Are you discovering that there are a ton of competitors in your niche and that you need to build your reputation and really stand out? Having a personal brand is absolutely the most important key to beating out the competition and building customer loyalty and trust. So how can you really build and promote your brand so that you will stand out from the crowd? Here are the top five branding strategies for online businesses that the pros are using every day.
- First, have a unique selling proposition that sets you apart from the competition. If you do not have this, then you really have no brand to build at all. What is it about you or your company that no one else can duplicate? Do not say "Great service," or "a solid guarantee," or "a great product." Everyone is going to say those things. Instead, find something that relates to your reputation and your product that no one else can duplicate. Be an individual. Be unique. Let your personality come through.
- Second, stop trying to compete on price and begin to focus on value. The more emphasis you put on price, the less important your brand and your value becomes. Anyone can drop a price and when you do, you force yourself to compromise your profits and there before your contribution to building value in your business. Focus instead on value and educating the customer on what the benefit of your offer is.
- Third, attach your brand to EVERYTHING you do. This means that if you have a word or a color or a font that is associated with your company, you find a way to integrate that into everything you create. Much of branding is subliminal and if you look for sub ways to communicate your brand in everything you do, then you can be sure that your influence will grow. These builds familiarity, which builds trust. When your customer sees your face, logo, colors, slogan, etc again, they remember it (consciously or unconsciously) and they're more likely to buy from you than some Joe off the street.
- Fourth, make sure that your brand is associated with the promise of a contribution that is being made to the customer. In other words, if your brand is: "Build your business and design your life," that has a promise that can build expectations in your customers. Then you have something to fulfill in order to build your brand. However, if you have something like: "The business plan people," there is no promise being made and you are not setting up clear expectations of what your brand does for people.
- Finally, associate your brand with a personality, a human element, that people can refer to. People would much rather buy from a person than a company, or a company name. Even businesses that have no human personality behind them often have mascots or cartons. Personality is the hardest thing for the competition to duplicate, so if you can create a character people can relate to, you have created the ultimate brand – you.
Check yourself and your business on these five key principles and see what you are missing. Put each of them to work starting today and over time, your brand will stand out from the crowd and bring you business hand over fist from qualified, loyal customers.
The power of branding is undeniable, but it is one area that can be very difficult to master on your own. Finding a mentor who can offer the training, the skills, and the support will automatically guarantee your success. For example, applying these strategies to an online business with the right mentor could have you seeing a 6-figure income working 10-20 hours a week in 90 days or less. This is the power of branding.