We’re All About Experiences
While those are all essential pieces, don’t forget something crucial: your customer experience!
84% of customers say they only purchase from brands they trust, and trust is built through positive experiences… both in sales and in life.
If a customer is new to your brand, they might go to a trusted friend who has interacted with you before; what should that friend say about you?
If a customer visits your social media channels or signs up for your newsletter, what experience are you providing that helps them trust you enough to give you their credit card information or use your services?
Defining your brand clearly allows you to meet your clients’ expectations immediately, improve their overall experience with you, and make you and your business memorable.
Let’s make it easy for them to pick you over your competition.
Focus Your Business and Message
One of the many benefits of going through the branding process is that it forces you to sit down and define your mission, values, and where you want to go as an organization.
Are you a non-profit looking to change your corner of the world?
Are you a small business looking to empower others to succeed?
Are you looking to take your business international and become the next global powerhouse?
Once you focus your brand and message on a few specific things, you can create more intentional marketing campaigns and client experiences, and more effective sales funnels.
Your brand is the foundation of everything you do in business because who you are and why you exist determines your strategy.
Standing Out From the Crowd
To know how to stand out, you need to understand your audience. You can do this by building informed customer personas.
When you know who you want to connect with, you know exactly how to connect with them based on their preferences and needs. The more authentically you can do this, the more likely your customer is to feel acknowledged and valued.
For example, a new mom wants very different things than a high-level executive when purchasing a car. A mom is likely looking for safety features, and an executive may want to know how it will boost her reputation or communicate a certain level of wealth and power to others.
They both might buy the same car, but the reasons they bought it will be different because of their needs and motivation for making this purchase.
The same principle applies to nonprofit organizations.
If you’re looking for donors, the way you communicate with a small donor and wealthy businesses or corporations will be different as well.
While both will want to know about your mission and your impact, a small donor may be satisfied with a short video and a mobile-friendly link to your donation page. In, contrast, a corporation may want a full report from your team and an in-depth presentation as to why they should donate to your organization over the millions of others in the world.
They both might make a donation, but the journey to agreeing to make that donation is very different.
Knowing how to communicate to each of your audiences is an example of tone: modifying your message based on who you’re talking to and what they need to hear from you.
Branding Your Sales Funnel
Think about some of your favorite or most familiar brands. Amazon is an easy choice. The experience of ordering with Amazon is one of their differentiating features; anytime, anywhere, with the click of a button, you can order whatever you want.
The ease with which you can hop on the app or speak to a device and place a purchase has become second nature for many of us. It’s the experience of ordering something easily and without much effort that brings the masses back to Amazon.
You want to build your purchase or donation experience with the same philosophy: thinking through and prioritizing every step of the purchase process that your customers and donors will take.
From how you communicate on social media to your email communications, all of these touchpoints are an opportunity to communicate something about your brand. Once you have your brand defined you can focus on the different touchpoints of your business to ensure they all align. It’s these tiny details that add up and keep customers coming back.
Check out these examples of a few businesses and non-profits that are getting it right:
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