Lately we’ve all made sacrifices.
I moved my office into my living room on Friday, and whilst I miss the space and my parents whose house I work in – I also feel safer knowing there’s less travel to do, I can help with the homeschooling (although Mr P is way better at this than I am) and I know I’m not passing a virus back and forth between my parents and I.
Working during the day is now interspersed at regular intervals by requests for food, help with finding the right letters on the keyboard (tricky when you’re only old enough to be working in lowercase letters…) and regular hugs (I like this part).
That’s a LOT of interruptions. But I’m also relieved to find that I am able to do my work at the same time. Progress is definitely slower.. but it’s happening. I’m also very aware that I’m lucky to have a business which can and is continuing. Not everyone is in this situation.
What have you sacrificed?
I know some people have closed their businesses. Hopefully not forever. Some people have to stay indoors for far too many weeks and can’t be going out for a walk everyday (I am SO relived I don’t fall into this category. The asthma UK website crashed all us asthmatics were so desperate to find out what the score when it was announced.) Some people are putting our lives at risk every day through the work we do. I am so grateful.
But what about your brand?
Have you sacrificed that? Because now is NOT the time to neglect this crucial piece of your business.
Branding is so important to help your business stand out and be remembered – yes, even now. It’s not tasteless or ill considered or wrong in any way to keep your business front and centre during this. Honest.
Of course there are ways to go about this, and that doesn’t mean you can’t still sell to, share with or surprise your audience. In fact now is the perfect time to be doing this.
Everyone is at home.
At some point during the day there’s a high likelihood that your ideal client will pick up their phone or open their computer and scroll. Don’t you wanna be there?
It doesn’t matter whether your business is currently operating or not – at some point, people are gonna be ready to buy from you. Now. Next week. When the lockdown is lifted. Before Christmas. Next year.. you want to make sure that you are remembered.
Branding is all about taking as much control as you can over each interaction that someone has with your business. So right now is the ideal time to check your online presence, because it might be all you’ve got right now so it needs to be as brilliant as possible.
Your brand isn’t just about how your business looks. It’s about WHY it looks like that. The values, personality, purpose, intention and feelings that your business is all about and how you get that across.
Your brand is about your ideal client – so get clear on who that is.
Put all of these things together and you’ve got a strong brand idea ready to turn into an identity. Create that – if you already have one then you may need to tweak it.
Ensure your website is looking the bees knees.
Is it up to date? Is there anything you need to remove? Is there anything you wanna add? A lot of websites right now have a Covid-19 statement – do you need one? Could you improve any of the graphics or the wording? Do you need to take new photographs? What could you do that would help people the MOST right now.
On my website (this one) I have a short statement explaining that during this time I’ve increased the payment length for my packages from a maximum of 3 months, to 6. On the Brand Success Club website I’ve decreased the first months payment from £20 to £10 – and highlighted that people can join literally for one month to soak it all up and then disappear. I’m trying to help people access the services that they need anyway, right now, in an easier way.
Take a look at your social media.
Does each platform match how your website looks? Will people visiting each of these places feel that they are still in the same place? That they match? Is there anything that works particularly well? Is there anything that really doesn’t? (Ditch that.) Do you need to create some templates to make your life easier and help hold your brand together? Do you feel that you’re communicating the right things in the right way on each platform?
Google yourself.
Are you happy with the results that come up? If not, can you tweak or delete what’s shown or work on the results you’d prefer to have come up? This is a great time to upload your new logo into that directory or alter the ancient copy on that website or upload new images or content somewhere else.
Decide what to share.
Right now is perfect for getting stuck in peoples minds. It’s a hard time for all of us. Maybe you have strong feelings about sharing certain content, maybe you don’t. Perhaps you want to be a beacon of positivity. Perhaps you want to be a place for tears. Perhaps you just want to ignore the whole thing and carry on as normal.. whatever your approach, make some decisions and ensure that they fit with your brand values.
One of my values is fun, so right now on Facebook and Instagram I’m sharing a “Daily Smile” every day. I’m also about giving confidence and oomph, which is where my blog posts are fitting in. Adventure is somewhat harder.. but still not impossible. I can still talk about branding as an adventure (because it is. A great big exciting, business changing adventure)
Don’t just leave it.
This isn’t forever. You know this. And even if it was, people are still buying. People are still ready to spend. Perhaps their priorities have changed and it’s not gonna be camping gear so much as board games, accessories for games consoles and compost for the garden (and toilet rolls clearly!) but even if your thing is something they’re more likely to buy later you can still sell gift vouchers. You can still get into their minds. You can still be the place that they think of when they’re ready for what you do.
Let me know what you’re gonna do..