Brand NEW you, Brand Matters

What comes after a recession or even disruptive pandemic is people thinking clearly and rationally about their future and what they want in life. This Covid-19 pandemic is no different. We have had so much time with our closest family members, have worked from home and homeschooled, and many of us have lost jobs or income or our small businesses had to close the doors. This time to think gives rise to new ideas, innovation, creativity, charity, and entrepreneurialism.

That being said, some good things do come from global pandemics....and that is we will see a host of BRAND NEW businesses and people venturing out to start their own small business or side business. As part of that, let's talk about the importance of your brand, as we share a few tips, ideas, and thought leadership about brand strategy.

Seven ReMARQUEable Brand Thoughts:

1. Your brand tells your customers who you are and why you are unique
2. A brand is NOT a logo, your brand carries out your messaging and platform for your products and services across your marketing channels.
3. Your brand represents your entire team from the owner to the admin to the customer service, be sure to promote across your people.
4. A bad experience can tarnish a brand, be consistent and use your brand for marketing, messaging, sales, promotion, events, social, and more.
5. A brand strategy includes your entire identity, imaging, creative processes, messaging, communications, and all of the back office and front office (post-sale) experiences.
6. A good brand has engaging and interactive customer and digital experiences.
7. Your brand tells the world you are open for business in this digital world!

Number 4 is an important one, as there will always be a dissatisfied customer or client or patient. Following up, making things right, having clear remediation or service techniques is also part of your brand strategy. A person with a bad experience will tell upwards of 10 people, but will a person with a satisfactory experience tell 10 people....NO. There are ways to mitigate, correct, and adapt. From a branding strategy perspective, it is important to find ways to share those good customer experiences with the larger audience. Some things may include:

• Testimonials
• Use Cases
• Customer Interviews
• Better Business Bureau Coordination
• Ratings and Feedback Forms (web and social)
• Review and ongoing Adjustments to Issues, Troubleshooting, Customer Service
• Provide channels through your web and social for feedback and be timely with response (Forms, Messaging)
• Share the Good News from Customers, Partners, Awards, Recognitions, Achievements, etc.