Build A Brand Or Relationships?

It is not unusual for me to consult with clients who have been sold on building their brand to either start or grow their business. I understand how they have been convinced this is the way to go with the bombardment of advertising we see every day.

It is also not unusual for me to be approached by clients who complain about the rising costs of their marketing budget without seeing any returns in terms of leads, clients, and revenues.

So how do you balance the fine line between branding and building relationships? Surely relationships can only be created by attracting leads through branding campaigns.

The short answer, in my experience, is that branding does not come before relationship building. Now let me explain that in more detail so that you can make up your own mind.

Business owners tend to look at companies like Discovery, Outsurance, MTN, Vodacom, and many others and are then convinced that branding is the way to grow your business. Let me ask you this… do you believe they started that way or was is built up over time?

Here’s another question to consider… what do you think their monthly marketing budget is? This is, in my view, the most important question. If I had a budget of 1000’s a month for marketing, then the Business Coaching Hub would fast become a brand among business owners.

Without a marketing budget that can compete with those that have a household name, you need to start at the beginning which is to build relationships.

Through successful relationships, clients start referring you to others as well as talking about you, and over time, your brand will spread.

Unless you have a large marketing budget, don’t get caught up in the brand race because your budget will run out before you attract enough clients to see a return on your marketing investment.

I recently conducted a trial with one of my clients. He has signed up a marketing agency who are responsible for marketing the business online. A couple of months later he signed me up to help grow his business.

I soon realized that the marketing agency’s focus was on branding but, the leads were not being generated. At the beginning of this month, I started a trial offering a free guide on his website. Visitors to the website would request access to the guide by leaving their names and email address.

In just 2 weeks, this page generated 10 leads and the branding campaigns had yet to generate a lead. There was no marketing budget spent on the guide strategy whereas the branding strategy had a monthly expense related to it.

In conclusion, if you do not have a large marketing budget don’t get into the brand game, focus your attention on building relationships that require no budget but have the potential to be more valuable in the long term.