First impressions really do count. A tired and neglected business image will speak far louder than the words you won’t have the opportunity to say. As a business owner, you’ll be pleased to know that it is possible – without incurring great expense or investing too much time – to create memorable branding that’s not only good but BOLD.
Importantly, making a BOLD impression will help you stand out from the crowd so that you may connect with your ideal clients.
Think about updating your business image as you would a home renovation. That is, spend your money where you’ll get the most impact, decide what needs making-over and what needs to be replaced.
In my experience, a business needs just 5 key marketing resources and a strong presence on Social Media to make a BOLD impression:
- Memorable branding
- A user-friendly website
- Helpful business brochure
- Genuine professional profile
- Relatable case study, and a
- Trustworthy presence on Social Media.
In this article I’ll concentrate on branding and its importance for differentiating your firm from your competitors.
An effective business brand has 3 main parts – visual brand (the colours, fonts, graphics or logo); positioning statement (the short phrase that indicates your purpose or promise); and what I like to describe as your Quick Pitch, which outlines what you do, who you do it for, how you do it and why, which are the outcomes you achieve for your clients.
If you have an established firm, and you and your clients are attached to your branding even though it’s outdated, refreshing rather than reinventing it may be the solution. An experienced graphic designer can update your styling with a fresh colour palette and a modern font without incurring huge expense. A well-considered extra design element – a bold new colour or eye-catching symbol – can take a safe brand to something that’s truly memorable.
What you say in your branding is just as important as how it looks. Your positioning statement is a short and memorable phrase that captures your brand promise. You’ll recognise, for example, EY’s positioning statement ‘Building a Better Working World’. And the Woolworths symbol, accompanied by their positioning statement ‘The Fresh Food People’, leaves no doubt about their brand promise.
Also known as your ‘elevator pitch’, your Quick Pitch outlines what you do, who you do it for, how you do it and the outcomes your clients can expect. Your Quick Pitch should be clear, concise and convincing. Here’s our Bold! Quick Pitch:
We help professionals and business owners to use marketing to grow their businesses.
We do this using our ‘do-able’ marketing model that’s underpinned by a 7-step do-it-for-me framework to overcome the 3 key issues the prevent our clients from marketing their firms: time, affordability and accountability.
Together your visual branding, positioning statement and Quick Pitch will create the bold impression that will leave your ideal clients in no doubt about who you are, what you do and how you achieve the outcomes they need.
Here’s what you need to do next …
- Talk to us here at Bold! or your own graphic designer about your options for refreshing or re-designing your visual brand;
- Consider 3 to 5 key words that describe the key outcomes you create for your clients as a precursor to developing the short phrase that will become your positioning statement;
- Ask us for a copy of our Ideal Client & Quick Pitch worksheets which provide a quick and clear structure for creating your Quick Pitch.
To find out more about how our Do-It-For-You Framework can help you create the bold impression you’re looking for, please contact us today on 07 5477 0197 or marketing@boldcorp.com.au
In my next article, I’ll focus on creating a BOLD website.
We help professionals and business owners to use marketing to grow their businesses.
