If you’re undecided on whether you really need this information, don’t click away yet, as the answer might surprise you.
A lot of small business owners don’t give branding a second thought, dismissing it as something only the big companies have to worry about.
There are two reasons this attitude is wrong, and will be costly if not deadly for your small business.
First, big companies have lots of money to throw at getting people to notice them, you don’t (yet anyway!).
So if you want to stand out and get the attention of your potential customers, those people who need what you’ve got, you’re going to need to have a strong brand.
Second, whether you like it or not, your small business will have a brand,
To understand this, it may help to think of your business brand as your reputation, or the impression you leave on people, or the experience you provide customers, because that’s really what it comes down to.
If we ask the question differently then, “Do you want to create a strong reputation for your small business?” the answer is going to be a resounding yes.
While you may not need to become the Kleenex of the tissue industry, or the Pampers of the diaper industry, you do need to have a reputation, or brand, that draws people to you over their other options.
Let’s take a look at the steps to developing such a brand.
1. Know Your Avatars
Avatar is another word for ideal customer.
You can’t, and don’t need to market to the whole world.
For example, here at Kids Party Characters, when it comes to people who don’t have kids, we don’t care much whether our marketing and our brand resonates with them.
If you’ve been around at all, you may have seen advice that promotes having one avatar, that ideal, dream-come-true customer that you wish would walk through your virtual door a hundred times a day.
Reality is, almost every business has more than one ideal client.
For example, it may be that you serve women just as well as men, or 30 year olds just as well as 50 year olds.
Don’t limit yourself to one avatar, but do come up with two or three people, if you need, who would be your ideal customers.
Describe them in as much detail as you can and give them each a name. These are the individuals you’ll be talking to when you’re creating the rest of your branding and delivering your message.
And if you’ll think of it in terms of talking to another person rather than just “putting it out there,” it’s much easier to craft a compelling message.
2. Establish What You Stand For
What you stand for is a combination of your mission statement, your values, and your goals.
This will be an internal document, not something you publish or give to customers.
It’s more like a brainstorming activity to determine what’s important to you and what your messaging around it will be.
Basically, when someone says, “X Company, they’re the ones that ______________,” how do you want her to be filling in that blank?
3. Focus on Standing Out
Once you’ve determined what you stand for, how will you use that to make your business stand out?
You may have seen this referred to as your USP, or unique selling proposition.
You’re going to need to be memorable, have some fact, or mission, or trait about your business that makes you different from your potential customers' other choices.
This can be difficult to determine. New business owners especially, often think they do what others in their market do, they just aim to do it better.
Of course that’s not enough, everyone claims to be the best.
What makes you unique and causes you to stand out doesn’t have to be directly related to your product or service.
For example, maybe what makes your business most memorable to people is that it was started by a single mom raising two kids, working nights at her kitchen table after coming home from a stressful, under-paying day job.
Make sure you focus on one thing here.
If you try to stand out because you have the highest quality, most reliable service, cheapest prices, and most innovative products, you’ll dilute your message into oblivion.
It’s much easier for people to remember you for one thing.
4. Decide How You’ll Deliver Your Message
All of your marketing and communications with prospects and customers should be delivered in the same tone of voice.
Your voice is heard in both the language you use and the personality with which you deliver your messages.
Are you going to be formal and conservative? Funny and a little controversial at times? Would you ever write “C U later” instead of “see you later?”
Every communication you have should resonate with your audience as, “that sounds like something she’d say.”
If you have employees, VAs, ghostwriters, or other outsourcers, make sure they are speaking the same language you do when communicating on behalf of your business.
5. Create a Feeling
This one’s about having a logo, color scheme, and fonts that are present across everything you do, whether it’s your website, advertising, emails, social media, or written correspondence.
The goal is that when people see something that’s yours, they recognize it as coming from you before they ever see your name on it.
Don’t fret if money is tight right now.
Yes, ideally you’d hire a designer and she'd come up with a color scheme, logo, website, and custom graphics for all of your social media platforms.
But you can easily DIY most of this, and get a passable logo and even social media graphics done very cheaply at Fiverr.
To come up with your color scheme, spend a little time at Color.co. (Be careful, it can be addictive!) They have thousands of pre-designed color schemes, or you can create your own from scratch.
You’ll need at least the color scheme in place when you go to design anything yourself, or hand things off to an independent designer.
And if you’re thinking you could never in a million years create your own graphics, spend a couple of hours on Canva and you might surprise yourself.
It likely won’t be to “professional,” but simple rules the day anymore, and you’ll be surprised what you can create with the tools Canva provides, no matter how challenged and inexperienced you are.
6. Be Consistent
You can’t develop a strong brand if no one’s ever hearing from you.
Decide how you’re going to communicate with your audience and do it every day.
Do some research to figure out where your people hang out the most, but generally, you can’t go wrong by choosing some combination of social media, email marketing, newsletters, podcasting, physical mailings, and videos.
This one’s simple and straightforward, but is probably the most common place where small business drop the ball.
7. Deliver Value
Finally, you can get all the above right and still fail miserably if your business doesn’t deliver a consistently valuable product or service along with a valuable message to your market.
So, the first part is obvious, make sure what you're selling is worth more than what your customers are paying for it.
If you’re failing in this area, your customers and your refund rate will let you know.
As for the valuable message, when communicating with your market, be conscious of how much selling you’re doing as opposed to how much value you’re delivering.
In other words, give to your customers more than you take.
If your audience is seeing an email or social media post from you every day that does nothing but sell your product or service, they’re going to tune out.
On the other hand, if your communications contain some knowledge, information, tip, or strategy that helps them, people will make a habit of reading what you say, and some days they’ll click on the link at the end that takes them to your product or service.
Want a Head Start in Your Business?
If it feels like this whole branding thing takes a lot of time and effort, you’re right, it does.
it’s actually one of those things that’s an ongoing part of your daily business activities.
So how can you shortcut your branding efforts so you can focus on the important stuff like serving customers and making money?
The easiest way is to start with a business that already has a great brand.
And that’s exactly the opportunity Kids Party Characters owner Cheryl Jacobs is giving you when you claim your membership to KidsPartyCharacters.com.
Membership gives you your very own Kids Party Character business, which means you’re starting on day one with a business that has a strong, established brand in the children’s entertainment industry for providing engaging, professional entertainment at kids’ parties by the child’s most-loved characters.
Your membership gives you license to use our 200 plus costumes, access to our acting coach and casting director, an exclusive territory in which to book parties, and business training and support from Cheryl Jacobs and the Kids Party Characters team.
If you’re a busy mom, or an entrepreneur looking for an additional income stream, Kids Party Characters may be the perfect solution for you. Book a free, no-pressure chat with owner Cheryl Jacobs right here for more information.
On the call, Cheryl will answer all of your questions and help you figure out whether a Kids Party Characters business is a good fit for your life.
Also learn more about the magic we create at Kids Party Characters by joining us on Facebook for daily updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment