5 things your competitors can teach you about branding

So, it’s the end of 2020 and most of us are close to exhaustion. The last thing you want to hear is that your competitors are doing a better job at branding than you and it could be costing you business.

In this article, we’ll share five clues that your competitors are killing it with their branding - and what you can do about it.

1. Attracting “better” clients

Have you ever looked at a competitor's business and wondered how they end up with such amazing clients? It could be a clue that their branding is totally on point. 

A totally on point brand will filter out the clients they don’t want, and attract more of the clients they do want.

Imagine if David Jones decided to rebrand to be more like JB Hi-Fi. I think we can all agree that there would be a significant shift in the types of clients that would come through the door, and a significant shift in sales.

Quick Wins

These branding quick wins can help you bring in “better” clients:

• Choose better images for your website, brochures, social media etc. 
• Review your choice of fonts.
• Update the wording on your website to filter out "tyre kickers".

2. Not Competing on price

Does your business spend a lot of energy convincing people to choose you because you’re more affordable? This can lead to a perception that your products or services aren't as valuable as you think they are.

An on-point business will always communicate via its values, e.g. Coca Cola presents an image of fun rather than “we’re cheaper than Pepsi”.

Quick Wins

• Review the products / services pages on your website - swap out "price-based" phrases for emotionally driven value based phrases, e.g. "you'll have the confidence to make decisions faster after implementing our marketing dashboards".
• Change your “special offer based on price” emails to emails with case studies of amazing results you’ve helped people achieve. This cements your real value to a potential client.

3. Amazing staff

Have you ever had an overdue invoice with an organisation, received one of those dreaded calls from the accounts department but finished the conversation wanting to refer all your friends to that organisation?

A business with on-point branding will hire and train their staff to live and breath the organisation’s branding - from their sales staff all the way through the customer journey to their accounts and technical staff.

Quick Wins

• Get a friend to act as a mystery shopper and experience your whole organisation.
• Be prepared to shuffle your staff around or provide training to help them be your brand.
• Check out our Bite-Sized Branding episode - Brand and Culture: Part 1.

4. Consistent Everything

A brand that we love working with is HubSpot. To us, every single touch point delivers a consistent experience.

Everything from the familiar orange colour, their Avenir Next font to their staff provides an instant feeling of trust, fun and professionalism.

Broken brand consistency translates to sales prospects being hesitant to choose your business and clients jumping across to other businesses.

Quick Wins

• Review every touch point with the outside world, e.g. your website, your foyeur, your invoices. Do they all adhere to your brand guidelines?
• If you don't have one yet, create a document which outlines how every touch point should be branded.
• Start using templates to create social media posts. Canva can be a great way to get started.

5. A seamless experience

In a fully systematised business, every process is mapped, optimised and documented.

This creates a seamless experience for your new and current customers. 

It also has the side benefit of creating a happy workplace. 

Why? 

Everyone knows what to do and when to do it. This clarity translates from your employees directly into confidence for your customers.

Quick Wins

• If you don’t have one yet, set up a CRM system. HubSpot CRM is free and a fantastic way to get your feet wet.
• Sign up for a free Zapier account. Zapier is a system that connects multiple systems together, e.g. your accounting and CRM systems, and creates a level of automation - e.g. an set of automated on-boarding emails when you get a new client.