One of the most difficult aspects of running a small business is figuring out how your customers and clients perceive your brand. While you may offer the best cheesecake in town, made from the highest quality ingredients by happy bakers in a pristine environment, no one will know about those behind-the-scenes details if you never talk about them. Whether you specialize in cheesecake or not, the same principle applies to anyone looking to build customer loyalty and increase brand awareness. In general, if you talk about what matters to your brand, your customer base will find you.
Social Listening: Understanding Your Audience
There are many ways to analyze your brand’s audience, from hashtag research and keyword analysis software to studying similar business models and online influencers. Social listening is a straightforward concept that literally means ‘listening to social media’. When conducting a brand assessment, I run a social listening search to determine your current audience, their interest in brands similar to yours, and ways to increase brand awareness with potential audiences. Social listening reports help you to better understand how your brand’s products and services align with the interests of your customer base.
Universal Design: Identifying Accessibility Barriers
Many brands struggle to create a cohesive visual identity, especially online, but can’t pinpoint why it is so difficult. Understanding how to improve how customers see your business can be accomplished many ways. I find the best place to being is by comparing your brand’s current visual communication elements to the 7 basic principles of universal design.
- Equitable use
- Flexibility in use
- Intuitive simplicity
- Perceptible information
- Tolerance for error
- Low physical effort
- Size and space for approach and use
Based on your current visual communication methods, I identify areas of opportunity in your brand’s physical packaging and signage, as well as your online presence. In other words, I look at how accessible your brand is and what barriers are preventing you from reaching a wider audience. Although good brand design takes time to develop, this in-depth assessment is an excellent place to start.
Brand Voice: Infusing Daily Operations With Values
Brand values declare to the world what matters most to your business and why people should care. While most businesses form mission statements and values, those values tend to get lost in day-to-day operations. When creating a brand voice review, I compare your universal design audit with your social listening results to reveal how your communication style aligns with your brand’s values. This helps determine how those values are perceived by customers and how to improve that messaging.
Why offer brand assessments for free?
With retail management experience with both small businesses and large corporations, I have seen first-hand how a strong brand identity ripples through every aspect of an operation, from employee morale to customer engagement. There are many free branding tools available to business owners and creators, but I have never met a small business owner who has the time to sit down and properly utilize them. Through years of practice, continuing education, and endless curiosity, I’ve learned how to efficiently navigate these free tools as a business operator. By freely sharing the skills I’ve developed, my goal is to assist other creators and businesses in building their own robust, inclusive communities.
Jen Coe | Artist & Instructor 