness in branding.

Your brand should represent you with integrity and make you proud. Your marketing should make your precious, ideal clients feel special, honored and seen. And once you welcome new clients in, they should be made comfortable and really taken good care of – throughout the process of working with you.

What if you could move away from the icky energy of trying to ”make” them click this, opt-in, buy from you, or rush through your service delivery, and create a brand you’re proud of and that your clients love?

Here’s 3 ideas for how you can create your ick-proof brand:

Brand from your values. There’s a lot of talk about creating a brand that “targets a niche” or “stands out”. While those are both things to consider, they’re certainly not the place to start from in your brand.

With standing out and branding for your clients, then you’re reaching outside of and shining the light on things outside yourself. Which are both important perspectives to consider in your brand, this leaves out the most important part of your brand of all – aligning your brand with your values.

Your values – what you think is right and what you think is wrong – show up in your brand in a lot of ways: They show up in your:

Core positioning: What you and your brand stand for.
Words and tone: How you speak about your beliefs and the level of passion and conviction you convey.
Consistency: If you’re not in alignment with your values, your brand will be inconsistent and all over the place. Once you’re aligned, consistency becomes easy.
Affiliations and recommendations: Are you promoting for profit or because the people you recommend will help your clients?
And, really, everywhere and all throughout your brand.

Know that you’re not strapped into your brand’s look forever. If your brand’s look has gotten messy, your business has outgrown your brand, then never fear! You can always evolve and change your brand to make it look as good as possible, and to match the current level of sophistication in your brand.

There’s a common belief about branding – that when you design your brand, you’re stuck with it for life. There’s nothing that could be further from the truth.

In fact, here’s the thing… when you’re an evolving, growing, learning entrepreneur who’s always going deeper into how you serve your clients, I don’t think that it’s possible to design your brand at the beginning and then have it be relevant for the life of your business.

You’re learning, growing and changing. Your clients are becoming more sophisticated as they work with you. Your brand needs to grow and change with you as you evolve, and as they grow with you – to keep up with how awesome you’ve become.

Your charge is… to evolve and stretch it with care and in a way that keeps your clients comfortable.

Take excellent care of your clients after they buy. The emphasis in branding is on marketing and selling. This approach doesn’t take into account the most important part of your brand – the experience that your clients get with you after they buy your services.

There’s a statistic that 20% of your clients will make up 80% of your business. That’s a comfy place – where you’re serving a small, close-knit group so well. You can really transform them!

In order to make that magic ratio happen, you’ve got a responsibility to your clients – you’ve got to induce mutual comfy-ness. Make them feel welcome and secure, and like they know what’s going on throughout the process with you – so they can surrender their trust to you.

These 3 ideas will give you a solid, non-icky start to creating a brand that’s inviting and welcoming.

If you want to get your hands on 10 more ways to create an ick-proof brand that invites your clients in to work with you . . . you can download a little party favor here.

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Erin Ferree is a brand strategist and designer.

She works with small businesses to create brands with substance and style that fit their businesses perfectly. She’s designed brands for hundreds of small business owners that attract their ideal clients, outshine their competition and make them unforgettable.

Erin lives, cooks and plays tug-of-war with her dog in San Luis Obispo, California.

Visit Erin at: www.brandstyledesign.com

Accountants & CPA’s: How To End Brand Confusion

Building your brand is not easy. If your business or profession has a lot of competition, it is up to you to communicate effectively what is unique to your brand that will make it stand out from the rest. Recently speaking at a conference for realtors, I asked a realtor what made her different from the others in the room. Her answer, “We can all pretty much do the same thing.”

Customers will slip away just because they think you are the same as the others around or in your profession. In order to find that unique identity, your niche, you have to know who your target market is. Knowing who your customers are will give you an idea of what works best for them. It will help you fine tune your message so you can even visualize that you are speaking directly to one specific person. This will allow you to concentrate on one thing – that one thing that will give your brand an edge.

Define your brand

For your business to stand out, you have to create and define your brand. If you already have one and you think it’s time for some change, add something new to your menu or to your services. You want your customers to experience something new to them. So even if you’re just another business around town, you’ll be the first choice when they think about something that your business offers.

Here are a few things that you can do to avoid brand confusion:

Make your customers feel welcome – when a customer comes into your establishment, make them feel that they are welcome. This applies also to when they visit your online establishment or online social media pages. This is your chance to make a lasting impression about your brand. When a customer feels that they are welcome from the time they enter your establishment up until they step out, they will definitely think of you again. Find ways you can uniquely make your customers feel welcome, something that is appropriate in your business. Take a risk and try new things!

Excellent customer service – no less. Without customers, our businesses are nothing. Always provide excellent customer service because this aspect is what makes the sale. If your customer feels that you are doing everything that is expected from you and more, they will feel that they are taken care of. Even if you charge a bit higher than the rest, you’ll be surprised at how much customers are willing to pay to experience excellent customer service. Take more initiative and ask them what they need before they approach and ask you.

Consistency – once you find your niche, you want to do it consistently. (For definition: Niche is what you do so well and is uniquely you; Target Market is who you do it to or for). Now that you’ve made a good impression, stay engaged with your connections. With every interaction, you are either building up your relationship or tearing it down.

Extras – because the little things add up. There are a lot of ways to give your customers an excellent experience. You can ask for and use their names when you’re serving them, adding a personal touch to the experience. You can also create a customer database and gather your customers’ contact details. With a database, you can send emails or cards to your customers for birthdays or holidays. You can send them information about new promos or the latest on your menu. Doing the little extras to make your customers feel that you appreciate them will not only set you apart from the others, but will give you a chance to gain loyal customers.

Now thrive!

Ending brand confusion is important if we want our business or profession to survive and succeed. If we give our customers something great to differentiate our business from the rest and consistently provide that, we are positioning our brand at the top of their list. That’s why it’s important to keep innovating, to keep working on how our customers can add value and attach meaning to our personal brand and our business products and services.

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Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.

Brand Planning For Consistency

Without a cohesive look and feel, and a consistent message, you don’t really have a brand – you have a bunch of stuff that you’ve wasted time and money designing, writing and putting together.

Consistency means that all of your materials look and sound alike. It means that you have the same logo on everything – and if you have more than one logo in your company (for example, for different products) that those logos go together. It also means that your colors, fonts, background colors, texture, patterns, and photos all match from piece-to-piece.

That way, your website winds up looking like it’s related to your business card. Your email newsletter resembles your PowerPoint template, and so on.

And your marketing messages are consistent – what you say in your website sounds like the stuff you send out in your newsletter. Your tagline is the same across all of your materials.

This consistency creates a professional appearance, makes your business look established and gives your business credibility.

When everything matches everything else, your clients can see that you’re paying attention to the details in your brand. Everything looks classier, and you send the impression that you know what you’re doing.

You set up all of the consistent elements of your brand in your brand plan – and then all you have to do is refer back to the plan when you’re creating new materials.

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Erin Ferree is a brand strategist and designer.

Erin lives, cooks and plays tug-of-war with her dog in San Luis Obispo, California.

Visit Erin at: www.brandstyledesign.com

Brand Planning Makes Your Marketing Easy

A brand plan makes developing your brand easy. You know exactly what your brand is all about, so you can talk and write about it with ease.

Imagine – no more grueling copywriting sessions, because the words just flow from your brand plan.

Your designs look amazing, because they were created according to your plan. They’re effective, because they are brimming with the meaning and emotion behind your brand, and designed to show your ideal clients what you’re all about. You get compliments on them and you’re proud to have people see them!

You have all of the pieces you need to market your business every step of the way. There’s nothing worse than having an opportunity pass you by because you didn’t have the marketing material to take advantage of it. With a brand plan, you get to look into the future of your business to figure out what you need, when you need it and what it will take to make it happen.

Your designs get personalized rules and templates created just for your business that you use to create additional materials as your business grows and evolves. Every piece you design gets easier because you know what it’s supposed to look like. And, since they all match, you get the power of repetition on your side – repeating similar designs throughout your brand will make you look like a serious business and will help your clients remember you.

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Erin Ferree is a brand strategist and designer.

Erin lives, cooks and plays tug-of-war with her dog in San Luis Obispo, California.

Visit Erin at: www.brandstyledesign.com

What I learned about branding on my summer vacation

I went on a road trip with a friend recently, and even though I was “on vacation”, branding lessons kept jumping out at me. Here are the 3 most valuable lessons we learned about branding on our summer vacation:

1. The first lesson is about using your headshot in your marketing.

At Mount Rushmore, we overheard a little boy talking to his mom: “Those guys on the outside are on money. But who are the other two?”

Of course, he recognized Washington and Lincoln. Their faces are everywhere – and in his experience, they’re the ones on the money that he probably sees most often. More importantly, their faces are shown on the one- and five-dollar bills in a similar pose – so they’re recognizable.

Poor Jefferson and Roosevelt! He couldn’t recognize them because they appear most commonly in profile – on the nickel and dime. When he saw their full face, it didn’t look like the same guy. And, Jefferson does appear on the $2 bill – but that bill is pretty obscure. The kid hadn’t seen those often enough to be able to remember who Jefferson was.

The lesson here? Using a recognizable photo consistently in your brand makes you more memorable. And, being memorable is good for business! Make sure that you use your photo often in your brand, and that you choose a photo that looks like you do in real life!

2. Consistency and repetition stirs curiosity, creates familiarity, heightens suspense, strengthens hunger and desire and inspires loyalty.

And, this works even if the exact same thing isn’t repeated over and over again. For several hundred miles on Interstate 90, there are billboards making all sorts of claims, like:

“Free Ice Water: Wall Drug”
“Don’t Miss Out: Wall Drug”
“Western Art Treasures: Wall Drug”
“Dinosaurs! Wall Drug”
“Homemade Donuts: Wall Drug”

I would say, “You get the picture”… but the truth is, you can’t. I could fill pages and pages with all of the messages from all of the billboards. There were literally hundreds of them, stretching over hundreds of miles. And every one repeated the simple phrase, “Wall Drug”.

This is what happened:

After the first few billboards, we were curious. I got out my phone and Googled “Wall Drug” just to see what they were talking about.
After a few more signs, we felt familiar with Wall Drug. After all, we’d seen about a dozen signs on top of Googling it. We were experts, and we liked feeling like we knew what the signs were all about.
With every passing sign the suspense grew. We wondered… are we there yet? How much further?
After a while, the signs awakened our hunger and desire (I’ll also admit that this was right around the time we started seeing the signs about the donuts). We found ourselves really wanting to go to Wall Drug.
We went out of our way to go to Wall Drug. The signs had inspired our loyalty and we passed up opportunities to stop at more convenient places so that we could see what all the fuss was about!

Imagine if your brand could get all of those results from a bit of consistency and repetition! Best of all, consistency and repetition in your brand is easy – it just means that you have to use the same messages and designs that you’ve already created again and again. So there’s no new work for you.

3. Using whitespace makes you stand out, and makes your audience stop and really notice.

During our trip, the scenery was really quite green. Green corn. Green fields. Green forests.

Until we reached the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Suddenly, there was a whole lot of white out the window!

That white made the salt flats one of the most remarkable and stunning places we saw on our trip.They really stood out because they were so different from the green, green, green we had been seeing for days.

It made us stop the car and spend some time there relaxing and looking at the scenery – instead of just whizzing by, we really paid attention. Wouldn’t you like your audience to stop and spend more time paying attention to and noticing you?

See how you can incorporate more white space in your brand so that you won’t look like everyone else, trying to cram everything onto a page. It will make your designs look different from everyone else’s and make your clients stop and really look at what you have to offer!

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Erin Ferree is a brand strategist and designer.

Erin lives, cooks and plays tug-of-war with her dog in San Luis Obispo, California.

Visit Erin at: www.brandstyledesign.com

3 Easy Steps To Stop Spinning Your Wheels With Your Brand And Start Making Sales

Do you ever feel like instead of moving forward with your brand and your business, you’re stuck you’re going around and around in circles with your confusing brand?

That your brand doesn’t communicate, doesn’t convert sales and is a bit of a mess?

What if I could show you how to easily get unstuck and create a brand that works? One that helps you get more clients, make sales and makes your business profitable.

The first step in creating a brand that converts is to get clear. Without clarity, your brand is going to be confusing and too complex for your ideal clients to really understand what you offer. And, without clarity, your marketing and promotion – and, even just telling other people what you do – will be way too hard.

Let’s look at the first baby steps towards getting more clear:

What part of your brand are you unclear about? Your brand has several distinct parts: your message, your value, your differentiation, your personality and your service offering. Your brand also has to communicate clearly to your ideal client, so you have to know who they are and what they want. Which parts of your brand are you unclear about?
How is your lack of clarity showing up? Lack of clarity can show up in several ways: by being confusing, by saying too much and making your brand complex, by being too professional, by not choosing a specific ideal client to work with and by changing too often, so that your clients feel like they’re not sure what you’re doing. Which of these shows up in your unclear brand?
How can you start changing that? You’ve identified which part (or parts) of your brand you’re unclear about, and how your lack of clarity is showing up. Pay close attention to the areas you’ve identified, and notice as you see your lack of clarity come through in your marketing and conversations. As you go along, also note when you do feel clear in those areas – or when you’re having a chat with an ideal client and they are understanding you well. Use those improvements in your brand to make “baby steps” towards your clarity.

Even if you get 5% more clear in your brand, you’ll have made progress in the right direction… and you can keep using these tools to make more improvements and getting more clear as time goes on.

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Erin Ferree is a brand strategist and designer.

Erin lives, cooks and plays tug-of-war with her dog in San Luis Obispo, California.

Visit Erin at: www.brandstyledesign.com

The Brand Profitability Cycle:How Your Brand Can Help You Make More Money… and So Much More!

When I say “profit”, do you think about money? Most people do!

Entrepreneurs are no different, and one of the most common ways to measure business success is by financial profitability… how much did you make last year versus how much you spent.

When you’re looking at profitability in your business, you look at the return on investment.

But what do you do when you’re measuring the profitability of a piece of your business that doesn’t just lead directly to money… like your brand?

It’s pretty unlikely that someone’s going to just see your logo and like it so much that they will be inspired to just give you money.

On the other hand, a good logo can help your ideal clients trust you and to like you more, and this can trigger them to buy your services when you make an offer.

If you’re looking at the profitability of your brand, then that sort of situation should be taken into account. Otherwise, you’re not getting a full picture of the value of your brand.

And each kind of profitability that your brand can bring can become a cycle – one that generates more and more money for your business.
Here’s what to look at when you’re evaluating your brand’s profitability… beyond money.

Is your brand bonding with your ideal clients (and, getting you more clients… and more money)? As I mentioned before, you want your brand to help you build trust with your clients. That means that you need to build your brand in a credible, consistent way that demonstrates that you’re worthy of their trust.

There’s also the likeability factor. If your ideal clients like your brand, they’re more likely to spend more time looking over and reading your marketing materials – so you have more of their attention. That “like” can also easily transfer over to you if you’re an entrepreneur – because, where does your brand end and the interaction with you begin (they’re probably pretty close). And when your ideal clients like you, they’re more likely to buy your services because of that emotion.

Finally, consider the role of personal taste – especially when it comes to your brand image. If they like your brand and feel like it matches their personal tastes, then that can make them feel like you understand them and their needs – and that you can serve them well.

See how the money cycle is starting to take shape?

Does your brand contribute to your reputation’s bottom line? Is your brand and image making you look good? Are your materials engaging and impeccable? Are you developing a good reputation by being real and authentic in your brand? Does your brand clearly show the values that you stand for?
Are you doing a good job of delivering on your promises? This goes for when you’re delivering your service, certainly – but it goes further than that. To build a strong reputation, you have to deliver quality content in your newsletter, your free reports and teleclasses, on your website, in your blog and everywhere else!

Can your clients clearly see that you’re not just “in it” for yourself? It should be clear that you’re in your business to serve and that you really and truly care about what you’re doing. This makes them want to learn more, invest with you and come back for more.

Your brand can extend your reach. If you’re an entrepreneur, chances are that you need some help spreading the word about your business… in the form of affiliates, partners, raving fans and messengers. Does your brand make you remarkable – and make people want to talk about you (in the good way, of course)?

The other half of being remarkable is that you want the way your brand stands out to be clear, so that when people are talking about you, they’re saying what you want them to say and they’re spreading the word in an interesting and engaging way. Your messengers need to know what to say so that their efforts can make as much impact as possible.

How does this loop back to profit? Because the more people who know about you… the more people who can become your fans, get onboard with your services and then carry your message out into the world again. It becomes a self-sustaining loop of new clients and new opportunities. And, that equals profit!

Your schedule profits because you gain more time. Focusing, clarifying and strategically planning your brand simply makes your marketing easier.
Imagine… always knowing your next step. No more wasting time, searching for what to say or do for your next newsletter or blog post. Always knowing exactly what you’re promoting at every turn.

And, even having the clarity of message and focus of brand to make that planning easier!

It’s incredibly freeing – from a time perspective and it removes the stress from your marketing. This feeds back into your schedule and gives you more energy. It also lets you increase your marketing with no additional effort – so that you can keep building!

You profit by making your ultimate vision a reality. I like to think of this one as “getting fulfilled”. You’re in business – doing all the work behind being an entrepreneur – because you have a bigger vision, and because you want to serve your clients, transform their lives and make your mark on the world.
If you find yourself stuck on the day-to-day hamster wheel of your business, and you don’t seem to be making progress towards your ultimate vision – then you may need to try a new approach.
Try creating a brand strategy.

Why? Because your brand strategy starts with the end in mind. You’ll begin the process of creating your strategy by looking at where you want your brand – and your business – to go in the future. And, by starting at the end, you can easily see how to build a step-by-step brand that will really get you there.

This part of the profitability cycle not only keeps going to create more profit for you – but it also has a snowball effect. This portion, especially, can help your business grow exponentially and can help you create the lifestyle that you always dreamed of.

You can see that your brand can build profits for your business that go much deeper than money – and that many of these profits will circle right back and feed more profits into your business. The profitability cycle is worth getting rolling!

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Erin Ferree is a brand strategist and designer, working with service-based entrepreneurs to create stylish and strategic brands. Her brands that show who they really are, attract their ideal clients and make them unforgettable. By creating brands that combine the business’s vision and brand plan to design powerful brands that pay off – with real revenue results.

Her clients say that she’s able to help them get really organized in their thinking about their businesses, create brands that make them say, “wow, that’s us”, that her designs have helped them seal big deals quickly, and that she produces work that their clients love.

In her 14 years in the design industry, she’s created company images for small businesses all over the world. Her award-winning design work and her writing on design have been published in over 30 books and periodicals, including The Big Book of Logos, Trademarks USA and American Corporate ID. She has a degree in Applied Art and Design from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Erin also paints, cooks and plays tug-of-war with her dog Stanley in San Luis Obispo, California.

Brand Planning and Getting Clear

Does your brand ever feel like your stuff’s all over the place? Do you have design shame, because you know your brand doesn’t look good or make sense to the people reading it? Do you apologize for your business card as you hand it out? Are you horrified of what people would think of your website if they Googled you?

That’s what it’s like when your brand is chaotic and out of control. You feel scattered, ashamed and hesitant to market. Your potential clients see the train-wreck that is your brand and move on to work with someone else. Your business and your bottom line suffer.

There’s a way to escape the chaos, and to create a classy brand that’s well-thought-out, professional, and makes clients want to hire you.

All you have to do is make a brand plan. That will get you 3 big benefits: Clarity, Consistency and Ease. Let’s talk about clarity in this article. Read the rest of this entry »

Is Your Brand Effective, Or Just Pretty To Look At? by IAWAB Faculty Expert, Erin Ferree

Do you want your brand to be a work of art?

If so, stop right there. This is where small business owners get mixed up in the branding process.

They mistake brand design for art. It’s an easy mistake – you’re paying someone to draw things for you, right? That’s art… right? Better yet, it’s commissioned art – and there’s a decent chance that this is the very first time that you’ve commissioned anyone to create art for you.

Let’s set the record straight, once and for all.
Read the rest of this entry »

What Does Brand Clarity Feel Like? By Erin Ferree

How do you know when you’ve FINALLY got brand clarity?

After all, your business vision has always made total sense – in your head.

And then you tell people about it… you’re very excited… but then the craziness starts.

You get that confused face in return. You know the one I’m talking about. The one that says… “What on EARTH are you talking about? I’m trying to keep up with you… but I was totally unprepared for this conversation. And the bar over there looks increasingly tempting…”

You get a completely unexpected reaction – they take your statement to the wrong place entirely and start rampaging off in the opposite direction of what you meant! They start running with what they think you’re saying, and then you spend the rest of the conversation trying to reel them back into your REAL business.

You attract clients who seem like they came from outer space (and you wonder why they chose to contact you in the first place, when you’re obviously and totally not a fit for their needs). Where do they come from?

This is not in accordance with your plan at all. You were supposed to tell them about your big, exciting vision – and they were supposed to hop on board! They’re supposed to understand your passion perfectly, flawlessly and without missing a beat.

Ack! Instead, you’ve gotten yourself into a certifiably crazy situation! The people you’re talking to are painfully, obviously confused about what you’re talking about.

And it’s not their fault!

When you help your potential clients get out of confusion, they come back to the nice, calm, lovely place where they understand exactly what you’re talking about… and can immediately tell whether they need to work with you (or if they know someone who does). And that’s a lovely, cozy place to be.

What makes this place so lovely and cozy?

Read the rest of this entry »

Older Entries

Posts tagged ‘Branding’

3 Ideas To Ick-Proof Your Brand

Accountants & CPA’s: How To End Brand Confusion

Define your brand

Here are a few things that you can do to avoid brand confusion:

Now thrive!

Brand Planning For Consistency

Brand Planning Makes Your Marketing Easy

What I learned about branding on my summer vacation

3 Easy Steps To Stop Spinning Your Wheels With Your Brand And Start Making Sales

The Brand Profitability Cycle:How Your Brand Can Help You Make More Money… and So Much More!

Brand Planning and Getting Clear

Is Your Brand Effective, Or Just Pretty To Look At? by IAWAB Faculty Expert, Erin Ferree

What Does Brand Clarity Feel Like? By Erin Ferree

How do you know when you’ve FINALLY got brand clarity?

What makes this place so lovely and cozy?

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