Lead generation for any business is expensive. Brand building even more so.
But when it comes to a choice between building a brand or getting more leads, always opt for leads, because they, in turn, will help you build your brand. How exactly?
By developing your reputation as “the go-to” place or person that consistently delivers excellence to new and repeat customers.
That way, you can build your brand on the experiences your customers have with your company based on their own perceptions.
An emotionally satisfying customer experience can be powerful, especially these days when service expectations are so low.
Nothing is more valuable to your business than a great impression that lasts beyond a single purchase or transaction. Remember that today’s exceptional service means customer loyalty and repeat business over time, and better yet, great word-of-mouth for your company.
The key, of course, is being able to deliver what you say you’ll deliver, when you say you’ll deliver it, whether it’s your product, service or some kind of positive result.
Related: Richard Branson on Branding
It also helps to start thinking in terms of the type of value you can deliver in exchange for the prices you charge.
- Could it be value up-front or added value on the back-end?
- Could it be value based strictly on service, delivery or another factor, such as innovation, design, packaging, a unique location or business model?
- Can you leverage that value five or 10 times (either actual or perceived value) compared to what your prices are?
Setting up and planning your business this way can shift your priorities dramatically, and can save you a lot of time and expense for the up-front costs of branding that can waste a lot of your precious start-up resources.
Simply put, you can have a great logo, signs, business cards and website, but until you have a customer, you don’t have a business.
Start with a simple “type treatment” -- meaning your company name staged in a simple, or even unique font -- for your logo or brand identity, and start focusing on how you can add value to your customers’ experience.
Then, focus on a systemized, low-cost way to generate qualified leads that can be replicated.
This may mean setting aside your preconceived notions of advertising that “looks good” and generates a response, or considering online or social media channels of lead generation versus conventional or off-line methods.
It could also mean creating some informational or educational "white papers," case studies or brochures that focus less on the products or services you have and more on what those products or services can do for your customers.
Related: Five Key Ingredients of Lasting Brands
Your focus on these two areas will not only save you money upfront and set you up for ever more profitable business down the road, but you’ll also be able to:
1. Develop an exceptional go-to reputation that will go further in building your brand than any expensive ad campaign could ever do.
2. Establish the basis for a referral-based business, because old-fashioned word-of-mouth is the least expensive and most effective advertising you could ever want for your business.
Can this approach work in any industry or category? If you don’t think that it can, you may just need to find some key points of difference you can offer that will immediately set you apart from the competition. Consider the following:
-- Are you in an industry that prides itself on complexity and customer indifference? Offer simple solutions and great service.
-- Are you in an industry that doesn’t offer a guarantee? Be the first to offer one.
-- Are you in a category known for pushy sales people and expensive add-ons or fees? Find ways to streamline delivery and hire the best, most personable sales people you can find.
No matter what you do, make it unique. You’ll not only effectively position your company against your competition, you’ll also successfully anchor it in your customer’s own mind. There’s no better branding strategy than that.
Better yet, you’ll reap the benefits of your campaign not with high scores in some focus group, but with profits you can literally take to the bank.
Related: How to Brand Yourself: An Introduction
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Comments:
If your company has good reputation in eyes of customer then it becomes very easy to build your brand by customer’s help, as they will give good reviews and positive feedback. When your customer has done marketing on behalf of your company that works more effectively.
Twitter and facebook are good for building any brand. But you should need to make your facebook page or your website creative which is suit your brand and it's business.
Very good information. Thx.
Leads are great, referrals are the BEST... but remember to start with a good clean design. If you have a bad logo design or a web site that is not easy-to-navigate/clean/professional, it will scare the referrals off!
I have gained some important knowledge on how to get customers to help in building our brand by reading this post. Thanks for sharing it.
Nice article thanks for sharing. For making the brand more known among people , one needs to build the reputation in the market. And for building the reputation one needs to interact with people and to solve their problems,and maximum try to fulfil their requirements. And the thing in which needs to be careful is that accept the negative response same as or much than positive , and then start work out on the negativity. And try to do always something different not the better than other.
As a small business owner you want your company to have a well established reputation. One of the best ways to build that reputation is to go out of your way to engage potential customers on the social web with assistance with anything that they may be inquiring about. It is best to not sound so much like a salesman, but more like an expert in your field who is offering their honest advice on something. Even if that customer doesn’t automatically choose to go to your business right away, your reputation will always be genuine and honorable. Capitalizing on these opportunities always starts with lead generation. You have to have some sort of starting point to engage potential customers in order to build your company’s reputation. Using existing customers as your starting point will only get you so far and the profits are usually very short lived. Paying for lead generation in order to build your company’s reputation on the social web is one of the wisest ways to spend your money.
Why is it that small business owners shy away from referral marketing? As outsourced accountants, we see a lot of small business owners spending gobs of money on lead gen and no time or focus on referral marketing from their current customer base. If a small business owner would focus on the current customers, two things would happen. 1. The customer will feel some love and your brand will improve as you point out. 2. Free leads will start coming in the door.