When you first enter the marketplace as an entrepreneur or you seek to reinvent your business, it can be overwhelming to realize everything that goes into effective brand development and management. When you consider the fact that everything you do consciously or unconsciously affects your brand, it becomes increasingly important to make sure that each experience is one that will enhance your brand and bring you closer to achieving brand equity.
Brand equity is the power a brand earns over time based on the experience, reputation and name recognition it gains, which translates into more clients, more income and more freedom. You earn brand equity by building your brand consciously and actively. By delivering what you said you would plus more to create an emotional response with your clients or customers. You increase your brand positioning when your clients refer their friends and family to you because they know you, like you and more than anything, they trust you.
Beware; however, one false association can stop your brand building in its tracks. With social media bringing the world closer than ever before, it is so easy to get caught up with people who appear to be exactly what your brand needs to bloom. I caution you, however, to not get sidetracked; but to instead validate the association before you find yourself tangled in a web that is not going to add any equity to your brand.
Entrepreneurs attract entrepreneurs and something that appears too good to be true might just be. So to mitigate the risk to your brand, do your due diligence and research anyone who is asking to partner with you because they believe that together you can change the world. Don’t get me wrong, you might actually be able to change the world together, but you just want to be sure that the change is going to be positive, brand affirming and a win-win for all parties involved, especially your clients.
To help you create relationships that will build your brand, consider these simple strategies:
1. If you’re considering joining forces with someone, try them out first. Make sure that their message completely resonates with your message. Join their mailing list. Follow them on
Twitter to see what they are tweeting about. Attend one of their events; get on one of their tele-seminars, etc. Validate that if you hang out with them, you will feel natural, like you are hanging out with yourself.
2. Be sure that you can answer why your brand and theirs is a good fit.
3. Research them. Check Google to see what the world has to say about them. Do you like what you read? While some argue if one bad apple really spoils the whole bunch, others argue that one bad apple makes you think the rest of the apples are bad too.
4. Make sure that they are already gathering your ideal clients together but their product or service doesn’t compete with yours. You want to ensure that any strategic partnerships or relationships enhance and complement one another.
5. Interview them. Ask them hypothetical scenarios to get a firm understanding of where they are on the topics that matter most to you and your clients.
When you choose to utilize these simple strategies to create effective, brand building relationships, your brand will become an Incredible One.
©2011 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, The Incredible Factor Business Mentor and Coach, is the founder of IncredibleOneEnterprises.com and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System® a proven step by step program for turning your passion into profit. For more information and a FREE audio CD “How to Use Your Incredible Factor to Attract MORE Ideal Clients” visit https://www.incredibleoneenterprises.com.
