Adam Stott is an entrepreneur, author, business coach and founder of Big Business Events.
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You are in control of your brand. It is a continuous project, and there will always be ways that you can improve and build upon what you already have. Your brand also has a massive impact on the rest of your business, so getting it into a position of strength and authority should be a top priority. I've written before about ways to build your business brand; here are six more ways you can continue to strengthen your business branding.
1. Have consistency throughout your business.
If you want to create a strong and consistent brand, everyone in your business needs to understand what your goals are and how you're going to make sure that your brand stands out. Be consistent with things like customer service: how people answer the telephone when a client calls, how you communicate a bid and how you invoice. If you can be consistent in how everyone in your business deals with customers, it will become a core part of your brand.
2. Promote success stories.
If you are able to create positive results for your clients, then you need to tell people about it. I've trained people who have grown their businesses by more than 300%, and when they do, I want them to tell other people about it. I encourage them to post pictures on social media about the things they did to improve their brand, develop a strategic plan or whatever it was that helped them succeed. For my business, their success is my success, so I want everyone to know that I was able to help them.
3. Create brand journey videos.
Brand journey videos show potential clients what it’s like to purchase your products or services and what the process will look like, taking the guessing out of what's going to happen. It gives insights into what it’s like to work with you, so utilize this to the best of your ability. Show the results or end product you were able to give to other clients. Help them understand what the benefits are if they work with your business. This will build familiarity and comfort between you and your client before they have even reached out to work with you. If you can demonstrate that through a brand journey video, it's going to be a lot easier for people to understand you better and want to work with you.
4. Get video reviews.
Many people are still writing reviews or testimonials, which are helpful to a point, but in today's world, a video review can be much more powerful. These can help set you apart because as people are telling the story of their interaction with your business, what happened and how they felt, viewers can see that it is a real-life person behind the words. If you have someone who wants to record a video review saying “I wasn't sure if I should go ahead with Business X’s products or services, but it was the best decision I've ever made,” you’re going to make people think very positively about you. Video reviews show what your brand is capable of creating for people and what positive results you can attain for your clients.
5. Present products and services on video.
Create videos that show what your products and services can do for people. It doesn’t need to be overly complicated; just show how your products and services work and what they do. Use a smartphone or digital camera to make your connection with your potential clients more personal and engaging.
As an example of this, I once coached a recruitment company that had been putting out bland job descriptions that weren’t always successful at attracting the right people. I told them to start going on camera to present the jobs they were recruiting for in person, telling people why the job is great and what they should know about the company. Something that simple helped them improve their results.
6. Improve your company brand through search engine optimization (SEO) and Google reviews.
Most businesses now are found through Google, and people like to read the reviews that show up in the results, which is why you need compelling reasons why people should want to deal with you. So make sure that you encourage all of the clients you have helped to post a positive review on Google.
Identify the most important keywords and phrases that represent your business so you appear in consumer searches, increase your organic reach and acquire high-quality backlinks. In addition, begin to look at other means besides organic, such as paid search ads. Use SEO to boost your website’s ranking so people can find you more easily and to help ensure that people are telling the right story about your business.
Your brand is a product of your creation and hard work, and it will generate long-term results. When you build your brand, you'll start to become "honey," and clients will start to approach you. People will want to do business with you, and they will pay you more money—and in turn, you'll be able to raise your prices.
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