Whether you’re a Leadership Coach, Executive Coach, Team Coach or specialise in another mode of coaching, it’s likely that your prospective clients will choose between your business and another.
If you want to avoid the downward spiral of competing on price, here are 3 ‘P’s of branding which will help your business be recognised and remembered:
Please note that building your memorable brand is strategic and you’ll need to invest time, patience and commit to consistency to gain recognition.
You’ll have heard about the benefits of focussing on a clear niche. This is because it helps prospective clients to choose your business when you’re clear on who you want to attract (your brand positioning) and why you want to help them (your brand purpose).
Your niche could be narrow and deep, or wide and broad. You could focus on people who work in specific market sectors e.g. finance and tech or education or retail e.g. women HR managers over 45 years working in retail, or ambitious millennials working in media agencies.
When you have these start points, you can now go deeper and describe the typical attitude of mind of your target clients, along with how they feel about what is holding them back, troubling them or driving them forward. Having a deeper understanding of clients will help you to develop engaging and compelling messaging (P2 – proposition).
Now you have clarity on who you want to attract – you know their demographic and psychographic make-up – what about you? What is the inner spark that drives you to help them? When you clarify your why and the emotional connection you feel with clients, it will help ensure your messaging is authentic.
There’s one more question to answer on your brand positioning – what could make your approach, services or packages meaningfully different from other coaches in this space?
This is all about the value you bring your clients. It’s bigger than a USP which is often summarised as “a specific, differentiating factor that sets a product or service apart.” Instead, consider your Brand Value Proposition, because this embraces the complete value of what your brand promises to your clients.
Start by clarifying the 3 levels of benefits or transformation your client enjoys when they choose to work with you:
You can also interweave your brand story, origins, purpose and values into your brand messaging to reinforce the reasons why clients will prefer to choose your business services.
People tend to make their buying choices based on how they feel about the purchase and the people behind it, and then back up their decision with the rational arguments and functional benefits. It’s one of the reasons big companies invest in the emotional power of branding.
Over time, the totality of your brand value proposition creates a memorable experience of working with your business – and can generate referrals and recommendations.
The who of your business brings together your personal brand within your business identity – the relatable, human characteristics of your business including:
Once you’ve defined your brand personality, it’s vital that you express your brand identity consistently over time.
It may feel boring, yet gaining recognition for your business relies on consistency. By consistently reinforcing your brand colours, fonts, logo, imagery, tone of voice and so on, will help your target clients to remember and recognise your brand.
Keep a record of your brand positioning, value proposition, personality and more, in your Brand Style Guide. It’s an invaluable reference point for creating consistency in your business and brand evolution, and for briefing the people you outsource to.
Remember that consistency is key. Repeat, repeat, repeat for brand standout, awareness and memorability.
Lynne Stainthorpe is a brand strategist who works with coaches, consultants and therapists to make your brand human, relevant and distinctive, so that your business stands out, grows affinity and creates impact. She is a LinkedIn Top Voice.
Lynne uses a proven process to develop your brand identity, personality and tone of voice, based on your brand vision and values. She gets to the heart and soul of your brand and brings it to life throughout your branding and marketing collateral. She helps position and package your services, and develop your value proposition, so that you can communicate your brand message effectively and consistently within a flexible framework.