Is Your Brand Working? Here’s How You Can Tell!

When your business was freshly green and first starting out, you had to work hard in order to develop a brand and create a name for yourself. After putting in all that time and effort, though, you probably just took your brand’s establishment and presence for granted and turned your attention to other things, like attracting new customers and increasing sales revenue. The irony with this practice, though, is that by neglecting your brand’s current image, you’re actually impeding your marketing and sales efforts!

Your brand isn’t something that you can create and then forget about. Instead, it needs to be revisited and improved upon from time to time. This is the only way to ensure that your brand stays current and relevant, and that it continues to resonate with your target audience. So how does your brand stack up?

Routinely asking yourself the following questions will help you determine whether your brand is still working or if it needs to be updated:

When consumers are interested in learning more about your industry, who do they turn to first? If you’re not the leading source of their industry-related information, you’re probably doing something wrong. Set yourself up as an authoritative thought leader that can be counted on for expert advice and factual, useful, relevant content. Stay ahead of the curve when it comes to industry-related news. Share unique thoughts and insights on the content you share. Keep your professional headshots, bio, and education/training modern and current.

When your clients hear your brand name or see your logo, what comes to their mind? Are they able to easily make connections between your brand and certain values, ideals, actions, or beliefs? And do these words accurately describe your brand as it stands right now, or as it was in the past? It’s your job to drive these words and ideas into your consumer audience’s minds, ensuring that they associate your brand with these positive messages. Insert your perfect keywords into all of your messaging, including social media, blog posts, advertisements, press releases, etc.

Establishing solid relationships with other brands is the key to longevity. Having business friendships and partnerships can go a long way in improving the public’s view of your branding expertise and can help you expand your reach in terms of your marketing efforts. Your brand should be so trusted and so likable that other brands simply can’t help but come to you in order to build these mutually beneficial relationships. Excellent public relations, standing with certain causes, and simply being friendly and good at what you do will go a long way.

In a world of chameleons, be a unicorn! You don’t want to be just another face in the crowd. Instead, your brand should sparkle, shine, and attract attention from near and far.

If you look back at the history of your brand’s growth from the time it was established to right now, what types of patterns do you notice? If things have flatlined or gone down a bit in recent years, it’s a sure sign that you need to shake things up a bit. Make sure to regularly monitor your progress throughout the years.