4 Tips for Consistent Branding That Works

When your leads are strong and steady, it’s a good time to think about how your con­tract­ing busi­ness can pick up more mar­ket share.

So, how do you do it?

Let’s Talk Branding

Brand­ing is always impor­tant, but when there is a pan­dem­ic going on and home­own­ers are flock­ing to find any­one who will just show up to do the work, it is easy to think that mar­ket­ing can be put on the shelf for awhile. 

Most home improve­ment com­pa­nies this year were able to cut mar­ket­ing expens­es down to lit­tle or noth­ing dur­ing the COVID splurge of home improve­ment work. I had a num­ber of cus­tomers, how­ev­er, that took this oppor­tu­ni­ty to find some good rates on more tra­di­tion­al adver­tis­ing plat­forms like bill­boards, radio, and oth­er out­door advertisements. 

This is real­ly a wise move as you play the longer game, rather than just rid­ing the tur­bu­lent highs and lows.

As busi­ness own­ers, you always need to be wise with your mon­ey. I am not sug­gest­ing you spend ruth­less­ly or blow your hard-earned cash. I am sug­gest­ing that you have a bud­get and stick to it. Dur­ing these uncer­tain times, it makes sense if your com­pa­ny is more prof­itable to stash away some extra prof­it, too.

Take Advan­tage of Great Rates from Mar­ket­ing Vendors

Adver­tis­ing com­pa­nies still need to sell their spots. 

This is a great time to nego­ti­ate 2021 prices with these ven­dors. Radio, TV, bill­boards, bus ads… All very tra­di­tion­al forms of adver­tis­ing, but right now the rates can be quite good. These forms of adver­tis­ing also take time to work, and being proac­tive will posi­tion you ahead of your com­pe­ti­tion and keep your name in front of your tar­get­ed areas. 

4 Tips for Mak­ing the Most of Your Brand­ing Opportunities

If you do explore more tra­di­tion­al brand­ing in 2021, let me offer a few sug­ges­tions based on com­mon mis­takes I’ve seen by many small busi­ness owners: 

1. Review your logo and brand mes­sage to make sure it’s easy for con­sumers to grasp who you are and what you do. This is extreme­ly impor­tant for plat­forms like a bill­board. Geico, as a well-known exam­ple, has done an incred­i­ble job push­ing their main mes­sage to con­sumers: ​“15 min­utes could save you 15% or more on your ________ insur­ance.” Now when they do com­mer­cials or out­door adver­tis­ing, they don’t have to say that sen­tence. They can just have a sign that says ​“Auto and RV” with a Geico logo — peo­ple know what they do and how to look them up!
2. Make sure your brand­ing is clear and to the point. Just like the Geico sug­ges­tion above — keep it sim­ple! At times you can even avoid con­tact infor­ma­tion as peo­ple will just google your name. That’s how it works now, folks!
3. If you’re doing a radio cam­paign, your mes­sage needs to be con­sis­tent. Don’t get too cre­ative and change it up very often. The begin­ning and the end should be the same each time, too. You want peo­ple to famil­iar­ize them­selves with your brand and what you do. 
4. Be patient. You will not see a lot of direct leads from brand­ing cam­paigns like radio or signs around town. If your mes­sage and the loca­tions are clear and con­sis­tent, how­ev­er, you WILL see your lead counts move up and to the right. It will just be a lit­tle hard­er to track. Most of the lead uptick will be by calls and more inter­net leads (few peo­ple will say, ​“Hey! I saw your billboard!”). 

As a final tip, I’d rec­om­mend hir­ing a cre­ative team to review your brand and mes­sag­ing. The adver­tis­ing rates may be good, but it’s still an invest­ment, and you want to be sure you’re putting a strate­gic, pro­fes­sion­al foot for­ward. Don’t risk it!

If you have any oth­er ques­tions, don’t hes­i­tate to reach out. This is a key time to set your­self up for suc­cess, and growth, in 2021.