You recently built a new website with so much hope, but now that it has been launched, it does not seem to produce any results for you.
This is a very common problem faced by decision makers of small and medium sized companies. The major reason is because there are so many parts involved in building a complete lead generation system, it's very easy to miss important parts without which leads drop mid-way.
This article is the 2nd step in a series of five steps. I recommend reading the first two to completely understand the entire system that you can apply to your business to start generate leads online:
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Let's look into the first one in detail: an accurate branding.
Branding helps you get more results out of the same marketing & sales spend and efforts. This happens because it instantly builds a level of trust with new people so that they are willing to listen. And as we have all experienced, breaking the ice is the most difficult part.
While this may sound simple, the problem is, branding is often overlooked. It seems like an addition, not a necessity. But for a company like yours that has been operating for years and generating a level of profit, your branding is what tells people who you exactly are, what your strengths are, and why they should choose you over any of your competitors.
Here's a scenario to understand this, whenever you go to a customer to present a deal, do you think about what you should wear, how you should talk, what kind of words and phrases you should use?
We both know how important this is to build rapport with the customer. Your branding does the same thing for your business, just when you are not around. For example, when people see your website, does it make them feel understood, put all the pros of working with you, and all your strengths in their focus?
Having helped many companies successfully build brands that get customers during the last 14 years, below are the 5 exact problems I would look for to see if your current branding is inaccurate and the solution to making it right.
First of all we should understand that “brand” is another word for perception. And “branding” is the steps you take to build that perception. At Wingmate Studio, we follow our 5 pillars of successful branding:
Let's take a look at what each of these mean and why they are important:
What ONE problem are you solving, and for which ONE customer? Narrowing down this much seems limiting, but this is basically the only way to occupy space in people’s minds. The human mind is always looking to make sense of everything. And simplifying is one of the major ways it does that.
But this doesn't mean you need to get rid of everything you offer. Instead, if you offer a lot of different products or services for a lot of different customers, find the most major common solution between your offers, and the most major common problem faced by all or most of your customers.
At the end, you will have a sentence that goes like "We solve X for Y who are facing Z". X being the solution you are offering, Y being the customer this is for, and Z is the problem they are facing. For example, "We manage all the logistics & planning of oil & gas companies, building drill rigs in the ocean".
It's all about whether the way you present yourself to your customers is extremely clear, easy to understand and remember?
In this world of endless options, uniqueness is one of your biggest allies. You already know that people don’t buy right when they see you for the first time. Instead, it takes them a lot of time to warm up (which means they feel comfortable in choosing you). If you are not unique, they will not remember you. And people warm up ONLY when they remember you.
Generating leads is all about bringing new people in who might have never known you before. So this parts holds a lot of value.
Does your website, brochure and other marketing & sales material use the language that your ideal customer speaks? Does it all LOOK the way that they like?
Think about it. When you meet a customer in person, you choose an appropriate attire and place. You talk in the way that they are comfortable with. Your online presence is basically doing what you would do, just when you are not around.
In this world full of noise, nice looking visuals make it easier for your customers to digest your message because it FEELS good. Since beauty is subjective, people who like how your business looks, feel more connected and comfortable. New research shows that up to 70% of all B2B decisions are made emotionally, or in other words, because it feels right in the heart (Gallup).
If you use one kind of wording in one place and another in other places, or your core offer changes every couple of months, or your design style changes for every marketing piece, your will never have a brand.
Brands are built by customers remembering ONE SINGLE thing about you, which makes them feel comfortable with your business over time. And what is repeated is remembered.
So repeat it all so much and for so long, that people have no choice but to associate your brand with your offer, looks, and words.
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Now that we have seen what makes a good brand, we should thoroughly check if your brand is actually lacking before making any changes. You never want to make big changes to your brand without being fully certain, because if done wrong, it can alienate your existing customer base.
Here is how to make sure if your brand really needs updating:
See if people who came in from your marketing efforts and initial stages of sales were your ideal customers and if they were clear about what they will get from engaging with your business.
If many of them were confused, or if you don’t have much data, show your website, pitch decks, brochures (or any other piece of marketing or sales material) to your past customers and other people who you know who could be your ideal customers. This will give you valuable feedback from people who are directly affected by your business.
Branding is never a single-person sport. It requires insights from almost all functions of your business. Once you have gathered the data, bring all your fellow decision makers together for a branding workshop and go over the collected feedback, data and the 5 pillars in extreme depth.
It’s important to think from a customer’s perspective who has never known you. This is because while you have all the knowledge of your business, they know nothing about it yet.
The goal of this workshop is to
