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A strong brand is more than a beautifully designed logo. A strong brand is all the parts, big and small, even those details that seem insignificant. It’s like a giant puzzle and all the pieces work together to create that amazing brand experience you so desperately want to serve to your clients.
In my opinion, there are 3 mistakes that occur most often among business owners when they first begin their entrepreneurial journey and those mistakes hinder future growth.
1. Mission Statement.
Without a strong mission you are just floating like a feather in the wind. You are at the mercy of the latest trend, product or marketing strategy. Without a strong mission, you fail to have a filter through which to make any decisions that can help you grow your business. You are at a loss over what services to offer, products to sell or method of selling said services or products because you never fully clarified what it is you want to do, why you want to do it and who you are doing it for.
Creating a mission statement that you really believe in gives you clarity moving forward; a filter to make decisions (because let’s be honest, creatives are always drawn to the newest pretty thing and we just want to chase it!!) about what to offer, how to offer and who to offer it to. A strong mission statement gives a creative entrepreneur a sense of confidence as you finally will see your business as a business; not a hobby.
2. Ideal Client.
Who are you serving?! Your brand elements and collateral pieces can be absolutely gorgeous but if they are attracting the wrong client they are worthless.
Know your ideal client. Study her. Get to know her. Find out what is meaningful to her. Ask questions and figure out ways to solve her problems. And in so doing you will find effective ways to build a branding experience that efficiently communicates and resonates with her.
3. Consistency.
Build out those brand elements and collateral pieces and use them consistently. Define your color palette, your font choices, your icons and alternate logos and use them consistently. Determine your work hours, your email response time, the way you will communicate via email (your voice and language), etc. Make purposeful decisions about all those working pieces; decisions that will resonate with your client and then commit to carrying out those decisions consistently.
Make a list of all your client touch points, from first email interaction or website visit to last point of contact, and make purposeful and intentional decisions about how you can best serve your client throughout each of those points of contact.
Consistency communicates that you are a professional and that you are taking this seriously. Consistency builds trust.
Do the hard work.
Spend time working through each of those areas. Make a list of ways you can improve. And then make one small change at a time.
The beautiful thing is that building a strong brand starts here and the only investment on your end for these action items is your time and brain space. And the return on that investment will be priceless. Promise.