Are you developing your brand?
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Do you have a brand? How do you portray yourself to your clients?
In the notary world the importance of branding and our professional look and feel often gets overlooked. If you are anything like me you have become absorbed by today’s brands and they have become synonymous with your daily living. I am wearing Levi jeans and a J-Crew shirt. What do you think about when you see these companies mentioned? What you are thinking about right now is their brand. What they stand for, how they operate, and how they communicate to consumers is all part of their brand.
As contractors and notaries, your brand is an important part of differentiating yourself. When branding your business, the name of your company is very important. It should be a well-thought out process that communicates a message to people, and has meaning. The positive qualities and characteristics of your brand name associate you with positive values and characteristics.
Many clothing designer’s names have made it their goal to see their brand (name) represented properly. Some examples are Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karen, or J Jill. When you see these companies you may think that they are irrelevant to the life of the notary. On the contrary, branding is as pertinent for you as it is the fashion designer. Branding is not just establishing a logo, it is managing the thoughts and feelings of your customers to ensure that you are the notary they want because of the image your brand portrays.
If you are not managing your own professional image, you’re missing a key element in differentiation. What makes you different from the 10 other notaries in your area?
A professional image is a vital aspect of your marketing. Your image is everything from how you answer the phone to your business cards and website. Once you give them Tiffany’s quality and Nordstrom’s service, why would they want to go anywhere else? Repeating this quality makes you memorable and they continue to come back to the same “brand” that your professional image reflects.
Where do we go from here? In reflecting a notaries brand image, notaries often fail in bits and pieces. They have a great name, but lousy website, or great service but no one can spell out their email. Clients want simplicity and consistency. If you are passionate about the notary business and the brand that you have created make sure everything you do reflects that brand. If I am a Title Company and I see misspellings, ClipArt from 1999, and a dancing dog on a notary’s website I will not think professional, I will think cheesy.
Branding and a professional image are essential to any small business. As a notary it is important to look at the long term success of your business and brand as the two are interconnected. You can’t build a brand overnite…but are you thinking about your brand at all?
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2007 has been a year of change in the Notary world. Our bread and butter refi’s have dropped dramatically and the fallout from the sub-prime mess hasn’t helped any.