In a marketplace overloaded with digital noise and incessant messaging, it’s quite a challenge to make your brand stand out with clarity.
Especially for small businesses and solopreneurs.
Breaking through all the clutter is not merely a matter of a cute logo and catchy tagline. And it certainly doesn’t involve multi-million dollar ad campaigns. To make your brand clearly memorable requires four key elements – and it’s all sweetness and light. :>}
Here is how to achieve Branding Clarity:
1. Proclaim your professional sweet spot. To be a stand-out brand, you can’t claim to do anything and everything. You have a very specific set of skills, a unique value proposition, and an offering that is worth paying for. That has to be clearly defined so that your audience knows where you shine (more: Five Steps Toward Defining Your Sweet Spot).
2. Pursue your marketplace sweet spot. “Everyone” is not your client. Each business needs to define a set of optimal paying customers who are a best match for what you do. Instead of taking whatever customers come along, target the ideal clients that will be your low-hanging fruit, for whom you can compete most effectively (more: A 4-Dimensional Approach to Pinpointing Your Sweet Spot).
3. Make your message short and sweet. Aim for a summary of fewer than 10 words. Let your audience grasp, within the first 10 seconds, exactly what you offer and who needs you. A few well-chosen words give far more light than a paragraph of jargon. This is exceptionally challenging; but, done right, it is the crystal clear foundation of all marketing and communications (more: The Clarity of Convince and Convert).
4. Break through the fog with a sweet analogy. Our brains are wired for stories, for imagery, for comparisons – not for bullet points. One of the most effective ways of making a brand understandable and memorable is to “steal” a positive image that already exists in the customer’s mind. Great analogies impart enlightenment. For instance, if you say, “We are the Mercedes of ________” – what is being automatically implied? (more: Grab Customer Attention with a Clarifying Analogy).
“Make yourself clear” goes way beyond good advice for speech students in high school. It is the only way to establish a brand in a noisy marketplace.
Most of your competition is suffering from Foggy Marketing Disorder (FMD). You can win with sweetness and light!
Also on the blog: Reduce Your Elevator Pitch to a Memory Dart
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[…] The Four Elements of Sweet Branding Clarity by Steve Woodruff […]