This is a question I get asked a lot: “Do I have a brand?” 

The shorter answer is yes, you do.

Man, that was an easy blog post.

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What is a Brand?

In all seriousness, if you are a business with a customer you have a brand. 

Branding is every impression your business makes on everyone. That means your website, social media, dress code, logo, business cards, and procedures are all a part of your brand. 

The bigger question might be is whether you have a good brand and whether or not you have created that brand or if your customers have built your brand for you. 

If you are making lazy or haphazard decisions about different aspects of your brand then there are areas where your client might not be getting the experience you want them to. It’s these experiences that negatively impact your brand and stick with your client whether you intended them to or not. 

 

Who is Defining Your Brand?

People can and will decide on your brand without you, but it’s probably not the best strategy. While we can’t control other people’s thoughts or behaviours, we can influence them. Developing a strong brand is the best way to do that, and allows you to control the narrative around your business. 

You get to decide how your brand looks including logo design, graphics and photography. All of these cost money, but it’s important to remember that they are investments. A professionally done headshot will show that you are more credible than a person with a bathroom selfie. 

You get to decide how your brand sounds. Are you fun and upbeat? Or are you formal and professional? While on the surface there appears to be no wrong answer, better choices exist depending on the customers you want to serve, and how you want them to think about you. 

Some people want their wills and estates lawyer to be super serious, it is a super-serious topic after all, death and wills. Some people want to laugh with them, it’s such a heavy subject, why make it harder than it needs to be? But if you don’t like the idea of laughing at death, then you probably shouldn’t be that lawyer that cracks a joke, and consequently, you won’t get clients that do either. 

 

Do You Have a Good Brand?

Instead of asking whether you have a brand or not, the better question is to ask is whether have a good brand. How do you know if what you have done with your branding is effective? I think the easiest way to reflect on that question is whether or not you enjoy going to work every day.

Do you enjoy doing the work you do for the people you do it for? Or do you get people that nickel and dime you when it comes time to pay, or perhaps they micromanage the process? These things can be corrected by branding! 

If clients are constantly micromanaging you, it’s time to build a brand that gives them more confidence. Picking the right font can create a sense of confidence if it works with the industry and target market. For example, you would trust a law firm that uses Baskerville over one that uses Comic Sans. 

Maybe your message is convoluted and clients are confused by the process. They don’t understand what you’re doing or why you’re doing it, so they can’t step back and let you take the reins. 

Lastly, if you are frequently getting clients that don’t quite fit with the product or service, or they are not the people you set out to serve originally, there could be a gap in the branding that isn’t resonating with your dream customer. 

 

5 Tips to Keep You in Control of Your Brand

Use a Consistent Tone in Your Content Marketing

Your customers want to know what to expect from you every single time they use your products or services. The language on your website, on your marketing materials and on your social media, should match how you and your employees speak in real life. 

 

Be Present on Social Media

Being active on social media allows you to put out content regularly that reflects what you want your business to be. You can advertise the products and services you want to sell, show behind-the-scenes footage, share testimonials and introduce your team. 

Social media has been an incredibly powerful tool to give customers insider access to businesses that they never had before. Customers love transparency, and you get to highlight all your best features. 

 

Know and Understand Your Brand Characteristics

Brand Characteristics = your personality + your values. Having brand characteristics will help you stay consistent and guide the choices you make in your marketing strategy. At Paper Lime Creative, we are:

• Fresh
• Reliable
• Creative
• Curious
• Upbeat

We use these 5 characteristics to help guide our creative decisions, whether that’s writing an email or crafting a social media post. We add these to all of our branding guidelines for our clients!

 

Stay One Step Ahead on Reviews

Is there a client you loved working with and you know loved working with you too? Proactively ask them for a review. If they enjoyed the experience, chances are they will be happy to do it. Most people don’t think about it or understand fully how Google Reviews impact a business.

When someone leaves you a review be sure to respond to each one. If it’s positive, it’s easy, thank them for their patronage! If it’s less than 5 stars, ask what can be done to improve and still show your appreciation.

What do you do if the review is negative or a complaint? Address it quickly and professionally. Apologize, and ask them to send you more detailed feedback to fix the situation. On Google, you can only reply to a review once and the original poster can reply to you so this is a great moment to reframe the negative review. 

 

Use Public Relations to Improve Your Visibility

We talk about branding, digital marketing and advertising, but public relations is often overlooked. Public relations is when you have other people (typically the media) talking about you, whereas in marketing and advertising are you talking about yourself.

The benefit of public relations is that you get to help the journalist craft a story around you by pitching them different ideas in your area of expertise. This helps you control the narrative of your brand while having your business gain exposure from multiple sources. 

 

Want to Have a Say on Your Brand Identity?

If you are a growing business, it’s so important to create a strong brand. This is far beyond just a good-looking logo, but includes research, strategy, brand positioning, brand messaging and so much more! A good brand is a business tool that lowers the cost of acquisition for your clients and increases customer loyalty. By being an omnipresent force in your target audiences’ lives, you can influence them to come back for more! You can start small with a Brand Audit, or dive right into the brand development process and book a Branding Consultation call with us!