Quick Guide to Building Your Brand

Branding is all about the impression you make and your reputation. That impression needs to do two thing, say what is particularly special about your business whilst portraying you in a positive light. To make an impression, you need to know what your Unique Selling Points are, what makes you stand out and what your company stands for. Branding isn’t about being able to relate to your audience, it’s about convincing your prospects that you are the only one who can solve their problem.

Having your brand perfected helps customers trust you and become loyal, as well as becoming brand ambassadors. You need to prove that you can walk the walk and talk the talk. Even something as small as not having a mobile optimized website could be potentially damaging as mobile traffic is at peak levels.

To uphold your company image, you must keep applying your values in everything that you do with consistency and clarity. This counts for everything from how you answer the phone to how you portray yourself on social media. An extreme example for this would be if your company is for clean water, then obviously you can’t support polluting companies. It would end up being contradictory and confusing to your customers.

Personal Brand

Building a professional brand for your company makes it look more polished and professional, however it’s not just your brand that matters.  How you as a person come across in meetings matters a lot more than most people think. People already have their impression of you within the first 7 seconds of meeting you. Scary to think isn’t it? You should always be polite, professional and follow the other persons lead, it’s usually fairly easy to gauge whether a person can take a joke or not, so use your judgement.

I’m a big fan of networking and there seems to be some who just can’t do it. They come across as stand off-ish and seem to put a downer on things. That’s the worst thing to do! Be polite and upbeat, and be prepared to talk about a vast variety of subjects apart from yourself and your business. Get to know people for them and not what they could do for you or which product of yours they will buy. Networking when it is done right can make a huge impact in your business, even though you may think it’s a waste of time. It’s not always the people that are in the room, but those that they know that can be great leads for your business.

A brand establishes loyalty with your customers, and is what everybody sees. It can takes years to build and seconds to shatter.