Have you ever paused and thought about what makes a recognizable brand?
Think about what you remember about some of the brands you run across, but not the billion dollar companies with massive marketing budgets.
What are some of the small companies you’ve run across that still had a memorable brand?
Without a recognizable brand, clients won’t build trust with you or your business. Trust is the most important part of your business, without it, customers probably won’t do business.
Would you do business with a company you didn’t trust?
Building trust is a long-term approach as people come into contact with you and your company.
What’s in a recognizable brand?
I’m going to dissect some of the pieces behind what makes a recognizable brand. The goal behind your brand online is to be remembered, to stand out from the crowd.
Consistent
A recognizable brand is consistent everywhere you run across them. From the design of products to the social media channels, a similar voice is heard and the story is consistent. Why the brand does what they do and what they believe in should be obvious.
Whether a client runs across your business on social media or searches for you on Google, your brand should tell the same story.
Just telling your story isn’t enough, though, there has to be something else to it.
Unique
Your brand needs to stand apart from others in some unique way. There is a reason you do what you do, something that makes you unique. Making this the center of your brand is important, let people know what makes you unique and why clients should put trust in your brand.
There are a lot of web design companies out there, and a lot of companies that help businesses brand themselves. So what makes Your Brand by Nick Leffler unique? There are a few things unique, one being creating websites that put a brand’s best foot forward with the purpose of growing business, not just having a website.
Sometimes it can take a lot of explanation to tell what’s unique, but it has to be done in a way that is digestible.
Concise
A brand needs to be unique and consistent, but if it’s not concise then people often won’t take the time to understand it. The opportunity to build trust is fleeting if within a few seconds your brand hasn’t captured attention, it’s probably a lost cause.
A brand should communicate the feeling it’s trying to convey in the message it puts out to the world. That means a logo that shows the personality behind the brand, and in the case of social media, a short blurb of fewer than 110 characters to capture attention.
Make it concise, give it feeling.
Keep It Simple
It may seem like there’s a lot to it, and there can be if you overcomplicate it. In the end being consistent, unique, and concise sounds simple so it should be easy to keep simple right? It doesn’t work that way always. Those things that seem simple are often what’s the most complex. There’s a lot hidden behind the simplicity.
Your brand needs to communicate a lot with very little. To get your brand message and consistency perfected, there’s a lot of questions that need to be answered and a lot of work to be done.
It would be nice to magically wave a wand and have a brand that captures potential clients, but it takes time. You want to be a hit online, but no hit is made overnight.
It takes years to make an overnight success.
– Eddie Cantor
Between your brand’s website, social media channels, and other ways customers find you online, customers should recognize your brand. Being recognizable lays the groundwork for trust in your brand.
I would love to help you find if your business is sending the correct message online and building trust with potential customers. I will give you a free consultation on your business’s brand online to help you figure out the right path to take to grow your business online.
Bonus Tip
If you’re thinking about how people should see your brand online, your avatar is an important piece of it. These are two tips on what you should be using for your avatar to give yourself the most memorable experience for potential customers, employees, or whoever you want to have a conversation with.
Personal Brand
If you’re a person and would like to be an expert, or make connections with people to network with and potentially get linked to a job from, be a person. Use a nice, professional headshot as your social media avatar. Dress at least somewhat presentable and have someone take a picture of you. It doesn’t have to be done by a professional photographer but it shouldn’t be of you in your pajamas.
People connect best with people, and our face is the most recognizable feature. There’s a higher likelihood of connecting with someone who uses a picture of themselves on social media rather than some other type of image.
Business Brand
If you’re an individual and not working with anybody else then you may want to seriously consider using your face on social media instead of your business logo. People will connect with you better than your business which could boost your response rate from both advertising and social interactions.
Do you like interacting with a faceless icon on social media? I find it impersonal and hard to connect with.
If you work with many people then your only option may be your company logo, just be sure to format it for social. Two variations of a logo are necessary, one in a square or circular format for social media and the other in whatever format works for your logo. Don’t try to shoehorn your logo into a square, it doesn’t work well.
If you’re ready to work with a web design agency that understands the purpose of a brand, we’re here to help.