Your Brand, Your Solution to Their Problem

Think of your brand, not only as a visual marketing tool, but also as a way for your potential clients and referral sources to see you as the solution to their problems.  As marketplace grows increasingly more competitive, a properly developed brand will give you a competitive advantage.

In today’s world of technology, your brand is more important than ever!  I want to share about an article I recently read in Harvard Business Review: Aligning With the Consumer Decision Journey.  It brings a voice to the fact that in the digital world, the famous “funnel metaphor” no longer applies to branding.  We can no longer think of as consumers on the large end of the funnel, and target our branding for specific touch points to our prospects until they narrow down their choice and decide. 

In the digital world, there is a constant shift.  

“Traditional marketing strategies fall short in this new world. Marketers need to drop the funnel metaphor to describe consumer touch points and instead study the evolving and increasingly digital consumer decision journey(CDJ). The CDJ illustrates how consumers add and subtract brands from a group under consideration during an extended evaluation phase. And purchase is no longer the end of the relationship. Now consumers often enter into an ongoing relationship with the brand during which they enjoy, advocate for and bond with it. (emphasis added)

Here are some ideas offered from the article with ways you can begin mapping out your commitment to branding your services:

1. Interview your customers.  Do this during your initial consult.  Find out what brought them to the table and what it was they were looking for when they found you.
2. Gather publicly available data on search activity and traffic patterns.    Once you find out what your prospects are looking for, use the resources available to you (your Performance Marketing Report provided by Integrity Marketing Solutions is a good start) to pinpoint search activity and traffic patterns.
3. Examine Your Own Site Data. If you are an Essentials® client, we have done this for you and report it to you as part of your monthly Performance Marketing Report. Make sure that you are committed to the implementation of your marketing and if not, take the recommendations we offer, and hit the ground running.  Don’t just examine the data, let it speak to you and show you where you can improve.  Make some changes and strategize!
4. Identify and Analyze Trends.   Once you have committed to your marketing plan, you can begin the transition.  But don’t lose sight of the progress you are making.  Track it and act on the things that are working, bury the things that aren’t! 

Nurture relationships with your clients, prospects and referral sources.  In the end, this is the perfect plan of attack to make an impact with your branding. Inspire though your website; Share regularly though your blog and social media and Specify the options for the services you can offer to assist their family.