Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder of Amazon, once said, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” In other words, your brand is what you present to the world—a compact version of your mission, vision, values, and purpose. Without being consistent and true to the business brand, you can’t build a loyal following that believes in and understands why you do what you do.
When creating your brand messaging, consistency is key: throughout internal operations and externally with clients. We’ve put together a few tips to help you align your brand and messaging in order to build the trust and following you desire.
Define Your Brand and Stick To It
One great way to ensure brand consistency is to create a set of guidelines. Have a document that can be shared internally that delineates your mission and values and how your imagery and messaging will follow them.
This means that your logo, font choices, document templates, and more need to be consistent throughout any project or piece of marketing material that is presented. Clearly state how you want things to look in this document, including pictures if necessary, to help all current and future employees stay on target.
Inconsistent branding is a huge red flag to clients and prospects. This reads as inauthentic as well as careless and unprofessional. Think about Target—have you ever seen one of their stores without the bullseye? Never! If that store did exist, customers would think twice before shopping there; maybe even considering the store was fake and what if it was not the real Target?
With all this said, we don’t mean to insinuate that all your communications should be identical—just that you keep certain standards in place in order to sound coherent when representing your brand.
Staying Consistent Internally
Sticking to your brand internally is crucial to how you’re presented to clients and prospects. Your employees are your brand ambassadors, as they will be communicating with clients on a daily basis; you need to be sure your employees understand how your brand should be represented.
You want your internal brand guidelines to be straightforward and easy to understand. Through positive leadership and effective training, you
an teach every employee how important their role in maintaining your brand is. This is not something they can gloss over. If an employee cannot fully understand your brand promise, how will they express it to your clients and prospects? Be sure to have consistent training and reinforcement of your brand promise, even for current employees.
One key factor to this process is making sure your employees feel appreciated. Happy workers are much more likely to adhere to your brand promise than those who feel unappreciated by the business. Show them that their hard work does not go unnoticed, and that you are elated to have them as part of the team. This will encourage them to be a part of the brand’s success as a whole.
Representing Your Brand to Clients and Prospects
In short, you want to be absolutely sure your audience knows your brand promise. Without a consistent brand, clients and prospects may not recognize your business properly. You will have multiple levels of communication with your audience, and you need to be sure each message is delivered with consistency.
As said above with creating guidelines, you need to be sure that each image and communication is presented in a uniform fashion. Everything from your logo down to your photography style needs to reinforce your brand and adhere to your values.
Clients are much more likely to act if they feel a connection to your brand. You want them to feel invested in your story, as if they are an integral part of it. The better your clients can verbalize your brand promise, the better they can share it with others. You also want to be sure that you are targeting the correct audience. Find the group that you believe identifies with your purpose, market to them appropriately, and that will in turn help excel your brand.
Final Thoughts
Once your guidelines have been created, training has been implemented, and clients have begun to interact with your brand, you must stick with it! While some changes over time may be necessary, it is imperative that you find the right values to follow from the start. This can help avoid confusion internally and externally; you want to prevent foundational changes being made to your brand once communications and outreach have begun.
One way to know how well your brand is being communicated is to follow your metrics. By analyzing incoming research and optimizing your efforts, you can be sure that the guidelines you’ve set for your brand are at their best. Depending on what you find, you may need to refresh some strategies here and there, but this is all part of the process.
Aligning your brand is no overnight task. This will take time, effort, and the input of many. Don’t rush the process, and be vigilant with each step you take. With a little care and research, you are on your way to true brand authenticity that will help further your success and audience engagement.
Contact us today for more information on the importance of brand alignment.
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