You’ve heard a lot about taking chances. And you’ve also heard a lot about finding opportunities.
There’s something slightly off with both of those statements. What good is an opportunity if it’s simply found? That’s like finding a gold nugget and leaving it. And what good is taking a chance? That’s like buying a lottery ticket—the odds aren’t that good.
Instead of taking chances and finding opportunities, how about brand-builders like you use an entirely new approach and…
Take Opportunities
See them and take them
—grasp them, snatch them, seize them, clutch them so tightly—like they could be the biggest break your brand’s ever gotten…because, in fact, each one just might be that important.
There are branding opportunities all around you. And since you’ve been conditioned to believe that your primary task is to find those opportunities, you haven’t really been working too hard to do that. Why? Because nothing happens after you find them. You see them, identify them as opportunities, and then walk away, to take a chance.
Let’s forget about chances. Instead, let’s focus on opportunities, and taking them.
Branding Opportunities: Take Them, for a Brilliant Brand
I feel confident in saying that you can find at least one branding opportunity every day. It will require that you move through the world with an open mind, looking at ordinary situations in a new way. It will also require that you exercise courage in moving forward, to take each opportunity.
Here are some places you may find branding opportunities:
- Promotional Gifts: A lot of brands do this, but they miss the mark. We’ve all gotten pens, notepads, baseball caps, etc. imprinted with company logos as free gifts. However, if the business doesn’t have anything to do with writing or sports, you will not think of that brand when you use or wear the gift. Think about what your ideal customer is doing (or feeling) when they need your brand. If you’re a weight loss counsellor, then give them a cutting board or serving spoon imprinted with your logo. If you are a website designer, give them a mousepad. If you own a house cleaning service, give them a feather duster in your brand colours, with your logo on the handle. These are just a few ideas; go your own way with this. Keep it useful, unique, and thought-provoking.
- Logo Placement: One of the best ways to build brand awareness is to put your logo in front of interested eyes, repeatedly. It needs to become familiar to your target audience, so that they not only recognise it when they see it, but associative feelings are generated about it…and your brand. Take opportunities for your brand’s logo to be displayed in the places where your ideal customers will see it: on vehicles, restaurant placemats, bumper stickers, clothing, event banners, brochures, social media pages, websites, billboards, catalogues, etc. Choose wisely—not just any logo placement will do. Keep your target audience’s behaviour in mind, and put it in places they’re likely to see it…again and again.
- Email Signature: Oh my stars; this is so overlooked that it should be listed as a federal branding offense. Think about how many emails you send in a day. And now think about how many opportunities you have squandered by not building your brand with every email. Create an email signature that promotes your brand (or a product or an upcoming event) to every recipient. Use your brand colours and font, which will work to solidify your visual brand in people’s minds. Create it like you would a call to action, so your target customers will know where to go now and what to do next.
- Brand Every Interaction: Are you preparing for a Facebook Live webinar? Put your brand logo behind you, in the shot. Are you having materials printed for an upcoming seminar? Plaster those materials with your visual brand. Are you creating a Power Point presentation? Make sure your logo and colours are incorporated into every slide. Are you shopping for something to wear to your next networking event? Always, always wear your brand colour(s). The point here is that whenever you have an audience, ready to listen to what you’re saying and to see what you’re presenting, never waste the opportunity to build your brand.
- Dress the Part: I did reference this above; however, I’d like to reiterate how dressing in your brand colour(s) can work for your brand. I wear orange on a regular basis, and people have come to associate this colour with me and my brand. Now, when people see an orange scarf, dress, shoes, jewellery…they buy it for me, or tell me where I can find it. So what just happened? My ideal customers, friends and family have How to Build a Brand at the tops of their minds whenever they see the colour orange. Pretty ingenious little trick, and an opportunity you should not overlook.
- Product Packaging: This is a huge branding opportunity for every brand that has a physical or virtual product. The actual (or online) packaging for your product(s) should propagate your logo, brand colours, brand story, brand message, brand personality…and everything else you wish to communicate to your ideal customer. Too often, packaging looks too generic; when in reality, it should be so unique that it speaks for your brand and is difficult to forget.
These are just a few of the branding opportunities you can expect to encounter every day. Will you take them? Will you own them? The choice is yours.
If you’re ready to get started taking all the best branding opportunities, it can help to know where to look and how to react to those opportunities. Learn this and much more at one of How to Build a Brand’s most popular programmes, the B.R.A.N.D. Building Bootcamp. This full-day, fully immersive brand experience will teach you the three simple strategies I used to take my business from £0 to £18,000 in just 12 weeks. Click here to learn more and to register.
