Branding is one of the most important, yet overlooked part of business success. Your business brand is what will bring customers back. It is also what will encourage new customers to try your product or services. Creating a well known brand requires dedication and specific planning. It is not a quick process. A positive brand often takes many years to achieve. A successful business branding can be created with the following steps.
Focus on customer satisfaction
When customers are satisfied, they not only are more likely to return to your place of business, but they are also more likely to recommend your business to others. Word of mouth and referrals are an extremely important method for successfully growing a business. Regardless of your current business plan, the number one goal should always be to make the customer satisfied. While a positive review can help spread brand awareness, one negative customer experience can drastically decrease your brand.
Research has shown that it takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative. When a customer has a negative experience with a brand, they may not directly share the experience with you. However, they are likely to share it via social media and word of mouth. Focusing on customer satisfaction from the beginning can help to prevent this negative brand focus.
Utilize competitive intelligence and analysis
Technology has not only increased our ability to access the internet from anywhere, it has also increased the way that a business plans its marketing strategy. Current marketing tools include competitive intelligence programs that provide you with specific demographics of your customers. The analysis of these analytics can help you understand who is visiting your business, and who you need to improve your marketing and brand awareness for. The good thing about this is that it prevents you from wasting money on marketing toward customers who are already visiting your brand.
Employee branding strategy
Your business is only as strong as your employees are. The employees of a business directly impact your overall brand. They do this in two ways. First, customers often judge a business based on their service, which is provided to them by the store?s employees. Approximately 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with you again. This includes if they are dissatisfied with the level of service they received from the employees.
A businesses employee can also affect the business brand based on their satisfaction with their place of employment. Americans tend to support businesses that take care of their employees. When an employee is happy with their place of employment, they are likely to talk good about that business, thus increasing the positive brand. When they feel that they are treated unfairly or not paid accordingly, they will spread bad views of the business. Be careful how you treat your employees. They are an important part of your business success.
Customer retention importance
No business is perfect. Mistakes can and do happen. The important part is that the business understands the mistake and is able to effectively reach out to the customer affected. Focus on customer loyalty and you will see a return in a positive business brand. Customer loyalty can be worth 10 times as much as a single purchase. A customer?s view of a business brand can be turned around, as long as the problem is handled correctly and quickly.
Business branding is extremely important to business success. Negative branding will ultimately affect the outcome of your business. When you have positive branding, however, you create customer loyalty and are likely to see better success. To create a strong business brand, you need to focus on your customer?s satisfaction in everything that you do, utilize some of the current marketing tools for gathering and analyzing customer data, care for employees, and effectively handle business mistakes. Follow these steps and you will be well on your way to creating a strong business brand.