What is your brand? It's what we do. It's who we do it for. And we got to be real clear on how we define that. But most importantly, it's why we do what we do. All of us are familiar with the concept. What is your why? Because people do not buy our stuff, our products or our process. They buy us. That's the opportunity that I hope gets you a little bit excited.
What are all of the elements of a brand? We had to look at every possible aspect of how we would connect with someone visually in every single medium, in every way that we communicated. It all had to match; it all had to make sense. We need to make sure that the continuity of experience was there. Even down to the socks. Logos, bios, websites: Are you singing the same song everywhere you are in the digital marketplace? Chances are you're probably not. What happens if I look and sound one way, either via email or on LinkedIn, but then I look and sound a little bit different somewhere else? When somebody comes in or I provide them a piece of material that's not from me, but from one of the products that we offer, could we be creating what's known as cognitive dissonance? It's that, “Well, I don't really get it. Brian looked this way online when I connected with him on LinkedIn, but now that I'm in his office, it seems like he's interacting with me differently.” Maybe most people don't register that in the moment, but what we're doing is we're creating a subconscious barrier because they don't quite understand “Why do you not sound the same?”
These are four key components to not just developing your brand but a strategy for taking that brand out into the digital marketplace:
1. Brand purpose
What's your purpose? Now, more than ever people invest and engage in purpose. We don't live to work. We work to live. We're passionate about things. We are a value-centered individuals. But do our clients understand that? Is there a meaningful way for us to communicate what we do and why we do it so that way they can also be equally invested in our success because they connect to our values?
2. Brand promise
What's our promise? Is it just that we're going to do a bang-up financial plan and we're going to write the best whole life policy and give you the best variable annuity? Do you think your clients care if they get a 6% rate of return? Does that keep them up at night? What are we really promising them?
3. Brand personality
What's our personality? We have an actual mascot, and you'll see we have a Bulldog logo that was part of our brand redesign. We realized that A, why a Bulldog? Bulldogs happen to be the No. 1 mascot in America. We picked the bulldog not just because we happened to have one but because we were thinking what are the personality aspects of a bulldog that matched up with us? And could we use that to tell a more effective, more interesting, more engaging story to our clients? And yes, when we go to conferences and we're a vendor, we have little bulldog-branded squeeze stress balls that people literally know to come to our booth just to get those stress balls.
Because when we're so thoughtful about all of these elements, it creates a magnet.
4. Brand positioning
How do we position ourselves? We're in a room full of people that are all trying to figure this out and do similar things. And while we're not competitors, how do we stand out from an ever-increasing busy crowd. Messaging and visual identity -- is there continuity throughout?
Plus: 5 questions to ask yourself
- How visible are you in the digital marketplace?
- Do you know how your website is found in search engines?
- How do your prospects already search online as it relates to our profession?
- How many clicks do you get on your website, and where do they go?
- Have you ever asked your clients or prospects what content they might want?
