Business Identity: Seven reasons your business may be losing money
Business identity. Business experts always urge SME owners to brand their businesses with a logo and brand identity system that is consistent across all your communication media and activities. That’s great, but they rarely explain the main reasons behind this helpful advice.
I find that quite a few business owners I meet simply do not understand what business branding is, and how crucial it is to their market success.
A logo and brand identity by itself is not a brand, branding is creating a personality for your business and this personality has to resonate and emotionally connect with your Ideal Customer’s personality. But in the absence of this deeper brand analysis – a solid business identity will increase your opportunity.
A professional logo and a consistent business identity across all your marketing materials will not fail to increase your sales and revenue, because it communicates the following information to your market:
1. Credibility
An attractive logo, brand, and website make you look experienced and professional and make your business appear more credible. Remember; a potential visitor to your website via Google et al will also open around five other competitor sites to compare services etc. No matter how superior your product or service is – if the look and feel of the website appear shabby – then the perception is that the whole company sucks. How many potential leads are you losing every week by not having visual credibility?
2. Well established
A clean, well-crafted brand and compelling messaging indicate to customers that you’ve invested in your company and that you are committed to both your business and your clients. Important because otherwise, it is easy to be incorrectly identified as a fly-by-night cowboy outfit just out for a quick buck. If you have invested in a professional business identity, you are much less likely to give bad service or even fold in the eyes of your customers. So it really important in building trust – an essential ingredient to doing business. A perfect business image makes you look like you’ve been around for some time, and that you’re stable and reliable, and trustworthy.
3. Attraction
Branding is all about making you attractive to your target market. Potential clients are looking for a well-defined company, so how professional your business looks and sounds will be a huge criterion for customers connecting to and purchasing from you. Would you entrust your life savings to a financial advisor who had a shabby suit, stains down his shirt, and body odour? No. You’d choose someone well dressed, well-spoken, and professional. Now, the scruffy guy may be a financial genius – but your natural instinct tells you that he’s not to be trusted with your money, this is because his visual identity or personal brand looks unsuccessful and that means he is missing opportunities to connect with potential clients. How attractive is your business image to your market?
4. Be memorable
A distinct personality will help your brand, business, website, and any other communication stand out from the competition and create an emotional connection with your audience. Many people better remember what they see rather than what they hear or read. Having excellent photography, striking graphics, and clear engaging messages associated with your business identity are essential. And then you extend these elements as a consistent visual system across all of your business materials. This makes you more likely to be at the forefront of potential clients’ minds when they have a need for your product or service.
5. To look bigger than a small business
Cheap and unattractive stationery, brochures, PPTs, and websites scream “small-time vendor” to your potential clients — and that is how they will want to financially compensate you. Also, you will only attract cheap and unattractive customers – those low-hanging fruit that are difficult to deal with and tight with money. A well-crafted business identity is a brand tool that if used across all your media – will drive a perception that you are a much larger, established entity. This will increase your appeal to more visually sophisticated and higher net worth individuals. This means you get to charge more for the same service. How do you feel about having less work and earning more money?
6. Explain your company name or line of business
Your logo is the prime identifier of your business identity. If your company name contains an obscure word or perhaps an acronym, a well-crafted logo will give visual clues to its meaning. If your business is a non-traditional or niche industry, the logo can help to explain exactly what it is that you do by offering a clear visual reference.
7. Commitment and Pride
A proper business identity will increase the confidence of you and your staff, and that will show through in all of your business interactions and practices. Imagine sales staff that are embarrassed to hand over a brochure or business card and then deliver a sales pitch apologising beforehand with an awful PowerPoint presentation. Not only are you losing sales from poor marketing tools, but the benefits of beautifully crafted brand collateral will also boost your business profit and your business confidence.
We love what we do because we are driven by quality and motivated by what’s right for our clients. Contact us today at hello@frank-brands.com for a unique and compelling business brand identity and the communication tools to ensure visibility, credibility & success in your life.
