Build Your Business By Building Your Brand

With so much competition out there, you may be looking for ways to stand out from the crowd. One crucial way to do this is by defining and building your brand. Don’t know where to get started? Here are some questions you should ask yourself when developing, refreshing, or expanding your brand.

What is a Brand?

The brand of your business can be broken down into three main facets: your look, your voice, and your reputation. Having a consistent brand across all mediums you’re using, such as your website, social media, blog, marketing materials, etc., can help create brand recognition among your target demographic, helping you book more jobs and increase referrals. As Jeff Bezos once put it: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

Who Am I?

You know who you are and what you do, but how do you communicate this to people in a way that helps you stand out from the hundreds of thousands of online search results? During the process of developing or refreshing your brand, envision your business as a person. What three adjectives would you use to describe this person? This sets a good roadmap to start defining your brand. If you feel your company is fun, conversational, and trustworthy, build your brand, your marketing materials, and your customer experience around those words. Here’s a list of some common adjectives to help you get started defining your voice.

What Are My Customers Looking For?

Many of your potential customers are conducting their entire searches for contractors online. This makes it extremely important to have an online presence so they can find you. If your website feels spammy, looks out of date, or doesn’t format correctly on mobile, you may be missing out on jobs. It may also be helpful to obtain a common list of keywords that lead people to your — and your competition’s — website. Once you know these common search terms, you can tailor your content to show up more in search results.

The more branded content you create, the more likely you are to show up in search results, increasing the likelihood that a potential customer will call you.

Which Marketing Methods Should I Be Using?

There’s a variety of traditional and digital marketing options from which you can choose to highlight your brand. The goal when sorting through your options is to find the platforms that give you the best return on investment. You should focus on who your ideal customer is and where they’re getting their information. Then, allocate as many of your resources as possible to what drives the most business. If you feel only Facebook and Instagram are a good fit at this time, focus on that and don’t try to force anything else.

Quality over quantity is a good mantra to keep in mind when developing your social media channels. Find what makes your business unique or what people respond to the most and pick the channel that best highlights those aspects. You should always be on the lookout for other ways to help increase your ranking on search engines, such as a mobile-friendly website, paid and organic social, and paid advertising.

How Do I Manage My Company’s Reputation?

As stated above, your company’s brand and reputation go hand in hand, making it equally important to manage both. On average, before contacting a contractor, 81% of consumers are researching different companies online. If someone searches for you, what are they going to find? Glowing reviews from past customers who are going to refer you to all their friends or a bunch of one-star reviews claiming you’re awful and don’t know what you’re doing? While having a perfect rating from 100% of customers is unlikely, there are steps you can take to ensure your reputation stays solid.

First, you should ALWAYS be managing your digital footprint. If you catch complaints early and respond promptly, you may be able to calm the situation before it grows out of control. On average, only one in ten happy customers leave a positive review while those left unhappy are two or three times more likely to leave a bad one. What’s the best way to get more reviews? Simply asking via email or text with an invitation to leave a review is a great place to start.