This month’s biz-lady feature is brought to you by Digital Marketing Strategist, Fernanda Alberici. She’s sharing her wisdom on how your brand strategy affects the overall marketing plan for your biz-baby, AND how this flows on to your bottom line. Definitely lots of wonderful tips to be found here!
Enjoy! Rachel x
Four ways your brand affects your marketing (and bottom line)
Firstly, let me start by saying that most of my work with businesswomen doesn’t revolve around branding their business. But rather, creating e-mail funnels, advertising campaigns, and marketing strategies that grow their business and bottom line.
However, whether I’m helping with Facebook ads, e-mail, or a holistic online strategy, it all starts with your brand. That’s the first step I always go through with my clients. Being super clear about your brand, your target market, and your message is the first step to market your business successfully. If there is misalignment between your brand and your audience, your marketing will flop. That’s simply because marketing – whether via email, social media or paid advertising, is an amplifier of your brand, and what’s going on behind the scenes.
To put it simply, if your brand foundation is strong and your offer appeals to your target market, you have every chance of succeeding and making a tremendous amount of sales by amplifying your message. The opposite is also true. A weak brand, and unclear message will only be amplified by your marketing, causing more harm than good.
Here are four ways your brand can affect your marketing results and what you can do about it:
1. Attract your ideal clients through brand positioning
The very first thing you need to consider is who you serve in the market, how you solve their problem and how you do it differently from your competitors. In every market there are three types of clients:
The budget market – those who are looking for the cheapest products and services. They’re not prepared to pay premium prices and will shop around for the cheapest and most convenient solution. There’s nothing wrong in positioning your brand for the lowest end of the market, if that’s what you want. However, to make a profit here, you will need to streamline your products and services, reduce your costs to a minimum, so that you can charge the lowest prices.
The middle market – this is the most crowded and competitive slice of the market. Not so much because it’s attractive, but because it’s perceived to be the biggest and the easiest to serve. You don’t need to lower your prices to the bottom, nor position yourself as a premium. But bear in mind that to stand out here isn’t easy, competition is high, and you will need an outstanding brand to do so.
The premium market – here’s where most of the profit occurs. In every single market there are people who are more than happy to pay premium prices, as long as your products and services deliver a premium experience. To attract this market, it is not only your services that need to be outstanding, but your brand needs to be absolutely fabulous.
2. Pricing – charge more through the power of branding
About two years ago, I had one client who wanted to charge premium prices because their services were exceptional and different from everyone else. Sounds fair! The problem? Their brand was weak. They used a DYI logo, DYI website and marketing material, and it showed. It was obvious. It looked dodgy. It just wasn’t going to work.
I could produce the most amazing Facebook ads campaign, but the moment people click on ads and land on a below average website, with above average prices, they leave. There can’t be misalignment between your brand and your prices. It confuses people.
If you want to charge more and attract clients who are happy to pay more, your brand needs to be amazing at every level. Starting with your logo, website, values, message, and of course, your services. Want to work less and make more money? Start by upgrading your brand. Click here to view some fabulous branding packages and start up levelling your brand.
3. Sell with ease by instilling trust in your market
Imagine that you’re searching online for an accountant in your local area, and you find three different providers. Before you even pick up the phone or email them, you will automatically lean towards the one with:
- The most professional website
- Great reviews and testimonials
- Clear communication and professional copywriting
- A consistent look and feel throughout
Here’s the thing. Maybe the ‘cheapest looking guy’ is actually the best of all three. But he’ll have more trouble selling. So do remember this, first impressions count a lot. When faced with similar options, your brand will be the factor that makes people choose you over someone else.
4. Get better results (dollars) from your marketing campaigns
When your foundations are strong, your marketing becomes effortless. You’re then ready to invest in advertising, sales funnels and e-mail campaigns that will grow your business (not waste your money). The best results I’ve seen with my own clients happen when their brand is strong, their message is clear, and it speaks to their target market. Attracting their ideal clients becomes a matter of amplifying what is already working.
So, don’t skip the foundations. Identify your ideal client, your point of difference, create a strong brand, and you will be ready to grab that microphone and sing from the rooftops.
Fernanda x
Digital Marketing Strategist
Find her here:
Website: http://www.fabmarketing.com.au
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fabmarketingagency/
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/fab_marketing/
More about Fernanda:
Fernanda Alberici is a Digital Marketing Strategist specializing in Facebook ads, Sales Funnels and E-mail Marketing. She’s also a speaker, blogger and mum of two spirited girls. Fernanda works with women to grow their business using online marketing strategies and automated systems, so they can enjoy more money, more time and freedom.
Note from Rachel: I have an epic ‘discover your dream-client workbook’ in the works. If you’d like to be the first to receive a copy, get on the waiting list (pop your details below).