Think of your brand like a book. Your brand is your story, and it’s critical to develop your brand completely before you begin marketing, so your message and image can accurately reflect what you want to portray. The best brands are a perfect mixture that is both professional and personal. As you are defining and developing the building blocks of your brand, there are three facts that you need to know to make sure your customers eagerly ‘turn the pages’.
People Judge a Book By Its Cover
Let’s start with comparing your brand to a book cover. People do judge a book by its cover, just as they judge you by your brand. When you browse through a bookstore, you naturally gravitate toward book covers that ‘speak’ to you through words or pictures. In branding, that’s the message and image you portray. If your brand isn’t properly defined, developed, and displayed, it won’t carry the weight you intend, or perhaps worse, you’ll be invisible on the shelf containing thousands of books (who are trying to attract the same readers).
You Can’t Show Everything About Your Brand At Once
Your brand is your story, but obviously, you cannot put the entire contents of the book on the outside cover. The cover should be compelling and capture the attention of your prospects and customers in a way that encourages them to learn more. Your brand’s ‘book cover’ is made up of two things: an image and a brand identifier. A brand identifier is a tagline or slogan that expresses who you are or what you stand for, and sets the tone and direction for your brand. It allows someone to make a judgement, but the great thing is that you have the ability to impact or control that judgment or perception. When you don’t have your brand dialed it, you leave it to interpretation. If your brand is incomplete, your marketing does not have the desired effect.
Brands Are Built By Strength & Infusion
Many people express concern about the amount of time and money it takes to build a brand. We often hear that it takes ‘too long’. We disagree. The growth of your brand is not necessarily defined by time. It does not take months or years to build a brand; rather, it takes exposures. Think about all the ways you can infuse your brand into everything you do. From the way you answer your phone, sign your emails, introduce yourself in videos, and post on social media, you have daily opportunities to share your purpose and story. And those examples only begin to touch the surface. Every single time someone comes into contact with your brand, there is one more ‘impression’. So it stands to reason that the more impressions there are, the faster your brand recognition grows. The amount of exposure you receive is based more on how much effort you are willing to put in versus the length of time. Compare that to a book that captures your interest and attention. You may end up reading the entire book in one sitting, or stretch it over months. Or worse yet, never complete it.