Brand Bootcamp: Milestone #1 – Showcasing Your Uniqueness

You’ve gotten your small business on social media, you’ve made some posts and tweets, and you even gotten a couple of followers. You know that you have to do more than just make posts, you have to engage with your followers and start an effective brand strategy to give your business the edge.

But how do you go about doing that?

Branding Bootcamp

Let’s start off with what branding is. You’ve probably heard it tossed around when it comes to businesses getting online, that all businesses need to brand themselves, that you need to have an effective brand strategy, etc. But what does all of that mean? In short, your brand is a promise to your customers. 

It helps to showcase the personality of your company, by showing how you do business. Is the company formal, with a direct message? Or is it informal, with a conversational tone? The brand is a promise to your customers and how you plan to deliver that promise to them. 

Branding of your business can bring value, as well as customers’ trust and loyalty. Think of the top brands and their customers; some people are loyal and will only buy Apple products, some only drink Coke, some people only frequent a specific store. That’s the equity of a strong brand.

Define your brand – what’s your business about?

Defining your brand may not be easy. It’s a self-discovery in itself, where you need to look past what the products and services are. Questions you’ll need to ask yourself are:

• What are your business’ mission & goals?
• What types of benefits do your products and services bring to your customers?
• What is the overall view of your company so far?
• What qualities do you want to associate with your business?

Answering these questions can help you put together your mission statement, the promise of what your business brings to your customers’ table. Start thinking about what your business believes in and go from there, coming up with different “we believe” statements. For example, at Change3, we believe it is our duty to delight our clients with creative, relevant digital communications and experiences.  From this statement, we created our tagline of “we use technology, market experience, and skilled, delightful staff to amaze our clients while streamlining their day to day marketing activities”.

Have a unique elevator pitch

Networking is still an important part of getting the name of your business and its services out to the masses. It doesn’t have to be with other businesses, you could have a stranger ask what you do. What do you tell them?

This is where a unique selling opportunity will first present itself – the elevator pitch. Called for the amount of time it takes to ride an elevator, a typical elevator pitch should be about 30 seconds and involve interesting details about your business that allows for questions and conversations to begin. The more questions and conversations, the more your business will stay in the mind of that person.

As with creating a mission statement, an elevator pitch can sometimes prove to be difficult to craft. This is true if you’ve never done an elevator pitch before and aren’t sure how to start. It’s important to keep these things in mind:

• Pinpoint your goal – what’s the objective? Are you trying to tell people about your business? Do you have a new product that’s about to launch? Do you just want something to explain to your family and friends what it is you do for a living?
• Explain – describe what your business does, what problems it solves, and how you help people. For example, Change3 is a digital marketing company that helps businesses grow through effective marketing and sales support programs.
• What is your unique selling proposition? – what makes your business unique? That is, what sets it apart from other businesses. You want to explain how and why your company is better than the rest. An example of this is shopping for a computer. What makes Apple appealing to one group of people, while Microsoft is the best for others? It’s the unique selling proposition each of these companies has that makes it the choice for thousands.
  • Make sure your brand stands out. At Change3, we believe it's out duty to delight our customers. At Google, the casual, relaxed, and fun atmosphere isn't just for employees, but their customers too. Does your brand like doing fun April Fool's jokes? Or holiday activites that include not only employees, but customers or even charities? Do you give out treats to those that come to your local office? What makes your brand unique?
• Ask a question – end your pitch with a question that involves them in a conversation. Usually, this will be something that’s tied into your business products or services. Going with the computer example above, let’s say you have a computer consulting business that helps people choose their perfect PC. Your end question may be something like, “what do you look for in a computer?” or “what you usually do while on a PC?”

This is just the start of getting your brand on track. In our next milestone, we’ll look more at your unique selling proposition and how you stand apart from your competitors, messaging of your brand, and how to get your staff onboard.

ChangeU: For your independent study ...

Branding 101: Small Business Guide to Building a Killer Brand Identity - http://amex.co/1OjvIzE

The Basics of Branding - http://entm.ag/1LzKXVR

How Do I Brand My Business to Stand Out From the Competition? - http://bit.ly/1g0OW2a