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Feb 02 2017

How To Build A Brand That Reaches Your Dream Clients

Branding can be a hard thing to understand. You know that a strong brand can help you land more clients and make more sales, but you may wonder: how does that happen?

It’s important to make your brand distinctive, so it sticks in your clients mind. That means knowing your own values and staying in touch with your Why, instead of focusing too much on your competition. But, knowing who you are is only one piece of the puzzle: you also need to know who your customer is.

Know Who Your Brand is Talking To

There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all brand. It’s often said that, “you can’t please everyone,” and that’s especially true for branding. A brand that appeals to a hip, trendy 20-something isn’t likely to attract a 40-something shopper who’s more interested in quality than trends.

To build an effective brand, you need to know who you’re talking to. That means making choices about what kind of people you want to attract! Think about their age, their preferences, their habits, and you can start making choices about how your brand will engage with them and appeal to them.

Choosing your audience might seem scary, at first. You might feel as if you’re turning away other customers by choosing an ideal audience, but trust the process! Your brand will be much more powerful when you tailor your brand to a specific group, instead of trying to please everyone. If you try to attract too wide of an audience, you can easily end up with a weak, non-specific brand that doesn’t resonate well with anyone.

Are You the Same As Your Customer?

When you’re an independent business owner, it’s easy to think that building your brand is just a matter of choosing things that appeal to you. If that’s what you’ve been doing so far, STOP for a second, and ask yourself: “are my ideal customer and I actually alike?” 

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that their customers are just like them when, in reality, their customer is much different. You are not your customer, and even though you may both like your work, they may be drawn to it for different reasons.

When you’re building a refreshed brand, it’s important to find the balance between your own values, and what will appeal to your customer. You don’t need to pretend to be something you’re not (please, don’t do that!), but you DO need to make choices that appeal to your ideal customer.

“How Do I Start To Identify My Ideal Customer?”

This can be a question with a lot of layers, depending on where you are in your business. If you’re an established business looking at a refresh, you can learn a few things from your past customers and experience. If you’re a newer business, however, you’ll need to operate more on research and instinct.

As a starting point, here are a few questions that businesses at any level can start with:

  • What are my ideal client’s demographics? Think about age, gender, family size, income, education, and so forth.
  • What are their habits? How does their typical day go? How do they spend their free time?
  • How does what my business offers fit into their life? What problem will it solve for them?
  • What do they value most? What is important to them? Style? Practicality? Uniqueness? Being socially conscious? Choosing high-quality work? Etc.

Understanding your ideal customer’s mindset is huge for building a strong brand that helps you grow and succeed! Try putting yourself in their shoes and seeing how they think. Walk yourself through what their experience with your business might be like. You could learn a lot from it!

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