3 brand identity keys for attracting better customers

Customer’s have far too many choices when it comes to purchasing from brands, and will always go the path of least resistance.

Your brand identity creates that path of least resistance. It serves to grab your ideal customers attention and create a feeling of intrigue or trust for customers.

And it happens in a split second.

Research suggests a tenth of a second is all it takes to start determining traits like trustworthiness and likability. That isn’t enough time to talk about your history, experience, or convince customers with lengthy messages.

It’s just enough time to say one thing and it’s probably better off thought of as the expression on the face of your business.

As your customer interacts with your business more, their understanding of your brand identity shifts from an initial judgment, to a familiar connection. And it happens primarily through your brand identity and messaging.

Getting your brand identity right is critical for attracting the right kind of customers. Getting it wrong will either repel customers, confuse them, or simply have them ignore your business.

This simple but effective 3 step guide will help you unlock the power of your brand identity, attract your ideal customers and build a brand that works for you, not against you.

Say 1 thing

The quickest way to lose a customer is confusion and inconsistency.

Your brand identity can only say one thing, so you need to be sure it’s the most important thing to your ideal customer.

You can have the best business in the world but if it’s not wrapped up in a look and feel that hooks people in, then you’ll lose customers to inferior competitors who know how to connect.

Using a small combination of visual and verbal assets like your name, logo, fonts, colours, photography and tagline you have an opportunity to communicate something unique to customers and give them a compelling reason to take notice.

What you communicate will be an attribute, feeling or idea. For example, you might convey a sense of prestige and intelligence or the idea of adventure and exploration. You could create a feeling of energy and playfulness, or comfort and rest.

Choose the most important concept for your business and reinforce it in your brand identity.

Questions to ask:

• If you already have a brand identity, what is it saying about your business? Write down a couple of words that describe your current branding.
• How do I want my customers to feel?
• What do I want customers to say about my business?
• What’s unique about my business?
• What’s the most important thing to my customer?

Be relatable

If your business was a person what kind of person would it be?

It’s a funny way to think about your business but it’s true for how people relate to brands.

Customers want to know if your business has their interests at heart and the interests of society, or are self-serving. This comes through in your personality, voice and messaging.

How do you want customers to relate to your business? They could see you as a friend, mentor, coach, educator, or leader. And you create that relationship by being encouraging, funny, inspirational, empowering, straight-forward, or casual.

This personality needs to shine through in your name, style and messaging.

Questions to ask:

• How do you want customers to relate to your business?
• How do you want to make people feel?
• What tone of voice will you use?

Look different

The harsh reality is, unless you give people a reason to notice your business, they will ignore it.

You need to stand out, and you can only do that by being different from your competitors.

The goal we’re working towards is ‘mental availability’.

Mental availability is the likelihood of your brand to be thought of when your customer is at a buying occasion, compared to competitors. And the way to create mental availability is through distinct and memorable brand assets such as your logo, colours and designs.

Questions to ask:

• What are some of your favourite brands? How do they achieve a distinctive look?
• What do people already say about you that you could accentuate?
• Pull together a moodboard (or vision board) of how your business could look, make it stand out and be bold with your references.

The make or break aspect of your marketing

Your brand identity has the power to make or break your marketing. It’s a powerful tool for making first impressions and building strong connection with customers.