Can your brand pass
this four-second test?
Anytime you meet a new prospect, and pull out your business card – or someone finds your web site for the very first time – he/she will make a series of snap judgments about you. They take about four seconds:
- How smart are you?
- Do you have any money?
- Can I trust you?
- Do I like you?
All based on no information.
Just what they see in front of them: your business card and your web site. (And maybe, whatever they think they've heard about you, from wherever or whoever.)
Now, imagine them telling their friends.
When people see something they like, they tell the family that night at dinner – maybe thieir close friends..
But let them find one thing off, and they'll have their whole circle talking for weeks. Maybe spreading false impressions to hundreds of people. or hundreds of thousands. And now, with social media?
I'm pretty sure that's NOT how you wanted to get on Facebook and Twitter.
That's the problem with having any part of your game off.
If it's lousy music in your location, or something srong with the decoration, it's not that you tried to save money with your interior.
If it's branding that doesn't represent who you really are, it's not that people think you hired a lousy creative firm. Or tried to save money with an online logo design, or your neighbor's niece.
In either case, they think you run a lousy business.
And your branding is taking away from your brand.
Your brand is more than your branding. It's your overall reputation, good or bad.
So how is your brand these days?
Is it helping bring in a steady stream of profitable business, from people who are easy to work with and recognize you as the expert you are?
Are your phone and email full of interested prospects who want to know more about what you do, while your web site gets more traffic every week?
If you have a physical location, are people stopping by to see what's new – and looking to get in to see you?
Or . . .
Are you having trouble getting noticed in the market?
Are you spending more and more on advertising, but nobody seems to know your company name?
Does your web site show visitors landing on your home page and then leaving immediately, never to return? Especially when you know there's a healthy market for what you're selling?
The problem might be your brand.
It might be how people see you: how you do on that four-second test – based on the material you put out into the world, and what it says about
- who you are,
- what you do and
- who you choose to do business with.
Find out the truth –
and discover what to do about it.
With my Comprehensive Branding Audit, you'll see if and where your branding has been getting in your way, and you'll discover how to fix it forever.
So you can attract the most profitable audience you can reach . . .
Convert them into customers, first, and then into cultists . . .
Who buy everything you sell . . .
Breathlessly anticipate your every product announcement . . .
Spread your message to their friends and colleagues . . .
They'll create an entire way of life around your company, your products and your identity.
They won't even think about buying from the competition for years to come.
Because when you've built the right brand, your competition won't even matter.
Get started now.
And pass the four-second test with the audience you need, every time.
All the best,
Mary Baum
Owner/ Chief Branding Consultant
