It’s perfectly normal to love your own brand, your brainchild, unconditionally. After all, you’ve poured so much love and passion into it! But no matter how brilliant your idea is and how outstanding are the services you provide, sooner or later you’ll hit the wall: clients start disappearing, there’s no more buzz and excitement around your brand and you find yourself completely frustrated. Sound familiar? It’s time to click the ‘refresh’ button on your brand story!
J.K. Rowling once said, “No story lives unless someone wants to listen.” And this lady told us the story of Harry Potter! Who are those crazy people who aren’t willing to listen to the adventures of a little magician and his friends anymore?!
The point is, if Harry Potter’s story even gets old, so does the story of your business. Maybe you’ve pushed the extraordinary event of your life that sparked the business idea too hard and people are now tired of it or, perhaps, you’ve been marketing the same few key points for several years in a row and customers are tired of hearing the same words over again and again…
So, how do you make the vibe of your brand fresh and attractive again? Here are a few ideas to gracefully swap your story that’s passed its expiration date with one that will quickly attract new customers and breathe new life and inspiration into what you do.
Rediscover your ‘why’
This might be the toughest part but you can’t move forward without spending some time on doing nothing and just thinking first. Yes, we’ve really just said those words – do nothing! Don’t Skype your team today, don’t open those spreadsheets and don’t dare at those emails! Just sit down and have a conversation with yourself. You’ve been so busy building up the brand, the team and the hype over the last few years that you might feel disconnected from the original purpose of why you are doing what you do. So, WHY did you start your brand in the first place? To earn money? And why do you need that money? Because you always wanted to live on an island? And why the island? Because you’re tired of crowds and competition? But why? Keep on going until you rediscover the original, indestructible, unapologetic ‘why’ that will bring back the joy and passion to everything you do.
Now use this ‘why’ as your new marketing message. Instead of always looking over your shoulder, start looking into the future – where do you and your brand want to be in two-three-ten years? Don’t talk about the past anymore, we’ve heard that already. It’s time to talk about the future! This is how your brand story gets a quick facelift.
Don’t look around
When you’re in the first steps of business, copying your competitors is normal. You’ve yet to gain confidence in your actions so simply repeating something that had already worked for someone else seems to be the best and safest option. And it’s a great way to go!
But you’re not a beginner anymore. You’ve been in business for a while now, you’ve learned the ropes, you now have that professional intuition for things that will or will not work for your brand. It’s time to shake off the influence of competitors and be more vocal about who YOU really are and what YOUR brand, not every brand in the industry, is.
Ask yourself one very important question: instead of pointing out why your brand is just as good as any other in the same niche, ask yourself, how can I stand out? How can I show that my brand is actually the best and is the only one in the industry to solve customer’s problem in the most modern, convenient and efficient way?
Differentiating yourself from competitors is a great way to reestablish your brand story.
Walk the talk
Speaking less and showing more is another way to let your existing and potential customers see your brand from a new perspective.
Do you often say how you value the feedback of your customers? Show that! Share some reviews – good or bad – with your audience and explain how they’ve pushed your business and yourself to become better, to change technology or processes to achieve greater results. Is giving back to the community one of the core values of your company? Make a short video of how you and your employees helped the community over the weekend. Talk less, do more! And let your actions speak for you.
Core values are the soul of your brand, its legacy. Strive to make them work! We love brands with soul just as much as we love kind, open-hearted people and will naturally choose the brand that delivers the ‘human’ promises, not just business promises.
