3 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU MUST FOCUS ON TO BUILD A STRONG BRAND PEOPLE LOVE
How to build a strong brand that people love?
Well, that’s the question, right? So, let’s start with Gary Vaynerchuk. I’m sure you know who he is.
A while back, he had a blog post sharing tips for building a strong brand online. But one tip really stood out to me as important.
So, today, I want to talk about this nugget of wisdom that he shared. Here it is.
PRIORITIZE YOUR BRAND OVER SALES.
That’s right, Gary says it’s more important to focus on building your brand than to worry about short-term sales.
And I agree, 100%.
Because the trend online is often all about funnels, funnels, funnels. People think, “let's just shove all these people through a squeeze page to make some sales.”
And whilst some of those techniques may work in the short term, they do nothing to build your brand in the long term.
WHY DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A STRONG BRAND?
Because your brand is an asset.
Your brand is what gives you authority. It’s something that can weather changes, has value, and over the long term, will enable you to charge a premium.
And I think we can agree everybody wants that.
Having a strong brand enables you to:
Grow your customer base
Build loyalty
And get return customers
But if you just follow the trend and shove as many people as you can into a funnel with something kind of half-ass just to make a quick buck, those people …
… aren't gonna return
… they're not going to be loving and loyal customers
… are not going to generate referrals
and they're not going to build you equity in your brand.
WHY DO I THINK A STRONG BRAND IS SO IMPORTANT?
Of course, I've talked before about the benefits of having a strong brand. But let’s look at Gary’s example.
Because he prioritized building his brand over short term sales, he now has a really big, loyal following.
Years ago, he could have monetized in different ways. He could have started a mastermind or sold an online course early on if wanted to make a quick buck and not stick around.
But Gary’s goal is to be seen as somebody truly valuable. And that’s the brand he has built for himself.
You see, a brand needs to add value. Because at the end of the day, a brand is a relationship. You have a relationship with your customers. So it's really important to prioritize building your brand over short term sales.
And to do this, you need to focus on the right things.
HOW TO BUILD A STRONG BRAND PEOPLE LOVE
I've beat my drum about this so many times (and I definitely will again). But let’s go over the 3 most important things to focus on when building your brand.
1. CLARITY
The first is clarity. You NEED clarity around your message.
That means clarity around:
what kind of value you bring to the table
who those people actually are
And, of course, clarity around your products and your plan to get them out there.
If you don't have this kind of clarity, then essentially, you don't have a brand. You're actually just flinging spaghetti at the wall, hoping it sticks.
Sticking different messages out there willy nilly is a "flash in the pan" approach to marketing. And that only works for a short time, if at all.
Instead, you want to prioritise building a solid brand over getting short term sales. Because doing that will bring you far greater rewards over the long term.
So, if you want a sustainable business that’s around for the long haul, you need to have clarity.
2. CONSISTENCY
The second thing is consistency
And this can be a hard one. Because it’s so easy to switch from one thing to the next to follow whatever the latest trend happens to be (and everyone can be guilty of this when marketing or building their brand).
One week, it's Instagram lives. The next, it’s all about your email list. And remember when everyone was all about periscope?
So, yeah. Everyone tends to switch and follow the trends. But without showing up consistently on the same platforms with the same consistency of message, you are never going to get any traction with your brand.
You need to that clarity of message, about:
what you stand for
who you are
what your brand position is
why people should care
your brand story
and the problem you solve.
Get that nailed.
Work on that before you spend any money on Facebook advertising, logos, fancy websites, or personal branding shoots.
Don't even get me started about personal branding shoots! I can't tell you how many people have come to me having spent like $5k on getting swishy hair photos and they don't even know who they're talking to or what about. It’s just rife in the service-based business world. A kind of, “let's just sell the looking fabulous but don't actually know what we're bringing to our customers” thing.
Sorry, had a little rant there. What were we talking about?
Right - consistency.
Show up on the same platforms. And when you have clarity, you’ll know exactly what those platforms should be because you've mapped out a plan. You know:
who your audience is, who you speak to
and where you need to show up
So yeah, get clear on your message and then be consistent.
3. COMMITMENT
In this digital age, commitment seems to be something we're all pretty scared of. We have:
Netflix we can switch on and off
No lock-ins on contracts anymore
We don't have to stay the course with things
And if you have a primarily digital and online business where your overheads are low, you can tend to not commit or go the distance with things.
Why? Because we all want results instantly.
We don't want to wait for a browser to load …
Or to wait to watch a TV show …
And we certainly don't want to wait to see results from a campaign.
But look at any successful business out there. Be it a service-based business or a product-based business, one thing they all do really well is commit to a path. They commit to seeing a campaign out from start to finish.
For example, I was listening to a podcast the other day, I think it was an Amy Porterfield podcast. She was interviewing somebody and they were talking about how they had a single product and launch this product and then launch it again and again.
The first time they launched it, it flopped.
But they didn't think, “Okay, we're just gonna stop with this message. It doesn't work.” Instead, they looked at:
What pieces are broken?
What's not resonating?
We know this is important, we know it's valuable to our customers.
Maybe we're not talking about it in the right way, or maybe we're not demonstrating it in the right way.
Perhaps we're not reaching them on the right platform.
They went back and looked at all of that instead of just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And then they launched again.
It’s important to commit to a course with our brand if we want to build a relationship.
And yes, it's exactly like a relationship. You need to have communication consistently, you need to be clear, and you need to focus and make it your priority.
Make building the relationship your priority over making the sales for the short term.
And I know - it’s tempting. But next time you see one of those ads on Facebook that's like, "I made six figures overnight teaching people to launch" or whatever it may be. Look beyond that.
Yes, maybe they did make six figures in one month. But are they going to be around in a year? Or have they only ever taught people to make money online? Is that the only thing that they've ever done?
Because many of those Facebook ads you see are often people who have only ever worked in that space.
And I’ll admit - coming from a brand background, a brand strategy background - it does irk me. And I get on my soapbox about it.
Instead, prioritize building your brand over those short term sales if you want a business that's going to:
go the distance
grow year upon year
attract the right customers
grow your relationships
and mean something to people.
Because you've got to mean something to people if you want to keep that long term relationship.
3 MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO FOCUS ON TO BUILD A STRONG BRAND PEOPLE LOVE
So let’s recap - the three things that I've touched on here are:
Clarity - nail down your message (the problem you solve, value you bring, who you serve)
Consistency - consistently share the same message across the same platforms
and Commitment - stay the course!
Those three things are what’s really important when building your brand and prioritizing it over short term sales.
These are the same strategies that global brands use to build long term success and not be an overnight Internet digital success and then flop a few months later.
And you can implement them in your business, too, starting right now.
Grab my Magnetic Brand Bio template to create a powerful brand statement that connects with your audience and positions you as the only option. It’s free!