No magic wand – Lucky for you!
June 30, 2009 at 10:33 amBuilding trust with your customers is about a lot of small things. It’s not about designing a great looking logo, a fancy business card and a super website, though these ‘touch points’ do create an impression, but it’s about creating a consistent experience from the first time someone hears about your business to when they do business with you. This rule is regardless of the size of your business. You don’t need to spend a lot to have a professional brand experience with your business.
A simple 55mm x 90mm piece of cardboard can leave an impression, but what impression is yours giving? A ‘fancy’ business card can create a great impression, but how much have you thought firstly about the message of that card? Below are some points, and the impression these points give about your business, whether you realise it or not:
- Your card is laser printed (ie toner) = It looks temporary. You’re not serious about staying in business;
- You have a @gmail, @ hotmail, @ yahoo email address = You’re not a ‘real’ business;
- You have a @’service provider’ address = Better, but your still not serious about your business;
- You’ve crossed your phone number out and added a new one = You can’t afford to print new ones;
- Your logo is pixelated (distorted, or grainy) because you downloaded it off your website = You’re not worried about the finer details.
Take a look at your website, does it look like:
- It has been created with a Microsoft Publishing program = You have an ‘it’ll do’ approach to business. Hey, you’ve got a website haven’t you?
- You wrote the copy yourself = See above
- You have a .net.nz or .org address = Someone got in first with the .co.nz or .com and so you accept second best
The good news!
The good news is that in order to grow the worth of your business brand, you don’t need to throw an unmeasurable (and unmanageable) amount of money at a designer, advertising agency or marketer. The branding starts with you, the business owner or manager. For example, a domain name costs next to nothing to register (NZ$30 per year!), and there are fantastic business packages out there for email hosting (even free ones, that are more reliable than the ones you pay monthly subscriptions for). You don’t need a website to set this up.
Your website – ask yourself why you have a website, and what you wish to get out of it. Simply ‘because it’s what everyone else does’ is not good enough. A poorly designed, laid out or website with weak content can do more harm to your brand than no website.
If your reasons for the above is you simply don’t know where to go, or where to start, talk to your designer, they should know, and expect that you don’t know where to find out how to get a cheap, but professionally designed and printed business card, how to set up an economical email address for you, or how to, and whether to set up a valuable website for your business.
It is the simple things, those things that you may not be able to put your finger on, but you just know something is wrong with the design, that can turn business away from your company. But, luckily, it’s these things that cost little to remedy.
If you can say ‘that’s us’ to any of the above points, or simply want an expert eye to assess the message your business branding is really giving, please contact us.
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