Three proven direct-response strategies grow your brand: track trends and data to see what actually works, evaluate your branding against six key questions to find revenue leaks, and ensure your message reaches your target audience at the right place before you scale. Smart entrepreneurs develop the right message for the right people, then place and reinforce that message - not the other way around.
Three proven strategies will grow your brand, market your products, and expand your customer base.
When it comes to business, branding is everything. Of course, you need to sell your products and/or services to be successful, but it is in ‘how’ you go about this process that the race can become confusing and discouraging - or very rewarding. This is where branding comes in, and it is actually a very simple concept. Branding is all about sending a ‘message’ about your company/product/service that your potential customers relate to. Doing this correctly, earns trust, builds value, and makes sales… but this kind of branding only happens when orchestrated properly.
In this post, we are going to talk about 3 direct-response branding techniques that can grow your brand and your business. Business consultants have been utilizing these techniques for years to help businesses of all sizes and in all industries, and I have used them again and again in the businesses I have consulted for over the years, often resulting in record-setting growth in revenue and brand recognition.
How Do You Know What's Actually Working in Your Marketing?
You track trends and measure everything. Does running a special on Tuesday actually make you more gross profit or does it cost you more than it brings in? You need to know how well you perform on certain days, during certain seasons, and with certain experiments. Without tracking, you're running on gut instinct. With it, you're making decisions with evidence. That's the only way to know what's truly working versus what just looks busy.
The first strategy might not even seem like a business growth strategy (at first), but it's essential to start here. Track trends, growth, and progress. This will help you to see what works and what doesn't. For example, does running that special on Tuesday really result in you grossing more, or does it end up costing you more than it makes you? It is imperative that you be able to track how well you do on certain days, during certain times of the year, and when you are conducting experiments in your branding and marketing operations. After all, how can you hope to grow your business, your brand, or your revenue if you don't know what is really working?
What Questions Reveal Whether Your Branding Is Costing You Revenue?
Ask yourself six questions: Do my materials look clean and professional? Am I delivering a consistent message across all channels? Am I targeting the right demographic? Do my marketing efforts support each other? Do I have an up-to-date web presence? Is my plan specifically designed to attract and convert my audience? If you answer no to any of these, that's where your branding is bleeding revenue.
Unless your products are flying off of the shelves or your services being hired out so fast that you cannot keep up, you are probably wishing that you were reaching more customers (ie: selling more). If this is the case, then taking a serious look at your branding is a great way to spot flaws or weaknesses in the message you're customers are seeing. Here are some questions to ask as you evaluate your methods.
- Do my promotional/marketing materials look clean and presentable?
- Are all my promotional/marketing materials delivering the same message, look and feel?
- Am I appealing to my target demographic?
- Are all of my different marketing efforts supporting each other?
- Does my company have an up-to-date, relevant web presence and give customers and prospects a place to interact online?
- Is my marketing plan specifically designed to draw our target audience in and sell them what we offer?
What's Your Message Really Saying to Your Target Audience?
Every campaign sends a message - whether it's intentional or not. Done incorrectly, your branding conveys you're sloppy, unprofessional, or you don't care about customers. The fix is simple: develop the right message for the right audience first, place that message in front of them second, and reinforce it with a strong call to action third. Most advertising firms skip to step three and wonder why they're not seeing results.
Every branding campaign says something. Sometimes it speaks to a particular group of customers or to a target demographic of prospects. Sometimes it targets specific industries or seeks to corner a certain percentage of the population. Done incorrectly, your branding could very well send messages that are negative, or not targeted properly (either way - you lose).
We've all heard stories of companies who have had to apologize for their latest ill-planned marketing, but the effects of bad branding are more subtle and more disastrous for your bottom line numbers. Is it possible that your brand is conveying the message that your business is sloppy, unprofessional, or that it doesn't really know or care about me as a customer?
When growing a company, it is important to be aware of exactly what message your customers perceive from your marketing. Developing the right message for the right audience is step one. Placing that message in front of your target audience (ie: branding) is step two. Reinforcing that message along with a strong call-to-action (ie: marketing) is step three.
Most advertising firms jump right to step three, and create marginal (if any) profits for the company. Smart entrepreneurs and CEO's take a longer term look at their message and as a result they reap far greater short and long term profits.
In my latest book (iLead: Internet Strategies That Build New Leaders And Grow Larger Brands) I detail exactly how you can get a sharper view of what a typical "customer" looks like, where they congregate online, how they make buying decisions, and what would motivate them to choose your company over any other company in your industry.
Understanding where and how your prospective customers gather online, will help you drive targeted, measurable traffic to your website, and position you, your company, and your products quickly and cost effectively in front of them.
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