Why you need to stop living in fear and build a strong brand
You'll probably recognise a business that isn't thinking and behaving like a brand.
They'll often tell you it's all about price in their market. They live in constant fear of the competition, or worse still in some services some will even fear their own customers" 'What if they start doing it themselves?!' They'll often rely on 'tried and trusted' routes to market, desperately trying to create a louder noise amongst all the other noise.
They don't have a strong brand. And that means without a uniquely different service or product they're going to look just like everyone else in their space.
Really, it's not all about price
For many consultants and small businesses who have relied on word of mouth, and 'hand to hand selling' this can be a problem. If they offer the same thing as everyone else how is a prospect supposed to tell them apart from the next company? No wonder they believe it's 'all about price'.
A strong brand means a chance to establish an emotional connection and build trust with your audience. And if you're unsure about the importance of creating an emotional connection in B2B, consider this from Google:
"The truth is B2B customers are significantly more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than consumers."
http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/promotion-emotion-b2b.html
Building the brand
If you're looking for a good place to start you should ask yourself 'why do I do this?'. Or put it another way, take away what you actually do or sell, now what's left? The answer to these questions is essentially the foundation of your brand.
Your brand talking
That's just the beginning. All your marketing activity, from your logo, your web site, the services or products you sell should be built around this focal point. In short everything you do is your brand talking.
Life is a lot easier when you stand for something. You'll find it easier to get people to come to you, and when they do it'll be easier for them to make a buying decision because they can see clearly why you're different.
Building a brand isn't something just big businesses do, it's vitally important for small businesses - because when competing with the bigger business they need to bring a pretty big knife to the gunfight.
If you're a small business and want to talk about building your brand please get in touch.