As a Business Coach I get a lot of frantic calls from clients asking me to troubleshoot them out of their troubles. So, I know some of you are asking … who cares? You will care once you understand the methodology of troubleshooting and how that can help you hack into your perfect brand.
The art of troubleshooting is counter intuitive to most standard problem solving. Standard problem solving has an answer, and then you start at the beginning and work forward to the end result. In the coaching world, you start at the end and work backwards.
What Is a Brand?
Many people are confused about what a brand truly is. That is why most people start out working on their logo, fonts and website first and figure out the rest later. What you really should do is start at the end result and work backwards. In most businesses, the end result would be a sale. Then you have to identify who bought your product or service. Next, you have to figure out what led them to buy … where did they hear about you, what convinced them to make a decision to buy, and how did they get there and find your messages?
The website, logo, and fonts are far from the reason people purchase, but they are still a part of that decision. They are just not as important as the rest of the sequence.
Start With The End Game
You client is the end game, they will tell others about your products or services. They will connect with your though your message which they will find on your website. Let me explain…
Start With Your Perfect Avatar – Your perfect customer is where you need to start with your brand. Who are they and what do they like, need and want? If you can define that, then you can work backwards creating communications to attract and satisfy them.
Find Out What They Are Consuming – This is the conduit to your messages. Are they on email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or a combination of these and others? Once you know this, then you know how and where to direct your messages.
Create Content That Fills Their Needs –You have to create a way to amplify your brand, and that comes in the form of content. Content includes blogs, podcast, videos and pictures that spread your message about your brand through the right customers.
Build A Marketing System To Collect Names – This is the second most important thing that connects your content to your website and marketing messages. This includes email marketing and the systems you use to distribute the content created to link people back to your website.
Build The Basics – Logo, Website, and Then Focused Messages – Let’s face it, bad music is bad, good music is good (subject to taste). Your customers will decide. You have to have a home base that speaks to the taste of the end user. Once you know your customers, including their needs, problems and tastes, you can build the best Grammy winning album of content that they will either call into the radio station to request or add to their internet radio station playlist (you get it) to share across all social media platforms!
Final Thoughts
The point is that once you know who your ideal customer is, you can reverse engineer how to communicate to them. If you start with your website, logo, and brand, and then try to figure out who your customer is, then you are pushing your marketing uphill. If you are starting with your customer, and then figuring out where they are hanging out, what messages to provide, how to build a system to meet them where they are, and then build the website, logo and other stuff, then it’s dragging you downhill.
I don’t know about you, but it takes less effort to control a rock going down a hill, then trying to push a rock up a hill! Same rock … different effort!
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments!
Although many business owners recognize the importance of building a brand, they don’t always know how to create and affordable one.
And that’s where my FREE Define Your Brand e-course comes in.
This course is a FREE solution for those who are hoping to start a brand from the ground up, re-brand, or refine their current brand. In 5 days, I walk you through the design process I use with my branding clients and let you in on the decisions I make and the design principles I keep mind during each step. See more details here…
*Registration for the FREE Define Your Brand e-course here!
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To your success,
I have so much to learn, alittle overwhelming
Candy, I think the free email course would be a great place to start.
Great tips! It can be an overwhelming process but if you take it on digestible step at a time is is so doable!
Thanks Missy, glad you liked it.