Want to build a good brand? These are my top five suggestions for getting it right.
- If you know there will be an outage in service, warn your affected users, tell them when service will resume. And apologise. It sets expectations, demonstrates you are in control (even if that’s not true), and makes them feel like you care.
- Always look like yourself. Make sure that whatever they see will immediately make them think “i know whose this is!”. That’s good, consistent, branding. And no, it’s not just about sticking a logo on it.
- Underpromise and overdeliver, never the other way around. If you know you cannot get that parcel to their doorstep before thursday afternoon at best, promise Friday morning. It is better to surprise and delight rather than disappoint. If it means keeping it simple and limiting the feature list, that should be your choice. Best to do one thing incredibly well rather than twelve things averagely. (is that a word?)
- Tell them what they need to know. Content is king. Write, edit, edit again. Think of who will read it, what they care about, what questions they need answered, what they are looking for. Keep it short and clear. Detail is very welcome, but on request. I’m always going to ask for the full technical specifications, but not of your entire stock.
- Oh. And hire someone to proofread your copy. If you cannot spell Nebuchadnezzar, they may not want to pay £2000 for champagne they could get for £1400. Ha. What am I saying? If someone wants to pay £1400 for champagne, they won’t be concerned wiith spelling, will they?
And no, I wouldn’t order Champagne at any place which writes it “Champaign”…
