It’s a fact; having good branding can increase your visibility to competitors by up to four times. Needless to say, this means improving your conversions, as well. Ann Marie Puig, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and business strategy expert from Costa Rica, shares why branding is one of the most important aspects of a successful business model.
Branding, defined as brand presentation (or development), is increasingly important in business. It allows a minimal symbolic organization in a world dominated by social media, disorganization of online ads and business content. States Puig, “Sometimes, it’s not easy to stand out in the fields of some industries, as you can have a lot of competitors who are doing pretty much the same thing as you. In other words, you’re immersed in a copycat or copycat market.”
Basically, one of the most important benefits of branding is the way it helps you get out of the copycat model, because it’s in that mold that a lot of similar companies usually stay stagnant. People recognize you as a brand, not just because of what you do or sell. Today it greatly influences how users see that brand, because the way you drive your products or services is given by a name that people already know, esteem and trust.
You may find it impossible to try to compete with these big competitors, but that’s where brand development comes in to play a key role. You have to try to implement your business as the best alternative compared to big names, because your brand is how you do it. You must find and found your brand around a niche market in which users have equal characteristics and needs, but are not covered entirely by the overall market offering. This point will be positive for your business as it will be seen as superior in some way.
The benefits of branding are expanded through the sales cycle. In its most basic version, the buyer’s journey includes awareness/discovery, consideration, decision/make a purchase, remarketing/rediscovery and shopping again. Every brand must complement each of its stages to hasten the journey and the way to make it more valuable to users.
It is more convenient and easier for sales of an order to increase if there is a branding or branding behind the purchase. Explains Puig, “This is because the brand has generated with the order pleasant expectations in the customer and, therefore, they will feel much better to continue shopping; that is, they do not have to see and wait, they are satisfied with the process and the average size of the orders would increase significantly.”
Another benefit of branding is that as you become bigger, your brand becomes more attractive. If your brand is organically localized it’s because people are captivated by it. Customers hear their friends talk about you and follow you from where they are. The main reason users click on a search result in a search engine like Google is because almost 80% of people indicate that it is because of the “name recognition” they do.
To make a profit from branding, you need to have the right people in the right positions to be able to increase the revenue of your business, but you must also know and take into account that your employees are the soul of your business, because, they will help you generate the desired results for customers. One of the benefits of branding that few know is that it provides the hiring of the best human talent that share the professional ethics, values and mission of your company.
This means that when you build a brand, people are coming back to buy again and they always will. Because the brand creates the vision of the tunnel, they will go straight to the point and will not even consider other alternatives. That is, your brand could be considered the only option, and it will result in a much greater effort and difficulty for the competition to try to “steal” customers. That magnet you’ve created is not only going to help you attract customers, but also to keep them.
It’s much easier for your company to make decisions when the customer knows who you are as a brand. That is, you need to think about the impact your brand will have, if the case is that you’re thinking of moving to a new market or launching a new product line. When you launch a Google Shopping ad campaign or add new items to your website, your brand will be evolving and at the forefront of that decision you made.
You can work your strengths harder the moment you attract a more specific goal. For example, if you work as a real estate agent, you like to work with people who sell luxury homes and it has become your passion, and that’s why you’re very good at it, yet not everyone is. Can you sell a medium-priced condo or a smaller townhouse? Obviously, if you possess those skills, of course, you will. But by qualifying as a luxury home salesman, you can do your job in the most optimal way and also work in the real estate area that is what you really love.
Rarely do companies without recognized brands receive media attention without requesting it. “When your brand is recognized by reporters,” adds Puig, “they’ll probably mention you, because they might even ask you for an interview, because they value your industry-related opinion and the trends your brand belongs to. That’s pure free advertising.”
