5 Ways Business Leaders Can Build Their Personal Brand

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

As a CEO, senior executive or business owner, you may think that when it comes to branding, your company should be the main focus. However, developing your personal brand is of equal importance and should always be high on your list of priorities. A recent study found that when C-Suite executives are active on social media and engage with their audiences, positive perception of the quality of their leadership increased from 45% to 75% within 12 months.

In my professional opinion, every business leader should build a personal brand that transcends their business. In fact, personal branding is the reason why CEOs like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk have such an impact and influence on the public. They created a solid, compelling and enduring brand – not just for their businesses, but also for themselves.

Of course educational credentials, certifications and industry expertise matter. So does a proven track record of success. However, the way you make people feel, the way you tell your story and connect with your audiences is equally important. If done well, CEO branding will make you memorable, trustworthy and downright likable in your industry. It will not only positively impact your image and reputation, but will also help you grow your company and take it to the next level.

You may follow the crucial tips below to create a strong personal brand as a business leader and set yourself apart from others.

1.Tie in your personal values

Please keep in mind that the CEO’s personal beliefs should have an impact on her / his professional brand. As a leader, you should take the time to clearly identify and communicate your values and strongly held beliefs. In fact, your values are the backbone of who you are – whether you are at home with your family and friends or at work with your colleagues and clients.

For example, if you are are fully committed to excellence and constantly striving for perfection, that can certainly count as a personal value and should be shared with the public. I suggest you pick three to five values you mostly identify with and make sure you incorporate them into your brand.

2. Focus on your expertise and differentiators.

As a business leader, your personal brand should be part of your experience, professional credentials and industry expertise. What information and insights can you share with people who are new to the field? What are you passionate about?

In addition, you should demonstrate that you deeply care about your colleagues, employees, customers, clients and vendors. Can you clearly define your unique attributes? What do you think makes you memorable? Do you consider yourself a visionary leader? Why? You can also differentiate yourself by having a unique, controversial or outspoken opinion. CEOs like Bill Ackman and Larry Ellison quickly made themselves known by sharing their opinions. Just make sure you proceed with caution and do it carefully and respectfully.

3. Consistency is key

Keep in mind that branding is an ongoing effort. One press release or thought leadership piece will not make much of a difference. Make sure you are writing blogs, speaking at conferences, recording podcasts, filming videos and posting your insights on social media on a regular basis. It’s important because with dedication and consistency, you will be able to boost your reputation and build a trusted name over time.

4. Investigate your online presence

It’s in your best interest to do some detective work and look up any old social-media profiles or comments. If you come across something “untowards” that no longer matches your current brand or something you are not particularly proud of, try to delete it. After all, you don’t want your clients or prospects to stumble across your old, long-forgotten MySpace page. In case you have a great deal of “regrettable content” lurking online, consider hiring an online reputation management service to help you take care of the problem. As soon as possible.

5. Update your “about” page

As you may know, the “about” page is often one of the first pages people visit when checking out a company’s website. Therefore, make sure yours includes updated bios, high resolution images, social media links. Bios should include all your biggest accomplishments, milestones, media hits and interviews, articles, speeches and awards. Your audience is more likely to trust you if they can get a sense of your company, its culture and team, as well as the personalities of its leaders.

Final thoughts:

Personal branding can provide you with a competitive edge, enhance your image, personality and voice that your prospects, customers and competitors will recognize. Let me assure you that as your personal brand awareness grows, your network will expand along with your business.

Ready to reignite your PR, content marketing or social media campaign?

Please email: angela@kambarian.com, visit http://www.kambarian.com or call (516) 724-4372 today. Let’s join efforts and find new ways to build your business. Looking forward to speaking with you!

How to Craft Compelling Thought-Leadership on LinkedIn

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

These days, we can no longer ignore the importance and impact of LinkedIn. There are various avenues and platforms through which thought leaders can communicate and showcase their knowledge. However, evidence suggests that LinkedIn is near the top of the list and serves as a potent thought leadership tool. Therefore, I would like to share a few best practices to keep in mind when developing strategies for success.

Outline your goals and desirable outcomes

It is very important to initiate the process with a specific goal in mind. While thought leadership is a vital part of telling a brand’s story, it’s just one tactic of a wider mission. In addition, it is important to clearly identify your target audiences, their needs, issues or aspirations. After that, you can determine your “sub-goals” for thought leadership and figure out how they fit into the OVERALL strategy.

I would also like to emphasize the significance of tying your thought leadership strategy to your main business objectives. It will also make it easier for you to define your target audience and the types of materials to use which will set you up for success.

Matching the topic to the leader

Even after developing a clear message, identifying the right audience and putting together a strategy, you need the right leader or executive to convey your story. In fact, it’s critical to have the right group of experts standing by, ready to share their insights or answer challenging questions. You should know what their biggest strengths and talents are ahead of time, so they jump at the right opportunity in a timely fashion. Another crucial point to keep in mind is that thought leadership comes to life only when an expert cares about the subject matter. Their enthusiasm will shine through and their passion will enable them to win trust with their main prospects.

Start with defining your audience

Posting high quality thought leadership on LinkedIn should start with knowing the audience you want to target. If you are unsure who to target, you are missing out and probably setting yourself up for failure. Let me assure you that “the blanket strategy” does not work. Furthermore, what is important to you, may not be important to them.

Don’t be afraid to take a step back and get a feel for what your audience wants and needs. What can you learn from the content they interact with? What questions do they usually ask? How does this align with your brand’s proposition?

I hope a few simple pointers below will help you get moving in the right direction and develop riveting content that will inform, inspire and educate your audience and subsequently encourage them to reach out. Good luck with your endeavors!

Ready to reignite your PR, content marketing or social media campaign?

How to Turn Your Content into Media Coverage

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

If you have a lot of great, well-written and valuable content that tells the story of your organization but you do not know what to do with it, read on.

Below are a few simple yet crucial suggestions on how to turn your stories, articles and insights into earned media placements and take your company / business / organization to the next level.

Do your homework and your research

You may be selling high quality products or services and generating a lot of interest and attention, but there is a strong probability that you are facing a great deal of competition. It means it’s incumbent on you to set yourself apart and find ways to rise above your competitors. If you are planning on generating publicity, you need to do your homework and your due diligence. I am not only referring to what is being covered about your industry in the press, but also what is being written about your competition. In other words, your foray into publicity and media coverage starts with proper research and knowledge – latest trends, ideas and strategies, new technologies, statistical data and other insights.

Why don’t you take a step back and and diligently research the topic you want to talk about. Keep in mind that whatever seems to be important to you, may not help you get any traction with journalists. Before reaching out to a particular publication, spend time reviewing their topics, articles or their editorial calendar. A little bit of that goes a long way.

Relationships are important

Getting to know journalists covering your industry can help you break through the clutter. Remember, pitching out into the dark is okay but let me assure you that you are much better off finding out what a reporter is currently working on and how you could add value to the project. That’s one of the best ways to nail down your media pitch and gain traction. By the way, one cultivated connection at a media outlet is more valuable than a thousand of cold emails or press releases forwarded to a bunch of strangers. I can’t believe some folks continue to do that.

One more thing: Do not take your internal relationships for granted. It’s not only leaders and executives who should serve as go-to resources and spokespeople for the media. Try to identify internal champions and experts who you could introduce to reporters and frame as exclusive access.

Share your stories and information with a degree of discretion

Once you have done your homework, it may be a good time to revisit your archives to determine which content and assets are right for each pitch. For example, if your research suggests that a particular reporter tends to incorporate videos of company announcements into the story, you should probably go ahead and add a visual to your pitch, improving your chances for success. Just make sure that with a vast array of owned resources, you do not get carried away and overdo it or overstuff your pitches. That’s why I recommend you share your expertise with a degree of discretion and don’t go too far when interacting with the media.

Ready to reignite your PR, marketing and social media campaign?

Crucial Social Media Trends for 2023

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

With so many options and information overload, it may be difficult to figure out which social media trends to embrace and which ones to ignore. Below are a few important trends that can make an impact on your marketing in 2023.

1.TikTok is taking over

Research shows that TikTok continues to gain momentum and expand its outreach. We are talking about 1.023 billion active users and counting as of Q 3 2022, according to Hootsuite. In addition, as suggested by Google Trends, interest in TikTok ads has increased by more than 1,125%. It’s also consistently the #1 app in terms of time spent and overall positive sentiment.

2.Instagram reels still matter

As you may already know, all Instagram videos are reels now and reels are heavily prioritized by the recommendation algorithm. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that posting Instagram reels is one of the best ways to attract more attention and eyeballs on the platform. In fact, Google Trends shows that interest in reels is at an all time high. By the way, reels grew by 220 million users between July and October 2022

3. LinkedIn has become so much more than jobs

Have you noticed that your LinkedIn feed is becoming increasingly filled with personal posts? I am talking about the type of content you would normally expect to see on your Facebook feed. From CEOs sharing personal stories to overwhelmed parents and emotional employees, the platform has become so much more personal than it used to be. I am not even sure why. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t seem like this intriguing new trend is going away anytime soon.

4. A few words about User Generated Content

Traditional User Generated Content (UGC) isn’t as valuable as it used to be in the past. Sure, social proof is still important to prospects, however, with the social algorithms pushing videos over photos, it’s highly unlikely that a photo of the shoe you just purchased will even make it to many people’s feeds.

5. Closed captioning will be the default for all published video content

Since the dawn of time, social media users have been scrolling through videos on silent. Evidence suggests that as many as 85% of social media videos are watched without sound, especially in public places. As stated on Hootsuite.com, now that short-form video has eaten the internet, in 2023 we predict that captions will be the default for all published video content.

6. Social commerce is still a huge and rapidly growing industry

While the number of new shoppers has decreased since the pandemic, by the end of 2022, existing consumers have spent $110 more on purchases made on social in 2022 than in 2021, with most new buyer growth coming from TikTok. In other words, audiences are starting to get used to social media as a shopping channel, as stated by eMarketer.

Ready to reignite your PR, marketing and social media campaign?

8 Best Email Marketing Practices That Drive Sales

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

Compelling emails do more than increase revenues. Successful and results-driven email campaigns facilitate genuine connections and lead to long-term professional relationships. If done correctly, email marketing can help businesses of all sizes achieve some of the most important goals and move ahead with confidence.

Therefore, I put together a few crucial pointers below to help and encourage savvy business owners to initiate successful email marketing campaigns and set themselves apart in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

1.Clearly identify your goal

Before you go ahead and initiate your email marketing campaign, make sure you take the time to clearly identify your goal. What exactly are you trying to achieve? Why do you think this particular strategy is the best course of action to accomplish your objectives? What do you expect your recipients to do – give you a call, schedule a consultation, place an order? Is your offer compelling enough to prompt action? Once you address all these questions, you can start strategizing.

2. Segment your audience

Let me briefly explain what it means. In a nutshell, segmentation is the practice of splitting your email list into more targeted groups. This approach can be very helpful when it comes to analytics and post-campaign reflection. It will be clear which groups benefit the most from your correspondence. Therefore, segmenting your audience should be high on your list of priorities when it comes to emailing.

3. Stick to fewer fonts and typefaces

Let me tell you something: the less clutter you have in your email, the better. In other words, make sure you do NOT resort to more than two fonts or typefaces which can potentially distract readers and negatively impact your email’s visual appeal. In fact, less clutter can even improve and increase your lead conversion rate. Furthermore, you may want to utilize web-safe fonts with sizes between 10-pt and 12-pt to ensure your email is legible on all devices.

4. Keep the main message and call-to-action above the fold

“Above-the-fold” is the information visible to readers before they scroll down. Even though most consumers scroll more than they used to, it’s “above-the-fold” content that typically gets the most attention. According to studies conducted by Neilsen Norman Group, consumers spend up to 57% of their viewing time on “above-the-fold” content. Interestingly, the second screenful of content received just a third of that, which comes down to 17% viewing time.

With this in mind, I suggest you place your message and call-to-action above-the-fold as this is the first thing your recipients get to see once they open your email.

5. Test Your Subject Lines and Call to Action

If you have trouble increasing your open and click-through rates a couple of things may be wrong: You may not be targeting and emailing the right audience, or perhaps your content may need some serious enhancing.

In this case, why don’t you conduct an A/B test which can help you improve almost any of your digital marketing content. When it comes to emails, this test splits your recipients into two groups: Group A receives the regular newsletter while Group B receives the newsletter with a specific variation. This variation tests to see if your audience is more likely to take action based on that particular element.

6. Allow recipients to subscribe to your newsletter

Adding a “Subscribe” button to your email doesn’t help those who’ve already agreed to receive your correspondence. However, great content is also shareable content and if your subscribers are forwarding your emails to their friends, colleagues or business partners, why not make it easier for them to opt in. I recommend you add a small yet visible call-to-action that enables an email viewer to subscribe to the newsletter and become your next big fan.

7. Create a landing page

To benefit the most from your email marketing efforts, I suggest you develop a compelling landing page dedicated specifically to your email marketing campaign. This will not only ensure a smooth and cohesive user experience but also enable you to do the tracking and effectively analyze results.

8. Monitor results

This one is a no-brainer. Setting up proper tracking and measuring the effectiveness of your campaign is crucial to your success. Make sure you measure the time spent on a page, engagements on the page, bounce rate and conversions. As you already know, Google Analytics is a highly effective tracking tool, however, it can’t hurt to look into some others and explore some alternatives.

Final thoughts:

If your business is to remain competitive, it is incumbent on you to learn how to use email to enhance credibility, secure more leads, build and improve relationships, and close more business. By the way, it’s so much more than generating more revenue. Keep in mind that email marketing earns $44 for every dollar spent, according to Marketing Insider Group. In fact, it’s a powerful method for personalization and of course we all know how critical the individualized customer journey is in today’s fast-paced business landscape.

Ready to reignite your PR, marketing and social media campaign?

6 Crucial Steps to Successful Negotiations

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

Let’s face it: Clients have a lot of power. That being said, you have to establish a particular strategy and adhere to it in order to be able to negotiate effectively and negotiate with authority.

Here are a few must-haves for a good negotiation that satisfies both sides. I hope the strategies below will help you come up with a mutually beneficial arrangement and walk away happy in a win-win situation.

1.Strive for win-win situations

Keep in mind that effective negotiations is not a race to win or a zero sum game. Seasoned negotiators view their work as problem solving. Therefore, you have to ask yourself: What do I want and what does my counterpart want that neither of us have right now? Then propose a deal that accommodates both sides and produces a better and more impactful outcome.

2.Define your limits and your walk-away point

First of all, you need to determine what your limits are for the negotiation. Clearly identify where you can compromise and what your ultimate goals are in the situation. Outline your alternatives. In addition, figure out a list of possible options and pointers to counter the client’s decision, in a highly professional and polite way. Some trade-offs may simply be unacceptable to you or your organization and those non-negotiables should be crystal clear ahead of time.

3. Be as specific as possible

Studies show that when negotiators set very specific and challenging goals, they are more likely to secure better and more profitable deals than those with poorly defined goals. For example, in addition to finding new ways to reduce the project cost by 25%, it would be wise to negotiate a higher price, a change in timeline or a price cut.

4. Play to the client’s emotions

As you may already know, people usually make purchasing decisions based on emotions. This is especially true when deciding between competing brands. Your job is to emphasize your existing relationship or the excitement of your team about working with the client. After all, CMOs love to hear how their brand is inspiring a creative team and generating genuine enthusiasm. Make sure you emphasize your understanding of the client’s marketing challenges, have the expertise and track record they are looking for and offer a plan that is more appealing that your competitors.

5. Create a sense of urgency

During the proposal phase, find out what the cost to the client would be if she/he didn’t increase leads, drive sales by X percentage, and so on. You should also determine how the timeline for the project would affect year-end or quarterly goals. Your client should be aware of the potential losses and consequences associated with delaying the project. In other words, it is important to remind them that inaction can be costly.

6. Take steps to establish trust

There is evidence suggesting that total transparency can potentially lead to “manipulative tactics”. However, revealing your interest right from the get-go can signal cooperation and elicit reciprocity. Simply put, if the other party offers information, you should feel empowered to share more. Your counterpart’s priorities will give you important information that can lead to the discovery of potential trade-offs and concessions. Therefore, I strongly recommend that at the beginning of every negotiation, you reveal your priorities and ask the other side to be open about theirs.

Ready to reignite your PR, marketing and social media campaign? Please email: angela@kambarian.com, visit http://www.kambarian.com or call (516) 724-4372 today. Let’s connect and find new ways to build your business. Looking forward to speaking with you!

9 Ways to Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

Attaining a highly desirable status of a “thought leader” is an elusive goal that so many business leaders and executives strive for. That being said, with the right tactics, patience, dedication, and persistence, you may potentially evolve into a reliable source of insight and information and successfully influence others.

A few crucial pointers below will point you in the right direction and inspire you to step up your game in a highly competitive marketplace.

1.Maintain an active blog

As you know, these days thought leaders have blogs covering a wide variety of interesting, timely and important topics pertaining to their area of expertise. In fact, maintaining and regularly contributing to your blog is one of the best ways to uphold your image as an industry leader, someone with a solid track record, knowledge and expertise and someone who can provide a great service, sell a great product and make an impact. In other words, if done correctly, maintaining a vibrant blog presence will invariably afford you additional business benefits (including improved SEO) and result in enhanced credibility.

2. Contribute Guest Blog Posts

In addition to posting well-written and informative articles to your blog, it’s always a great idea to contribute guest articles to the blogs of other thought leaders and well-revered business professionals. As you can imagine, this will further legitimize your industry expertise and help you expand your online presence.

3. Publish E-books, White Papers and Webinars

Publishing longer form content showcases the depth of your expertise and shows your audience that your knowledge and professional credentials go way beyond 600-word blog posts. In fact, it demonstrates thought leadership on a much higher scale, adding even more credibility to your name.

4. Launch Your Own Podcast
This is another great way to showcase thought leadership and engage in discussing some very important industry-related topics, issues, news or events. In addition, you can invite other experts to join you and share their insights

6. Share Answers on Social Media

This is perhaps one of the easiest thought leadership tactics to highlight your expertise. After all, there are so many people on social media trying to find answers to their questions, problems or concerns. LinkedInAnswers is the perfect platform for sharing your knowledge, allowing you to search users’ inquiries by industry and topic. You can even link your answers to a blog post you have recently written that expands on the topic in question.

7. Remember: God Is in the Details

As an industry leader, don’t miss out on an opportunity to share your story and talk about some of your experiences on the way to success. What helped you become who you are today? How did you get there? And what have you learned along the way?

Here is why it’s important. There is so much generic information and so many generic posts circulating all over the internet. There is no shortage of ideas, tactics and tips that lack details, making them more frustrating than functional for readers. Therefore, to become a well-known and well-respected leader who stands out from the crowd, you should apply your expertise and provide a lot of important details and nuances – from descriptions of your biggest milestones to in-depth analysis of your mistakes, failures and missteps. Let me assure you that one of the best ways to establish credibility is to be genuine and transparent as opposed to constantly making chest-beating statements and “flaunting” your wins, talents and accomplishments.

8. Stay Informed on the Latest Trends in Your Industry

It goes without saying that being an industry leader means keeping your ear to the ground and keeping up-to-date on all new tools and technologies emerging in your field. In addition, it is always a great idea to educate your audience about the latest news, trends, and developments in your area of expertise, write thought leadership articles, give interviews to various media outlets and speak at conferences and events, among other things.

9. Pay Attention to Feedback

No matter how hard you try to impress your audience with compelling content, not everyone will appreciate it. Some users may not particularly enjoy the way you structure and deliver your blog or podcast, while others may have more genuine criticisms. Please note that it may be worth taking legitimate feedback to heart and make some changes to your approach. After all, thought leaders are human and listening and learning from feedback demonstrates your ability to improve and grow, which will eventually boost your reputation even further.

Final thoughts:

Genuine thought leaders fully focus on providing value to prospects, customers, clients and business partners. Contrary to popular belief, their primary goal is not necessarily to drive up website visits or attract more sales conversations (although the indirect result of trust may lead to more business). Their main objective is to deliver content that is interesting, informative, engaging, unique, and trustworthy.

4 Crucial Stages of Your Marketing Funnel

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

There are two types of website visitors interacting with your business. They have different questions, issues, challenges and expectations, and it is incumbent upon business professionals to ensure that both types of visitors get the right experience, guidelines or insights, and at the right time. That’s where a marketing funnel comes into play, and it can help companies gain a deeper understanding of what prospects want, need or aspire to throughout their buying journey.

So what is a marketing funnel? In a nutshell, a marketing funnel describes your client’s journey with you – from the initial stages when someone learns about your business, to the purchasing stage and beyond. It provides the details and knowledge your business needs to influence prospects and clients at certain stages which can potentially enhance brand awareness, drive sales and increase loyalty.

Now let me briefly describe the four stages of the marketing funnel.

Stage One – Awareness Stage

To increase awareness among prospects, many companies my resort to direct mail or public relations. The initial / awareness stage is all about clearly identifying the main customer pain points and issues that need to be resolved. The way to initiate a productive relationship is to provide answers and establish credibility. In addition, it is important to keep customers engaged on an ongoing basis.

Stage Two – Consideration Stage

In order to convert a prospect into a paying client or customer, a company has to build a relationship and position itself as a trustworthy source of information capable of solving a wide variety of issues. It is crucial that they regularly provide valuable educational content to address their pain points.

Stage Three – Action Stage

At the end of the marketing funnel comes the action stage. At this point, the goal is to get a customer to convert. That’s where strong calls to action are needed to lead them to the purchasing page. As you can imagine, during this point companies have helped potential clients or customers better understand their problems and should have convinced them that they need to get help. It means it’s time to offer webinars, case studies, demos, free trials and social proof.

Stage Four – Post Sale

If you think the process ends as soon as you close the deal, think again. Since organizations invest a whole lot to build solid and long-lasting relationships with clients, they should get the most of these relationships and embrace the importance of post-purchase marketing. After all, repeat customers are a lot more likely to convert in the future. Therefore, the way to do it to continuously engage with the customer, solve any issues they may have and ensure they are getting the most out of their purchase.

How to Keep Business Leaders From Going Off-Message in a Time of Crisis

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

Evidence suggests that a lot of executives and business leaders have been going off-message recently, and as a result, landing themselves in hot water. Remember Elon Musk unexpectedly getting rid of his PR team or Howard Schultz potentially violating union bargaining laws? Even when communication professionals put a lot of time and effort into training executives and prepping them for interviews, some business leaders have a tendency to go rogue, disregard the rules and stir up controversy.

Oftentimes it happens just because they feel like they are the only person who can handle crisis communications, resolve problems and nail the most challenging interview questions. Sadly, this is not always the case.

There are a few crucial strategies to keep execs on track and out of trouble and prevent potentially embarrassing missteps in the face of a crisis.

PR is a discipline steeped in psychology. That’s even more obvious when you are working one-on-one with an executive. It is important to know what makes them tick, how they are likely to react and respond to stressful situations and how you can help them position themselves in the best light possible through all the turmoil happening around them.

It is crucial that a PR professional takes time to get to know that CEO and build trust. After all, business leaders usually regard PR representatives as the safety blanket. It is important to find out what the CEO’s main triggers are, the hot buttons, potential reactions, emotions, concerns and how they are likely to respond to a sticky situation.

The time to do this, of course, is not in the middle of a crisis. It’s long before. In other words, the time to start preparing for a crisis is now. A crisis professional can simulate various high-stress environments and run his/her executives through scenarios intended to mimic upcoming disasters that would have them interfacing with the public. This is a great exercise and a valuable strategy that will enable crisis professionals to understand their executives and figure out what their biggest strengths and weaknesses are.

While it is very important for PR pros to get to know their execs, they should also make sure that execs have an opportunity to get to know their reps. Why? Simply because a crisis communications specialist does not want to be some nameless, faceless flack giving urgent advice once the calamity strikes. He or she should become a trusted advisor long before crunch time hits. In fact, it is critical to organize regular meetings between PR specialists and business leaders, even when times are good and everything is under control.

Putting that time in advance can make a huge difference, and business executives will be better prepared to share all the crucial insights as well as the pros and cons of addressing challenging situations.

4 Steps to Successful Rebranding

By Angela Kambarian, Founder, Essential Communications

http://www.kambarian.com

As businesses evolve, they may start outgrowing their branding, especially if it no longer effectively represents the company and its services or products. To stay relevant, organizations should periodically upgrade, enhance and refresh their brand which should reflect their progress, growth and milestones. In fact, it should represent the company’s evolution, brand promise and vision for the future.

While rebranding may be crucial, companies should keep in mind that there are risks involved. If it’s not executed well, it can create a great deal of confusion and frustration among customers and clients. Eventually, it may result in lost market share and money wasted on ineffective rebrand.

Here are a few important strategies to incorporate into your re-branding process that should help you avoid common pitfalls and do the right thing.

Timing is crucial

When it comes to rebranding, timing is of the essence. There are quite a few strong indicators that it’s time to get your creative juices flowing and make a change. Ask yourself a few probing thought-provoking questions which should allow you to determine your next move.

Do you want your customers or clients to change their perception of a new product or service you are offering?

Are you concerned about the way things are or a lack of stronger results? Do you feel that current performance is not up to par and it’s time to secure a stronger foothold in the market?

Are you concerned about the look and feel of your brand which may appear outdated?

Do you feel your existing brand is too generic and does not stand out from the crowd?

Some businesses may be contemplating a merger, while others may be recovering from a public incident and trying to get back on track. There are companies striving to capitalize on current trends and would like to position themselves as modern and forward-looking organizations.

If any of the above apply to you and your organization, it may be a good time to start thinking about rebranding.

2. Gain a better understanding of your target audience

Before initiating the process, take stock of your target market. Take time to figure out how they perceive your organization and react to your offerings. What do you think you could do to expand your outreach and capture new customers or clients?

I recommend you conduct a survey and find out what your stakeholders and customers like or dislike about the current brand. What emotions do they usually exhibit when engaging with your brand? If you get the most of their feedback and ideas, you will be better equipped to determine how to proceed and successfully complete the process.

3. Do your homework, invest in research and develop a strategic plan

When it comes to rebranding, it is critical to invest time and effort into an extensive learn-and-discover phase that will influence the outcome. That’s when you take a deep dive into your top competitors’ brands to understand how they are similar or different from yours. Do you know what sets you apart from others and what are some of your most attractive or unique attributes? In addition, you need a clear idea of what kind of marketing or branding partner is more likely to help you attain your goals.

4. Evaluate the overall customer experience

What you need to do is consider whether your company needs to upgrade its messaging, voice and tone in an effort to align with the new brand. Make sure your messaging is consistent across your company’s website, social media, blog or other materials. Engage your marketing and customer service team to find out if your website is easy to navigate and if there are any significant pain points that need to be addressed. The goal is to ensure you are demonstrating the value of your company, product or service to the customer. Help them understand why they should choose you over your competitors and provide an outstanding customer experience that ensures satisfaction and leads to long-lasting relationships.

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5 Ways Business Leaders Can Build Their Personal Brand

How to Craft Compelling Thought-Leadership on LinkedIn

How to Turn Your Content into Media Coverage

Crucial Social Media Trends for 2023

8 Best Email Marketing Practices That Drive Sales

6 Crucial Steps to Successful Negotiations

9 Ways to Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader

4 Crucial Stages of Your Marketing Funnel

How to Keep Business Leaders From Going Off-Message in a Time of Crisis

4 Steps to Successful Rebranding