Why Brand Building Matters
People recognise images faster than they read words, they develop what's called 'implicit memory'. As soon as they see the logo or when the company is mentioned a certain set of associations are triggered, hopefully good ones! When these people need a certain service or want to buy goods they'll instantly recall the well-known brands that they've built positive associations with. In short, when you build brand advertising into your online marketing, you're building familiarity and confidence in your goods and services into the minds of your customers. The great thing is that you don't need to choose between short-term leads or sales generation and brand building, well crafted online marketing can perfectly well achieve both of these outcomes at the same time.
How to Build Your Brand
It's going to take time of course, but the good news is that the more your do it, the easier it gets. As is so often the case, you start with the basics:
Consistency Across All Your Platforms
It's vital that basic details are always consistent, this means your name, address and phone number. Errors can creep into these as different directories copy information from each other and get something wrong. One of the things we do at Local Fame is run regular searches on this sort of information, to catch and correct mistakes before they can perpetuate. If your business name is your brand then using a consistent type face is important. The only thing that should ever change about your logo is the size. You may have a 'catch phrase' or a single sentence that sums up who your are and what you're about. Use it pretty much wherever you can, over time your customers will be able to quote it at you. If you have pages on social media then the same rules about consistency apply. Your aim in all of this is that your customers and potential new clients recognise your marketing the moment they see it, originality matters for your content (more about this below) but in your image marketing, consistency is the key.
Market Your Reputation
This means getting customers to review you and displaying these reviews on all of your marketing. It also means responding to reviews, good ones or bad. You're building your image as a company that consistently gives good service, that cares about customers, appreciates them when they take the time to leave positive feedback and which tries to put things right if something goes wrong.
Be A Local Expert
This is where originality of content comes in. Publish blogs that give your customers useful, relevant and interesting content. If you offer gardening services, tell them about new species that are being developed, or explain why growing azaleas in alkaline soil is doomed to failure. If you service cars advise on winter care or basic home maintenance. Do this on your own pages and look for forums or other communities where you can establish your authority, demonstrate your expertise and show yourself off as a company that has the confidence to give away free advice because you trust your customers to seek your help when they need your specialist skills.
Don't forget Your People
Pictures from your workplace, short bios of your staff, a little bit of gentle bragging if you win an award. These are all ways of creating an identity and image in the minds of your customers. Pictures or better yet videos are a great way of getting a message across and engage your customers in a way that words alone will not. When you concentrate on brand building, sales will follow. We all prefer to do business with people we know and trust, your brand image is the personality of your local firm, so make it an attractive one and show it off whenever and wherever you get the chance. If you need a little bit of help with this give our SEO agency in London a call and if you're already part of a larger business network check out how our SEO for franchises services. We'd love to speak to you and we're sure we can help you build your brand image.
