Branding Your Business for Success
In this article, you will learn more about branding, why it’s important, and strategies that Tim (Elevated’s in-house Brand expert) shares to help you brand your business for success. Read on!
What Is Branding and How It Is Done
Branding is a verb for brand, and Tim shares that the best way to define branding is in the realm of personal branding. Personal branding is just a different way of saying who you are and ensuring that people understand that.
Just like in personal branding, you will have different stages in your branding process. You will need things such as
Appearance: This is your brand icon which is the color, graphic styles, logo design, buttons, and infographics. Your brand icon is what people look for first when they come in contact with your brand.
Approach: Approach is the realm of who you are, including the tone of voice, personality, purpose, values, philosophy, etc., and it's what helps you get deeper with your client.
Building a brand is like building a human relationship. Some people might be interested in it and find it intriguing, but others will get people who stop at the appearance stage. Those who move to the next stage deeply connect with you, and that is what branding is all about. Connecting with potential customers in a way that is not just about the sale but helping them achieve whatever it’s that they want to achieve in the long-term.
Tip: What will keep a customer is a long-term connection, and that is where you differ from other brands
Long-term Brand Alignment
Customers run from confusion and run towards clarity. Alignment brings clarity. A lot of times, it’s not about changing who you are but about becoming aware of the things you believe and how they come out in action. What you believe in becomes a lot of multiple parts in your business, and when each department aligns, they say the same thing.
With branding, things get easier as you are more aligned with what you say you are going to do. Alignment is what helps you get better results.
Tip: You are because you keep your customers aligned to the long-term brand that they said they want.
Why Branding Is So Important for You as An Entrepreneur
While sales make you money right now, marketing makes you money in the next quarter, and branding makes you money for a lifetime. Branding doesn’t make you money now, but it is long-term customer value and keeps your business thriving. If you start your brand today, you will not see results because what you're doing is creating awareness of an idea, solution, service, or product.
Branding takes time to bring results because there are a thousand people who are doing exactly what you do that every consumer sees. So, they need more touch points and time to get connected. Understanding your brand and what you are trying to achieve and staying committed over the long haul when nobody is showing up or knocking on your doors is how to set yourself for success.
Tip: If you don’t work on your brand, your audience will give you one, and you may not like the brand they give.
Business Branding Vs. Personal Branding
There is a huge chasm between personal branding and business branding. Tim shares that it's amazing how much we don't know about ourselves. So many of us are confused about who we are, and we are not more confused now than when we started our business. It’s just that we have become more self-aware.
As entrepreneurs, we live a busy life going from one thing to the next, with little self-reflection, self-awareness, and a deep confusion of why they really exist. Knowing who you are is the first step to branding, and it can help you do something meaningful and valuable for yourself and others.
Tip. When you know who you are and then add that to your business, magic happens.
Having Your Own Point of View and Putting It Out There
There is a vulnerability in having a point of view, but what matters is whether or not you are willing to put it out there. If you are not willing to put it out there, you will never be known for anything meaningful. You will be known for funny reels.
If you don't put anything out there that causes any type of division, people choosing sides or signing up to align with you, no one will, and there is no value in that thing. Having a point of view and putting it out there makes you vulnerable, but it is also the thing that attracts people.
Tip: Your point of view has to be front and center of everything you do.
-Raylen
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