The following is an abbreviated transcript from a LinkedIn Live event hosted by rebranding consultant Ingenuity Marketing Group. In the webinar, Ingenuity Marketing Group Principal and Brand Strategist Dawn Wagenaar and Communications Consultant Christine Nelson define brand clarity as it applies to client service and other trusted relationships. This discussion leads into rebrand implementation and training on competitive messaging for your team.
We included the best of the Brand Clarity webinar here if you prefer to read and share the tips rather than watch it.
Clarify Brand Difference Through Client Interviews
Train Your Team on Brand Clarity
Align Rebrand with Client Service Experience
What is brand clarity? Brand clarity is when your rebranding consultation actually results I messaging that your team is excited to share and when your clients affirm the messaging.
Let us know if you have any questions or need fresh inspiration for your rebranding and digital marketing.
Dawn Wagenaar: The first challenge for brand clarity is how can you be clear on your brand differentiators? And we are firm believers that the best way to do this is interviewing clients. What is your true experience your firm provides? It’s not the services, but the actual experience. How does it make the client feel? What difference does it make to them?
Clarify Brand Difference Through Client Interviews
And you can do this, as I said, in client interviews. When we do client interviews, we make sure that we’re looking for commonalities between the client comments as well as any differentiator from the firm. So for example, you want stories and emotional language. If they don’t provide stories right away, ask for an example, allow for pauses. They say things like, ‘they are very responsive,’ which I’m sure we all hear, so ask for an example of what that means to them.
And if they say, oh, they’re very experienced or knowledgeable, we consider those ‘fat words.’ They don’t really mean much, so they’re not really good differentiators. You really want to make sure that you’re asking those clarifying questions and asking for examples around that.
Christine Nelson: Right, exactly. I think the biggest mistake that companies make is to talk about their stuff because a prospect or client wouldn’t be interested in you if they didn’t believe that you had the knowledge, the experience, the offerings that they’re looking for.
What they really want to know is what they value is also what you value. And it was interesting, I was in on a conversation yesterday with an AEC firm that was doing a tour of a facility that they just helped design and build, and it was a multi-year project. It was great to hear from the client what they looked for in terms of qualifications.
And they said it wasn’t just about the fact that they were interior designers or engineers and had the experience. What they were looking for is addressing the challenges that they anticipated and then how they would solve them, and then also how related projects that they’d already done match those challenges and criteria that the client was looking for.
So it’s not just experience, it’s like how do you address that problem solving? Because you can imagine in a multi-year project, things are going to come up and things are still going to come up after the project is done. And you want to make sure that that relationship recognizes that, yes, we’re here for you, we’re here for problem solving, we’re here to be creative. We’re here because we’ve gone deep into your RFP. We understand what you’re looking for.
And so it was a great conversation to hear that piece after the project, that debrief, but also looking at your core values, have you gone deep enough? We like to do the interview process where we’re not just giving the key message, but we’re providing synonyms, we’re providing sample spoken use, we’re providing examples of actual clients talking about that. This is a real differentiator. So it can really help everybody stay on the same page about the brand clarity and the difference.
We were working with a firm on their branding prior to a merger, and we interviewed the leaders at both firms and their clients. We did an employee survey, and based on all that data, we did some common denominators which turned into their key messages. And the most important thing, which was really interesting because this combined firm would end up having several offices that they plan to keep open, the most important thing across the board was local, staying local and community involvement.
And you’d think as a larger firm that it would be about breadth and depth of services, but for them, their clients wanted to have that local focus, that community focus. And it really supported the integration of messaging for clients, for employees as this merger took place, but also going forward that clients felt like they could trust a larger firm to still have that local focus and be involved in the community through their various volunteering or sponsorships or whatever it might be.
And this is a firm now with, I think is like seven offices. It might even be more than that, all in one state, but they’re in smaller communities or cities. And that was something that came out of the research. So you never know, you might think that a brand difference is one thing, but you’ve got to do the research to really dive in and see what makes the most difference for everyone to feel that trust going forward.
Train Your Team on Brand Clarity
So once you confirm your brand clarity, how do you demonstrate it? So besides the branding messages, we think you should train your team on the messaging. You don’t want it to just sit on the shelf. You want it to be kind of a living document and messaging that people can use not only in web copy marketing materials, but in their day-to-day conversations with clients, referral sources, with prospects.
It’s really part of your marketing and business development process on an ongoing, consistent basis. And if you don’t train your people on what it is and what it means, because not everybody is involved in the branding or the rebranding, they don’t know, they’ll kind of go off on their own and say what they think and then you’re losing that brand clarity and brand consistency.
Dawn Wagenaar: This is an example of a website, but this was a tagline that actually also came out of some interviews that was done. Professionals for Good. And really what it meant was, and we stated this, is “we embody professionalism, caring and integrity, and we also specialize in clients that deliver tremendously good things.” This is a client that is a CPA firm that primarily focuses in affordable housing and nonprofits. So the tagline really works for them.
Christine Nelson: And this is part of their new website right now. And everybody’s really excited to finally see the new website as it took some time to build those messages in and do the research.
And actually it was kind of fun to talk to some of the leaders too when we brought forth this tagline to help them see that they’re not just auditors for affordable housing and not-for-profits. They’re not just tax people, they’re actually helping people have affordable homes, especially in California where the cost of living is so high, they’re actually helping not-for-profits stay financially healthy so that they can support the sustainability of families, help people in recovery, whatever it might be.
And it really made people feel good when we did the branding training for this, and that helps with retention.
Dawn Wagenaar: Yeah, we’ve weaved this into their proposals. So when the proposals, because we do a lot of their proposals, are asking, ‘why should we choose Linquist, von Husen & Joyce?’ we have a section that talks about professionals for good and what this means to them and how it really, truly is a brand difference.
We also have sales questions that we created for them around everything. So this is where you’re weaving the brand difference and that research into everything that is done.
Christine Nelson: I was going to say another message that resonated with clients and employees too, because a lot of their work is audit focused and it’s required, was their continued advisory and guidance throughout the year. The clients really loved the fact that they would come in and do lunch and learns or they would support any questions they had prior to exploring a new development, for example, or questions around reporting for grants.
So they’re available beyond just the compliance. And that was a true differentiator for them. A lot of businesses might say, ‘oh, our partners are available and we’re responsive throughout the year,’ but does it actually happen? And in this case, the clients confirmed that. And that’s why the interviews are so important to confirm, okay, leaders are saying this, but is it actually happening? And yes, it is in that case, and that could be a great branding message for them going forward.
Dawn Wagenaar: It also leads into the personal brand, which is really important in organizations right now. So how can you actually show your personal brand? And I do have another example. We are firm believers of whether you’re speaking or writing, living out that personal brand, but also on social.
So what is unique about your approach and what will engage your audience? So we’re going to show someone that Christine and I both follow. I will admit they’re not a client, but it’s someone that we respect greatly in the AEC industry, the architects, engineer, construction industry. And this is Kristen Jacobs, she’s one of the marketing individuals at RJM Construction.
But you can see here, this is a really fun post right here, my little fluffy RJM Construction brand champ. And you can see it’s a cute little puppy and it’s wrapped in a blanket with the RJM labeled coffee cup. I mean, who doesn’t love puppies? And this obviously is her puppy, but she’s showcasing the RJM brand in it. She’s living her brand.
And then I want to show you another post from a month later. So I love this too. She goes, “oldest plus youngest, it’s a toss-up, which one of them is costing me more money right now? Happy international Dog Day.” And these are her posts on LinkedIn and yes, she does post also events that they’re hosting, projects that they’re doing and just fun things like this. But she is showcasing the company brand through her personal posts and she’s really authentic about it. And that’s what I love about this, and this is how you can really showcase your brand personally.
Christine Nelson: Not every business might resonate with pets. I don’t know which one that would be, but if you can, as Dawn said, match the personal brand with the company brand, that is just gold because people work with people, they don’t work with companies.
So how can you bring a little bit of personality into that social media marketing and networking and engagement that fits the company, fits your personal style? We have lots of tips around that in terms of branding clarity, but you do have to have the research and the messaging first to play off of and have that as your foundation prior to like, ‘oh, let’s try this on social media, let’s try this.’
How can you incorporate colors to support that branding clarity? Because people will respond to visuals and color and design even faster than content. As much as I love content and creating content, it’s becoming so much more about visuals, whether it’s video and what your background is or if it’s the color of the room, the training room, how you do your social media backdrops, it all matters to create that branding clarity.
Rebrand with Client Service Experience
Christine Nelson: Third challenge. How do you match up your brand with client expectations and help them understand the benefits of your brand? Well, when they understand the benefits, first of all, they’re not going to go look for another firm. That’s the last thing you want is for them to be entertaining any alternatives.
And believe me, they’re getting calls, they’re getting emails, even if they’re very happy with their services or products from you. So how do you maintain that trust and stand out as their go-to brand? Trust also gives you an opening to suggest other relevant services and products. So until they really trust and feel that kinship and that support from you in one area, it’s a lot harder to start to introduce other services.
But when they’re clear on the difference that you deliver, then it’s just a conversation. It’s you being of service. It’s not so much about sales. Even though by expanding services with a client or customer, you get more loyalty, you get more trust, you provide more work for the team. So it’s all good all around, but you really have to know that they’re buying what you’ve got already and they’re ready to have a conversation about more support and more services.
And a client can change. It’s really important with these long-term clients. So let’s say you’ve had a client for 5, 10, 15 years and they’ve even provided referrals to you, but things can change, leadership can change within the organization. You might have had a relationship with somebody in the beginning, but now that’s changing. M&A happens. You’ve got new people in the mix, new leaders are coming up and being part of the decision-making process.
Many more people are involved in that decision-making process than there used to be. So maybe you had someone’s ear in the organization, and they love you, but the new people coming in, they don’t know the first thing about you. They’re going to talk about, ‘hey, can we do this more cheaply? Can we do this with automation?’ So you’ve got to constantly be showcasing your branding clarity and communicate and educate on the brand difference.
If I can leave you one tip on maintaining the client relationships after saying all this, it’s don’t get comfortable, don’t assume that they know your brand and why you’re better than anyone else because people are fickle over time. Feelings change. What did you do for me today? Yep, I get what you did for me yesterday, but what about tomorrow? What value are you giving me today that’s helping me be successful?
I would say client interviews are really interesting in terms of how you can get people talking. And Dawn gave some tips earlier: listen more than you talk, make sure you have some follow-up questions. You always come across those shyer people, and if we can help you in any way come up with a couple of really great questions to ask that get your people thinking, whether it’s employees or leaders or clients, we’d love to do that for you. And it really involves following up with Dawn and saying, ‘hey, I want to hear about that.’
Dawn Wagenaar: And then looking at the social media profile, instead of just going with your title, come up with something about what you like to talk about. I don’t see enough of it on LinkedIn profiles yet…personal branding as well as firm branding.
All right, so if anyone has any questions, we’re happy to answer anything about brand clarity and the brand difference that you make around client experience and retention.
Questions? Contact us at Ingenuity.
