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How Can Your Brand Create More Revenue?

By creating a compelling image and persuasive content that synchronizes your sales process with your customers’ buying habits.

Consider these important factors:

Consumer perception has changed. Consumers today are much more sophisticated in their buying processes than they were 10 years ago. At the click of a mouse they can access vast amounts of information and choose from dozens of purchase options. With more than 80 percent of consumers visiting Web sites BEFORE they make purchasing decisions, a positive first impression of your brand image and message is critical to the sales process.

A paradigm shift has altered consumer buying habits.

It’s hard to miss the major shift in the way customers perceive information and make purchases. One thing to consider is that TV, radio, and print media are less relied upon than in past decades. This has caused a radical change in how consumers choose vendors and products. Most forms of advertising and marketing now lead customers to Web sites rather than prompting them to contact you for a meeting or to place an order. Consumer traffic on your Web site must be factored in as a mandatory step before most sales can occur. These changes in the sales process and in consumer buying practices must be accounted for, and Web sites and your brand image should be designed and developed accordingly.

Give potential customers what they want—not what you want.

Consumers want instant access to key information with an explanation of how your company’s products or services will benefit them. They’re asking, “What can you do for me?” They need to be able to browse quickly through options that appeal to them—rather than to you or your company—and to be intrigued enough to take the next step in the conversion cycle.

Successful marketing involves taking the time to discover what you do well and exploiting these strengths through every channel that projects your brand. Consider the wise words of business legend and writer Napoleon Hill, author of the classic book Think and Grow Rich:

“It is as useless to try to sell a man something until you have first made him want to listen, as it would be to command the earth to stop rotating.”

What does this mean? It means you must create substantial interest in your product or services—BEFORE you even try to explain how potential customers can make a purchase.

Stale brands = stale sales

Both new and established companies alike need to update their brands continually. A powerful brand should never be abandoned or risk becoming “stale” due to a lack of updating and enhancing. Good brands are altered frequently to stay ahead of the competition and to continually arouse consumer interest. McDonald's didn’t always have grilled chicken on sandwiches and Gatorade only had two flavors for a LONG time! Microsoft, Yahoo and Google seem to present new products, offers, services and programs every week! Successful companies update their brands, enhance their products and services, and create new interest through innovative marketing throughout each fiscal year. They realize that branding is about the total customer experience.

Understanding costs and setting the "right" budget

One of the biggest obstacles in building a brand is the budget/ funding required to create and promote a professionally developed and highly-effective brand. Professional associations such as the USBA and SCORE have resources that allow business owners and executives follow guidelines for successful brand building and marketing.

Allbusiness.com also has a good article on branding costs which you can read here: http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/branding-brand-development/1040-1.html

They make a great point that a name and logo can be done by a relative for $500 or a top branding firm for over $100,000. Their suggestion is to find a company in-between with a solid portfolio and experience in branding small/medium businesses. Their research indicates reputable branding firms charge $25,000-$40,000 for naming and logo building. This seems pretty high to us!

ImageWorks has a proven methodology and interactive system that allows us to build or re-design entire brands in the $25,000-$75,000 range (larger projects are more, especially if integrated with applications) that include recommended branding solutions such as name, logo, tag line, collateral, Blogs, e-mail campaigns, web site design, CMS, brochures, and more. While many prospects request less expensive solutions, there is just no way of building a brand that will effectively impact their target marketing and drive in revenues for much less.

For very small businesses and self-funded start ups we do have our Small Biz Pak, which allows for a professional yet limited (for budget reasons) brand image.

Our advice is to follow proven benchmarks that are consistent with past research that have proven to have the best ROI and impact upon your target market. Your budget should consist of two areas:

Initial brand development
Ongoing brand promotion and maintenance.

Depending on your industry, your ongoing budget should be between 3-13% of gross revenues.

Click here for more information on setting an effective budget

Let ImageWorks POWER your brand!

Through more than 14 years of hands-on experience in providing services for small, medium-sized, and large enterprises, ImageWorks has developed a unique results-oriented branding methodology. We are happy to share our ideas for building or re-branding your corporate image. We will help you plan your strategies, define your goals and build each of the required tools/media to meet your objectives.