Basic Branding Techniques For Do It Yourself Online Success

Trust is the key here. Building a solid brand has everything to do with your personal values and how they impact the mission and vision of your company.

Your values if you want to successfully be in business-and especially if you want to succeed in business online-should be above reproach, and by extension the mission and vision of your company should represent your quest for excellence by providing a quality product to your customers. Are these lofty values and goals-yes they are, but they need to be because in the virtual world-not unlike in the small hometown of yesteryear where everyone knew everyone and their personal business-if you provide an inferior product and just one or two people decide to legitimately complain word can spread like wildfire and your business can fail overnight.

So you need a rock solid mission statement, that you fully intend to stand behind. Your mission statement should include the ultimate goals you wish to achieve and a public affirmation that you will do so with honor and integrity.

A vision or mission statement needs to be seen by your customers. Think of an old-fashioned brick and mortar store in that charming town of yesteryear, it may not have been called a mission or vision statement, but I can almost guarantee you that in most successful businesses there was a framed document proudly displayed behind the cash register that stated for the record the goals and guarantees offered by the founding owner of that business. So understand that your vision and mission are both a part of the branding process because they define what your company is all about. These two statements need to be believed in and practiced by employees and staff of your company, and your online customer needs the assurance of knowing that they can put their trust in your brand and everything for which it stands.

A major part of creating a brand for your business is convincing potential customers that your products and services are the cream of the crop, either because they are the best value, the best quality, or because there is some unique and rare quality that can only be acquired by purchasing your "one of a kind" "real deal" "genuine article" branded product. However, just because you say so is generally not going to be enough, you have to be prepared to prove what you claim, and stand behind your proof!

Determine exactly what the benefits you offer, and what services or guarantees you provide after the sale. How does the customer benefit when buy from you? Help them choose you, by showing them how your product or service will make their life easier or better. You cannot establish a trusted brand and expect people to give you their hard-earned money if you do not know why your customer should want your product and trust you to provide the best choice.

A large part of helping people convince themselves that yours is the one they want to buy has to do with showing them the specific features that make your product outstandingly special. So you need to make a list of features and benefits. In other words make a list of every feature of your product and then go down the list and look at each item through the customer's eyes and answer the question, "How will this feature answer a need that I have or otherwise improve my life?

For example if you are selling hand painted designer scarves.
Feature Benefit
Choose from dozens of colors and fabrics Customized choices to fulfill wardrobe needs
Individually decoratively hand painted scenes Each one will be unique therefore I will be unique
Custom photograph and log recreations available Personalization for individuality or gift-giving

Once you have your list, determine the features and the ones that stand out from the rest or provide the biggest benefit may be a target for the marketing campaign.

For example from the list above.
Custom photograph or logo recreations available means that you could market your scarves to a fashion designer or upscale clothier looking for a unique branded item to accent a clothing line-especially since each scarf would still be hand painted and therefore individually unique.

Branding is all about the customer's perception of quality and value. You create a brand by creating the perception that yours is the best quality, value, degree of reliability, or the most unique.

It is important to know what your customers or the buying public currently think of you when you are building a branding campaign. Satisfied and dissatisfied customers are the key to branding success because they can tell you exactly what you are doing right and what you have done wrong. By identifying both your strengths and your weaknesses you can refine your business to it's highest quality.

This can be achieved through sending out surveys and out surveys and questionnaires. Depending on the type of business you have this can often be done online by using a website polling application, or using an online survey service. Generally these work well if your customer's are Internet savvy and if you offer an incentive for taking their time to do the survey. To reach an offline customer or potential customer base you can still offer incentives such as coupons and free samples, you will just need to advertise a bit differently either through newspapers, magazines, church bulletins, or direct mail.

When you have the results of your poll or survey act immediately to build on the good, fix the bad and make sure that everyone-especially those people who so kindly participated-know of any refinements or improvements that resulted from the survey.

When creating your brand, you have to put yourself in your customer's shoes and think about how they consider your business and its various qualities. You have to make sure that you consider everything, bring family, friends, employees and business associates in on this process to go over your business with a discerning eye and get their perception of the products or services you offer, the customer support you provide, your overall image, or anything else that would make a customer think of positively or negatively.

Your vision and mission statement are also very important no matter what size the business. However, make sure that you walk the talk, i.e. make sure you deliver what you say you will, because an impressive sounding mission or values statement slapped on a poor branded or inferior product will do you more harm than good because then you just end up having to do damage control. It's like the old saying, "A stitch in time saves nine." It is easier to do it right the first time than to go back and try to fix the problems and recover lost ground by overcoming any negative publicity created by them.

If you want to learn more about understand and using basic do-it-yourself techniques for successfully branding your business please see the other articles in this series.

Virtually Branding Your Business Techniques For Do It Yourself Online Success
Build Your Business Brand By Understanding Your Audience

Smiles and Good Fortune,
Teresa Thomas Bohannon

********************
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.- W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915