7 Easy Ways to Improve Your Business's Brand Image

One of the most difficult challenges a business faces is standing out in a crowded market. The odds are good that you are one of many businesses operating in your industry all competing for the same clients. This can make it hard to differentiate your business from the one just up the block or on the internet.

But differentiation is key. In a market where consumers rely on online research and price shopping to make their purchasing decisions, it is imperative to build a loyal client base that provides you with repeat business and becomes brand ambassadors by sharing your brand with others.

Today, we’ll take a look at seven easy ways you can improve the brand image of your business, leading to loyal clients who recognize your brand and trust what you deliver.

1. Define Your Brand Internally

Before you can market your brand and build a name for yourself, you need to understand your brand internally. If you have yet to identify a clear brand image for your business, now is the time to get started.

A brand identity should answer these questions:

• What is the unique value your business offers?
• What is the core vision of your business?
• What is the core message of your business?

If you can’t clearly answer these questions, you need to spend some time digging into your brand identity. Defining your brand should be a cross-team effort. You want to ensure that you are receiving feedback from your sales team, client service representatives, marketing team members, and C-suite.

Together, develop an agreed-upon brand identity you will use as the foundation for your brand marketing efforts.

2. Create Brand Guidelines

Once you have created a brand identity, it is time to build your brand guidelines. These guidelines will ensure that all marketing and sales activities adhere to the same brand standards. This will be imperative in building a brand image with both new and repeat clients.

Your guidelines should include:

• Your business’s logo and name
• A color palette and list of approved fonts
• Your tag line
• Key brand messages
• Approved business imagery

Regardless of the size of your business, brand guidelines are a must. Taking the time to define these guidelines will help your brand stand out from others.

Ideally, consumers should be able to view your marketing materials and know they represent your brand even if they didn't see your name or logo.

3. Commit to Clear, Consistent Messaging

For your business to establish a recognized brand in your market, you need to remain consistent in your brand messaging. It takes time for potential clients to build awareness around a brand and to build trust in that brand.

Take a look at the messaging you created as you identified your brand.

• How can you communicate that message to your target audience?
• What channels will work best for the demographic you are hoping to reach?

For example, if you are hoping to boost sales with first-time buyers, you will want to invest heavily in digital channels as younger generations prefer to text or chat online with sales representatives rather than phoning in or visiting a physical location.

Next, make sure every single team is on the same page. Your brand message needs to come across consistently throughout every interaction with your business. This means sales teams, service teams, management, and anyone at all who will interact with clients, need to be on the same page when it comes to your brand image.

4. Engage With Your Community

One of the best ways to make a name for your business is by engaging your both your online and local communities on an ongoing basis. There are countless ways to get involved and help drive your brand image, but the following are good places to start:

• Host a charity: Consider inviting a local charity to participate in your next marketing initiative to raise money for their cause.
• Start an employee volunteer day: Once a quarter, sponsor an employee volunteer day where sales team members and other staff volunteer time at a local charity or during an online promotion. Share pictures of them on social media, in your newsletter, and on your blog.
• Sponsor a sports team: Find a local sports team and provide a sponsorship. This is a wonderful way to support a local cause and to get your brand out there.

Remember, when you look for ways to engage with your community, keep it authentic. Clients can see through gimmicky community participation, and seeming inauthentic can do more damage than good.

5. Encourage Social Media Interactions

When you think of some of the most iconic and aspirational brands out there, the majority have a killer social media presence. From the witty banter of Wendy’s on Twitter to the incredible curation of lifestyle content by Red Bull, these brands are promoting their own name and image simply by engaging with their target audience via social media.

While your business might not garner the attention of these multi-national greats, there is a lot you can learn from their consistent engagement.

1. Be authentic. People love engaging with brands online that are personable and relatable. Go back to your brand identity and work on weaving that into your social media interactions.
2. Be consistent. The more often you post, the faster you respond to a message, and the more you engage with other brands, the greater your reach will become. Whether you assign an in-house social media manager or outsource this task to an agency, make sure you are consistent in your presence.
3. Be strategic. Odds are good that you only have so much time in a day to dedicate to social media management. Make sure that the time you spend is focused on the best channels to reach your target audience.

6. Gather Feedback Quarterly

No one understands your brand image like your clients. In fact, your clients are a wealth of information for measuring your success at improving your business's brand image.

Every quarter, take time to gather feedback from your existing client base around your brand’s effectiveness. You can do this through surveys that you email out, through focus groups you host in person, or even through one-on-one interview calls.

Regardless of the method you use, the following are some key areas to focus on when asking for feedback:

Recognition

The first place to begin when establishing your business’s brand is building awareness of your brand and working on brand recognition. Determining whether your brand is recognizable with customers is one of the building blocks for the rest of your brand strategy.

When a client sees your brand, do they recognize it?

If not, you need to start with this foundational piece before moving on to the rest of your strategy.

Associations

If your clients do recognize your brand, the next thing you’ll want to understand is what they associate with your brand. This could be positive, and this could be negative. The goal as you gather feedback is to understand how your messaging is landing with your clients and how much of their own associations they are building. For example, if one of your key messages is that you offer superior support and full transparency, but no one you survey associates your brand with those ideals, it might be worth revisiting how you communicate your brand image.

Trust

Finally, the ultimate goal of all brand marketing is to build trust between your brand and your clients. Measure how much people trust your business’s brand. This will be a critical final stage of your brand strategy.

7. Focus on Building Long-Term Trust

Once you have outlined a brand identity, communicated that with your local community, and built brand recognition, your goal should be to ensure that you are building long-term trust with your clients.

After all, it does zero good to have a recognized brand that people distrust. This can hurt your business more than help it.

How do you build trust between your brand and your clients?

1. Deliver. Talk is cheap. To establish your brand, you need to ensure that the service you deliver matches your identity. If you notice a trend in negative feedback, address it and improve. The more consistently you deliver on your promises as a brand, the easier it is to establish your brand image.
2. Reinforce. Trust takes time. One positive experience is not enough to create long-term loyalty. Reinforce your brand’s image by consistently reinforcing your value with clients.
3. Follow up. You build trust through relationships. Follow up with clients whether they purchased a vehicle at your dealership or not. Make sure that you are following up with a personal touch. Remember birthdays, anniversaries, and the next interval for their vehicle’s oil change.

Long-term trust is one of the most valuable tools for brands to possess. Once a client trusts you, they are far more likely to turn to you for their next purchase or to recommend your business to a loved one. But remember, trust can be lost. Continue to connect with your loyal clients.

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Thank you!

Scott Joseph is a business growth expert with 31 years of sales, marketing and leadership experience. He serves as the CEO of?J&L Marketing which is considered one of the leading digital advertising and direct marketing agencies serving some of the world's most successful and aspirational brands such as; Shell Oil, BMW, Mopar, Stellantis, Fastline, Melindas and more. At 35, he purchased the first of three Honda dealerships and has increased their valuations over?500%! He's the founder and host of the move crush count podcast, delivering content that helps businesses grow. Each episode top business leaders graciously share their secrets to build industry leading cultures, grow their businesses and brands exponentially. In addition to running multiple businesses, he creates and facilitates mastermind groups and events such as Business Bourbon & Cigars where attendees demonstrate a COMMITMENT, CONFIDENTIALITY, and WILLINGNESS to both give and receive advice and ideas. These exclusive communities help you think bigger and stretch beyond your boundaries.