It’s common for businesses to have multiple audience segments they need to speak to – and what most struggle with is having a simplified way of reaching all with the same message. In fact, it’s the second most common concern business owners have when they come to us for brand strategy support. (The first is typically a need for elevation of their brand so it reflects expansion they’ve experienced.)
It’s true what they say – if you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one. If it’s not clear in your messaging who you are talking to, the people on the receiving end of the message will be confused about whether it’s meant for them.
But, it’s not just the messaging – your visual identity and presence also impacts the immediate perception people have of your brand as well.
Often, the disconnect happens here when there are multiple audiences and offers, so there’s confusion around how to present them cohesively and consistently without overwhelming or confusing the audience segments.
If work hasn’t been done to connect the dots between you and your audience segments and offers, it will be difficult to present your brand with simplicity so that it’s easy for each segment you need to reach to understand the value you offer them.
Many entrepreneurs and leaders struggle with this because they don’t have enough information collected about the people they are serving, or want to serve, in a central database. This is where the brand and marketing research portion of the rebranding process can truly benefit you.
Sometimes a disconnect happens when a business or leader is transitioning, scaling, or evolving their business and they haven’t put time into ensuring their brand and messaging grow with them.
Whatever the cause of the disconnect, this is a critical one to address because you have to be able to reach the right people with the right message at the right time – and the right people have to know they need you.
Why Branding Helps Clarify Your Offers
The right brand strategist can take in the information about your business, audiences, and offers then develop a cohesive strategy and guideline to help you simplify yet strengthen your brand.
Often, businesses will have different offers or products for different audience segments.
For example, a coach may have one-to-one coaching sessions, group programs, and self-study courses. Typically, the self-study courses will be geared toward people with a lower income level or startup businesses. The group program is usually designed for mid-income individuals or intermediate level businesses. And the one-to-one coaching is aimed more toward higher-income individuals or established entrepreneurs.
But, the way the offers are described, presented, and positioned to each offer for each audience needs to be carefully considered and executed.
If a coach attempted to sell a premium-priced one-to-one business consulting to a CEO using language about scarcity mindset, finding their first customers, or starting a business, they would struggle to gain clients. Likewise, if they had a poorly executed visual brand that was not professionally polished, the premium-level prospective client would be wary of investing.
However, if that same coach had an elevated brand presence and presented the one-to-one coaching as the solution for established business owners who are ready to expand into new locations or scale their offer suite, they’d have a better chance at converting new clients.
Your brand, in totality, has to present an image that resonates with the people it is meant to serve – and that is the job of branding.
How To Create A Brand With Simplicity And Clarity
Differentiating your brand and having a central source of truth allows you to remain cohesively aligned to your powerfully positioned brand.
In order to accomplish these goals, your business needs a core value proposition or what we like to call your unique brand value statement. This is a message that cuts to the core result people get from interacting with your brand.
You’ll also need easy to understand messaging hierarchies that are designed to reach the right people at the right time with the right offers.
Having a central brand guideline that gives direction on your brand’s messaging, visuals, and experience audiences are meant to have will allow you to keep your brand aligned with simplicity and clarity.
As you create assets and marketing materials, you’ll be able to use your source of truth brand guideline to maintain alignment to what matters most – your values and promise.
Creating A Strong Brand Promise
If your purpose and promise are unclear to your ideal audience, they won’t know they should invest in your offers. You’ll want to have an irresistible offer – and you’ll need a clear purpose and promise for your overall brand and each offer to do that.
Think about the gaps your brand fills that isn’t offered by others that would be considered competitors or alternative solutions and how you uniquely serve in a way they don’t.
What is the one unwavering promise you can make to all of your audience segments across the board?
Rebranding your business will allow you to build your foundational brand image around your purpose and big vision. Having a well-positioned and clearly articulated purpose and promise should be part of rebranding your business.
Having Clear Promises For Products Or Services
Just like your brand needs a core promise for all audiences, each product and service also needs a clear promise.
Knowing what the one big result people can expect or the guarantee you can add to each offer will help you position them to each audience segment.
People are wary of investing at times and need to know what’s in it for them if they say yes to your invitation to purchase from your business, no matter what the offer is.
Using Visual Identity To Differentiate Your Offers
People will have a difficult time recognizing you in the crowded online space if your brand visuals don’t reflect who you are, how you can help or the impact you make. Many people are visual, especially when they are learning something new.
While your message is what usually gets people to understand what you do, who you do it for, and why it should matter to them, your visuals are what grabs attention so they read that message.
If your brand’s visuals don’t align with your messaging or identity, you run the risk of:
- Missing an opportunity to grab your audience’s attention
- Your brand being standoffish or lacking an emotional connection tied to your bigger purpose
- Having a disjointed presence that doesn’t really tell the story of who and what your clients get if they invest in your service or products
- Seeming unprofessional or even misleading if your visuals don’t align to who you are
When we work with clients who have multiple offers, we create visual hierarchies of branding. The core brand will always have the same visual identity. However, elements of the core brand (colors, fonts, textures, etc.) are used to develop branding for individual offers as well.
These visual hierarchies help viewers understand and differentiate between products or services offered by a business.
Many business leaders are unclear how to reach their ideal audience and connect the dots from vision to visuals. That’s why we have built our signature service around extracting and articulating the value and visuals in both the messaging and visuals together.
How Brand Guidelines Can Improve Brand Clarity
Having all the essential brand elements in a master resource allows you to have a dedicated visual, messaging, and marketing guideline to help your brand and big vision get visible with consistency and conviction.
- Be known for something unique and in-demand
- Clearly speak to only the right people
- Earn recognition, a positive reputation, and trust
- Help people move toward a decision to invest in your business
- Cultivate brand advocates
Once you figure out how to hone in on your unique brand value for your big, meaningful mission and get this foundation in place, it’s way easier to scale your brand. And it’s way easier for people to work with you once they’re confident they know without a doubt you can help them.
Having a solid foundation and repeatable system will allow you and your team to stay focused, deliver the most impactful message to the right people, stay consistent and believable, spread your message far and wide, and scale your impact.
If you know now is the right time to think about rebranding your business, let’s find a time to talk about what the process is like and what it will take to bring us in for support.
