How to perpetuate awareness for your firm

when you're not physically there to tell your story

In our last two articles, we discussed Brand LeakTM. Brand Leak occurs when some aspect of your unique value proposition – your Unique Story – isn't getting through to the marketplace and it begins to hinder your opportunities. In this article, we delve deeper into identifying and fixing Brand Leaks.

To further embrace the challenge of Brand Leak, picture a bathtub or a bucket. You fill it with water, use it and everything seems fine. However, what if you filled the same vessel and left it alone for a week or two? When you come back, it's empty. You realize there were very fine cracks in the veneer, so fine you hadn't even realized they could jeopardize the bucket's effectiveness.

These kinds of fine cracks exist in most seasoned professional services firms. Multiple partners are each using their own Elevator Talk and the brand membrane is weakened. The face-to-face prospect interface is powerful, yet the printed marketing materials don't match in message or quality. These leaks eventually affect the firm's ability to capture its full potential. It's not that things are going poorly; they're just not as amazing as you aspire to be – just shy of your complete potential.

The Brand Impression Bell Curve (see the bell curve diagram) helps us evaluate the most common aspect of Brand Leak. In many firms, the primary marketing tool is the face-to-face meeting (or telephone contact, if your practice is national). The good news is that if you've built a successful firm, you're likely great at executing this personal contact. However, when you're not physically making contact, you're not perpetuating awareness of your brand. Before the meeting occurs, the awareness may be diffuse, outdated or nonexistent. The minute you walk out the door or hang up the phone, awareness inherently dissipates due to lack of physical presence.

To create a complete brand experience, it's important to begin brand awareness before the face-to-face meeting and continue the impression afterwards. We call this concept brand extension: how can you extend your brand beyond the impact of individual rainmakers?

The fifth piece of chocolate cake

One of the simplest ways to extend your brand is to reevaluate when you use your current marketing materials. Many advisors bring folders of information, brochures or complimentary books to their prospecting meetings. Refer back to the Brand Impression Bell Curve: you're already at the high point of impact during this face-to-face meeting, simply based on your delivery or interview skills. We don't need any additional power at this point. In fact, I liken it to feeding someone a fifth piece of chocolate cake. They were wowed by the first one but after that, no matter how great the cake is, they can't even taste it anymore. Their receptors are numb. The solution is simple: send some materials ahead of the meeting with a confirmation note. Mail others later with a thank you note. Avoid piling the full power of your brand into a single point of experience.

What is your Unique StoryTM?

Before you begin extending your brand, it's crucial to reflect on your message. We refer to the core of your brand as your Unique Story. It's the key themes that make your work and your client experience altogether different from so many other firms that claim to do what you do. In order to truly differentiate yourself in our industry, examine your vernacular. Our industry has created incredible Brand Leaks by applying different meanings to a common set of terms. The media uses the same terms in different contexts. Individual advisors use this same set of language to make their own promises – some of which they fulfill and others they don't. In refining your Unique Story, challenge yourself to find the wisdom beneath the overused terms. Everyone claims to provide comprehensive planning. What do you really mean by this? How is your process uniquely effective? See the sidebar in this article for the worst offenders.

ARTICLE SIDEBAR:

Brand Leak Problem Spots

These words are used so frequently in so many different contexts, they are no longer descriptive or helpful to the consumer. Challenge yourself to communicate these concepts in ways that are more specific and compelling than the language others are using.

The Story, the Experience and the Echo

Once you've refined your Unique Story, it's time to look at how and when it's deployed. Ideally, we want the story to become an Experience. It should move beyond a pitch, proposal or website and into the experiential realm of your prospective and longstanding relationships. In order to do this, we must stimulate multiple senses using a variety of mediums across a broad time horizon.

Consider the medium you use to reach out to your marketplace. Is it limited to personal contact, either in person or face to face? When you do send materials between meetings, is it mostly electronic or do you use some physical touches? If you can stimulate all five senses in the brand experience, awareness is cemented faster and at a deeper level.

Ideally your touch points should be a combination of personal contact, physical pieces sent through the mail and experiential or three-dimensional items such as books, exercises or relevant objects. Stimulate the sense of touch using high-quality papers and packaging. Stimulate the audio sensation by including impromptu phone calls as part of your system. If you'd like to stimulate taste or olfactory sensations, consider the sensations that feel consistent with your Story. Offer vanilla tea to create a warming familial environment, or place bowls of pure peppermint candy in your conference room to stimulate mental clarity.

When your Unique Story is concise and compelling, and you pull it through the brand experience stimulating a variety of senses, you'll succeed in creating an Echo. This is when all the couriers of your story – prospects, clients and centers of influence – are so clear about your value proposition, they're able to repeat your story with passion and clarity. Your brand finally becomes portable and your firm becomes a magnet of opportunity in ways you wouldn't have previously deemed possible.

The Three Phases of OpportunityTM: Marketing, Sales & Engagement or Nurture

Another tool for identifying and fixing Brand Leak is the graphic in this article, The Three Phases of Opportunity. This helps us parse out where the brand experience exists and where there are gaps.

The Marketing Phase is the time frame in which you're courting a prospect to the table. Do you have a list of great prospects you intend to work with at some point? How are you proactively requesting referrals to these key targets? How are you creating credibility and awareness between referrals? For center-of-influence scenarios, the Marketing Phase refers to nurturing new centers to provide a first referral. Challenge yourself to create a system that goes beyond phone calls, lunches and electronic newsletters.

The Sale Phase is the tight window in which the prospect has come to the proverbial table. You've received the referral and you're working to get the appointment or secure the engagement. What are your touch points after the initial phone contact and between face-to-face meetings? How much time goes by without any contact? How can you create professional momentum with additional personal touches? For centers of influence, the Sales Phase refers to your first joint client project. The goal is to cement your brand experience for the client and the center.

The last phase is Engagement or Nurture. If you engage the prospect as a client, how are you reinforcing your key brand themes throughout the client experience? Many firms are great at articulating their value proposition in the Sales Phase, yet when they begin working with the client, they forget to reinforce their key differentiators or unique processes. The more intentional you can be, the more compelling and portable your Unique Story becomes. You'll begin to control the echo your clients carry out into the marketplace. The Nurture Phase refers to prospects who don't immediately convert. Once again, consider the variance of touches and consistency of message. Make sure your Unique Story is front and center when the timing is right for the prospect to make a change.

For centers of influence, the Nurture Phase refers to courting the center to refer again and again. The same guidelines of variety and intentionality apply to these relationships. Consider how many insurance and financial advisors are vying for the attention of each CPA and attorney. Try to stand out from the crowd based on the creativity and variance of how you maintain awareness.