“Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are in essence ignoring the owners manual your creator gave you and destroying your design” – Operah Winfrey
Branding – Everyone has an opinion on what branding is. Decades ago when mass production flooded the market – ‘branding’ was used as a way of standing out. An industry was born to help businesses stand out or distinguish themselves from the crowd.
It is unfortunate to see some businesses use branding as a get out of jail card. Over the decades branding has become such a beast that it is expected to carry the business as opposed to the real value provided by the business.
In this digital age our customers are well informed. We are not going to fool them with fancy logos, images and taglines alone. When there is no substance behind the branding we get found out.
Being authentic has more power than we can imagine. Be brave enough to communicate who you are and what your business is about.
Expressing authenticity – expressing why we do what you do – will better resonate with our audience we want to attract.
Here are some helpful pointers:
Be You. Use real names. Avoid impersonal info@ email addresses. Make your prospect feel that they are contacting a real person as opposed to an anonymous person hiding behind a contact form. Use photos or video’s where possible.
Engage fast. Respond to questions, queries and concern fast. Make it easy for people to reach you or your business. Here is a guy who built a $50 million dollar business just doing that:
Be interesting. Every business has something interesting going on. Let people know. Reveal things that your competition or industry rarely shares.
Warning: Don’t try to be authentic. Just the fact you are trying makes it very false. Be genuinely you. Show the real you with all your frailties.
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