You may do great work on the inside, but can people tell from the outside?
By Roy Harryman
If you had to choose between providing stellar service and having a professional branded identity, service would win every time.
No one will care about your cool logo if you can’t deliver on time or are dishonest or incompetent. But no one has to make this stark choice.
“Great visual branding should complement a great business. Ideally, it’s an outward representation of the excellence that goes on inside your firm. ”
Frequently, large companies spend millions on visual branding while having terrible customer service and awful products. Small businesses don’t have this luxury. They would fail – and quickly.
Why your digital and physical branding matters
When I talk about branding, I’m referring to any kind of media that represents your business. This could be your storefront, sign, website, Facebook page, bumper sticker, logo-embroidered t-shirt and more.
The core services you provide will always be the foundation of your business. The role of branded identity is to build on this bedrock of success.
Some may shun marketing because “my service speaks for itself.” And this is true – to a point. But if the prospect has not seen your work first-hand or met you, then her first impression will be your branding. And what will she see?
Will you be introduced by a website that looks like it was built in 2004? And an email newsletter that is haphazard and disorganized? Or social media pages that haven’t had a post in years? This first impression is not winsome. It does not inspire confidence. It appears the owner is asleep at the switch. Whether it’s fair or not, today a branding first impression is a first impression.
A sloppy brand presence also comes into play when you receive a referral. As we’ve already established, referrals are golden and shorten the sales cycle. But what if a referred prospect visits your website and finds it full of broken links, typos and grainy photos? Instead of a website that converts, you may lose a potential customer. Or at least cause her to hesitate.
This is true not only of websites, but of any part of our branded identity. To put it another way, imagine two boutiques side by side. They carry the same inventory. One is painted in bright colors with a well-lit overhead sign. The windows sparkle and there’s an attractive “open” banner hanging on the door. But next door, the paint is peeling and the windows are filthy. There’s no “open” sign and no hours listed. The sign is hand-painted and unlit. Nothing is on display. It’s bare.
Which store beckons you to enter?
Priorities
Depending on your business’s circumstances, you may be overwhelmed by the thought of marketing. Or maybe you have a good start, but need to continue the momentum. Where should you begin? You probably don’t have the resources to tackle everything at once. That’s OK.
Your organization deserves a branding presence that matches the excellence it already delivers. Although you may want to achieve this in one giant leap, it’s more realistic that you’ll accomplish it in several steps. The key? Just start walking.
ABOUT ROY HARRYMAN
Roy Harryman is the author of “Small Business, Big Impact: A No-Nonsense Marketing Strategy For Companies That Do More With Less.”