How Much Does Your Brand Contribute To Your Overall Business Success?

Your brand is the way you communicate who you are to your customers. It's the impression that people have of your business and what they think it stands for. It seems more often than not that small businesses don’t spend enough time thinking about their brand's image or how it affects their overall business success. If your customers don't perceive anything special about what makes you unique from other companies offering similar products or services, why should they choose yours over all the others?

Knowing your brand

Your brand is the sum total of all the things people think about your business. It's what you stand for, your reputation, and your promise to customers. It's also how people think about when they hear your name—your personality and identity.

The best brands are built on solid values that are expressed consistently in everything from product or service offerings to how employees treat customers or conduct themselves online. These brands have a clear sense of who they are, what they believe in, and—most importantly—why this matters to their customers (or potential customers).

This relationship between customer perception and revenue generated by repeat buyers has been proven time and again by research done at Harvard Business School over several decades—but what does this mean for small businesses?

Branding is more than just a name

• Branding is about building trust and loyalty.

• It’s about defining your unique value proposition.

• It’s about creating a consistent experience for your customers.

• And.. it’s about staying relevant and being flexible.

Your brand is the glue that holds your business together.

It's what people think of when they hear your name, and it defines how you show up to the world. A strong brand can make all the difference between success and failure.

It's what makes you different from your competitors, and it's what makes people want to do business with you. It's also the foundation of everything else in your business: without a great brand, everything else (like copywriting or website design) will fall flat on its face.

Branding isn't just about having a nice logo or cool tagline—it's about creating an experience for every customer interaction across all touchpoints (including social media), so that everyone who comes into contact with your company ends up thinking about you in a positive way.

Your brand is what people believe about you as a business, not just what they know about you.

Your brand is a perception of your business, and it's manifested in a set of expectations in the minds of customers. It's also a promise that you make to your customers, which creates an emotional connection between them and your company.

Your brand doesn't have to be a cliche, but it needs to be consistent with who you are.

Your strengths need to be on display. You need to be able to show off your strengths and talents. You need to be able to show off what you are good at. You need to be able to show off your skills and knowledge.

Your brand must stand for something good and true.

Once you have a great brand, it's time to execute on the marketing plan that will take your business to the next level.

• Your brand must stand for something good and true.

• Your brand must be authentic.

• Your brand should be something you can be proud of.

• Your brand should be something people can relate to so much that they would want to connect with it in some way (like joining its email list).

Keep these things in mind:

• What do you stand for? What do you value? Who are you trying to reach?

• What will set you apart from the competition? How can you differentiate yourself from other brands in the market?

You need to attract people who identify with your brand, who like your core values.

To attract people who identify with your brand, you need to know what core values mean to you and why they're important. If you're just starting out, doing this will help establish who you are as a business, helping you find customers that share and can relate to those values.

If your core values are about sustainability or social responsibility for example, then it makes sense to attract people who care about these things too. These types of customers might be willing to pay more for products from brands that share their beliefs because they'll feel like they're supporting something worthwhile by purchasing from them.

Avoid an unwieldy and complicated brand.

Your brand is a powerful tool that can help you achieve business success. But you want to ensure the brand you choose is simple and easy to understand. It should be distinctive but not difficult to remember or overly complicated. The best brands are designed with a clear purpose in mind, like Nike's mission of making it easier for everyone to achieve their physical activity goals or Apple's goal of designing products that are so great they're fun to use.

Don't get carried away with all the different ways people can interact with your product or service. Focus on one key interaction that makes the most sense for your target audience

Create a powerful brand that inspires your customers to trust you.

Your brand is everything your customers think of when they think about you. It's the sum of every experience, interaction and conversation with your company. If a customer knows what to expect from you, then they're more likely to trust you—and that's how brands really make money: by building trust and loyalty among their customers over time.

So if you want people to buy stuff from you, create a powerful brand that inspires them to do so. But how? Simply put: by making sure it has all the elements necessary for success.

Create a sense of intimacy and kinship with your customers.

In the same way you would talk to a friend, talk to your customers in the first person. Instead of saying something like “our customers…”, say “you and I…”

When writing about your customer service or support, give an example of how you have helped someone in the past. Include their name and tell them what they said when they thanked you for helping them out.

Don't be afraid to tell your customers when you are wrong or have made a mistake because nothing builds trust faster than being honest about our mistakes!

Be conscious of the messages you send, and watch out for the ones that get in the way of success.

You can't control how other people interpret your brand, but you can be more conscious of the messages you send. Watch out for the ones that get in the way of success, such as:

• Messages that are inconsistent with your brand values

• Messages that are inconsistent with your brand image

• Messages that are inconsistent with what people think about your company

The takeout

Brand building is essential to establishing yourself as an expert in your industry, increasing customer loyalty, and helping you stand out from the competition. It's important to remember that your brand does not equal the identity of your business; rather it's how others define it for themselves—and for the most part this can only happen if you put some effort into developing these connections between people who would benefit from interacting with one another over time (the “community” part).