Three Ways to Determine if Your Branding is Effective

Since relaunching my website and refocusing my business, I’ve seen an influx of new followers, fans, subscribers, and clients. Every day I get excited to check and see who’s interested in working with me, who’s left a comment on my Facebook page, or who’s replied to one of my blog posts, because I know I’m going to have the opportunity to connect with some pretty amazing people doing awesome things in the world.

I’m loving all the new people that are connecting with me because all these new followers are my ideal clients. They are people who are passionate about making a difference in the world and are actively doing so! This brings me right into today’s topic…

How to Determine if Your Branding is Effective

When you’re building a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the many parts and pieces of creating your brand… but how do you determine if your brand strategy is effective? Today I bring you three easy ways to determine if you’re effectively reaching your market.

1) You fans and followers are ideal clients.

When your ideal clients start liking your Facebook fan page, following you on Twitter and commenting on your blog posts, you know you’re doing something right! This means your content is on target, your message is clear and your professional image is in line with your values and audience.

If you find that you’re attracting the wrong group of people, then you need to determine where you’re off message and make the necessary tweaks. Are you attracting women when you really want men? Are your newest followers life coaches when you were hoping to bring in more health coaches? Take a look at the inconsistencies between your ideal clients and who is actually showing up. Shift your content, messaging and approach as needed!

2) People “get” who you are and what you do.

When your brand strategy is effective, you won’t find yourself having to explain, over and over, who you are and what you do. People that land on your site, stumble across your Twitter or Facebook or inquire about your services will have a clear understanding without further explanation on your end.

If you do find yourself constantly explaining your business or services, than you’ll need to take a closer look at your brand strategy, both visually and verbally. Does your website visually represent who you are and the services you provide? Is your content clear and on-message? Are your sales, about or other informative pages detailed or are they vague?

Get with a trusted friend or find some ideal clients that are open to letting you pick their brains. Have them read through your copy or visit your website and tell you their first impressions without any preceding information from you. Make note of the points they experience a hang-up or get confused. These are the areas that will require some reworking and may be your graphics or your content.

3) You’re converting visitors and fans into customers or subscribers!

It’s really important to note that for this to be a solid indicator of effective branding, you have to have been in business and actively marketing for longer than a few days. Your business and target market will determine the exact amount of time, but if you’re brand strategy is effective and marketing is a part of that, you should start to see visitors and fans converting into customers or subscribers! The more on target you are, the higher your conversion will be.

How to track your conversion rates is a topic for another post, but if you’re getting a relatively large volume of traffic to your site and you’re not seeing any sales or people opting into your mailing list, then something isn’t right. Do you have a clear call to action? Is your website well-organized? Is it easy for potential customers to navigate through your site? Is it visually appealing with high quality content?

If you’re not converting, your site, opt-in or store may not be compelling. You may not be giving them a reason to subscribe or explaining your products and services in an irresistible manner. It may also be disorganized without a clear hierarchy of information, causing people to bounce right off your site.

What to Do if You Think Your Brand is Ineffective

One of the easiest things to do is to have a professional brand audit such as the one I offer under my services above. You’ll have the chance to work through both a brand questionnaire as well as an ideal client exercise that will help you gain clarity around your goals and target audience. Once these things are determined, all facets of your brand strategy are reviewed to ensure that you’re in line with your values, messaging and your content is being created to attract your ideal client or customer. You’ll receive a clear plan of action that ensures you’ll start seeing results in no time!

Additionally, you can ask trusted friends and family members to look through your website or materials and get their initial reactions and interpretations. Sometimes as entrepreneurs we just spend too much time with our businesses and we can’t see things the way the majority of people do. Getting a fresh set of eyes can make an enormous impact on the effectiveness of your brand.

Lastly, track down some ideal clients that you know or that friends and family can connect you with. Have them take a look through your materials and get a feel for how it sits for them. You can also talk with them about their needs, ideal solutions and what sorts of things they’re looking for from a business like yours. This will give you unparalleled insight to then revamp your brand strategy going forward.