5 Reasons Brand Consistency Matters in Service-Based Business
Most service-based businesses recognise the value of brand consistency. But if you’re a small business with limited marketing resources, investing in brand consistency may seem like a luxury.
Brand consistency is more than just using the same colours and font on your website and social media. Brand informs the experience someone has every time they come into contact with your business. Brand is sensed in the way you interact with clients. It’s conveyed by the topics you choose to blog about. And it’s seen in the imagery you use on social media.
How will I know when I’ve lost my brand consistency?
Do you feel like your business is suffering from a split personality? Maybe you launched with branding in calming colours of green and blue. But now you’ve grown and find yourself with a team who are high energy and whip out client work at warp speed.
Or do you have a nagging feeling that something is a bit ‘off’? Your Instagram features uplifting quotes paired with nature shots; but your service brochure is peppered with images of corporate-types smiling at each other in office spaces. The two don’t feel like they belong together.
In the early days of business, you spent time creating a look and feel that represented your values and aspirations. As your busines grew, your energies were directed to client work, business development and staffing. There was little time to keep an eye on how the ‘brand’ was tracking.
Now, it’s likely that your business has outgrown and outpaced the vision of those early days.
Five reasons brand consistency is important
Achieving brand consistency is essential to making sure your business values and identity are perceived as you want them to be. This in turn ensures you attract the right kind of clients! Getting this crucial part of your business marketing right is hard work – but it’s worth the effort.
1. Brand consistency conveys your professionalism.
You may not be one of the big corporate players in the marketplace, but you’re just as professional, responsive and efficient. In fact – you’re more so. You had to hustle to set up your business, prove your worth, and fight for all those early clients. Having a brand that is consistent across all client touchpoints shows that you mean business. If you respect your business enough to invest time in nurturing it, it’s fair to assume you’ll treat your clients the same way.
2. A consistent brand carves out a distinctive presence in the marketplace.
A consistent brand is a tool for creating brand equity – the recognition and value your business has in the marketplace. It’s competitive out there. Other professional services businesses offer roughly the same services. To make sure your business is recognisable and therefore ‘top of mind’, you need to create a unique brand based on your values, services, work ethic and client needs, then live this consistently.
3. Brand consistency attracts the clients you want to work with.
A client sees you on Instagram and then immediately recognises a post on LinkedIn as one of yours. When you Zoom them for a consultation, they have an ‘aha’ moment as the pieces of the puzzle fall neatly into place. These sparks of recognition are playing to the psychology of the buyer, and reinforcing their perception of you. By communicating your values and ethos consistently, you also make a stand for who you are and what your business can do for people. Some will walk away. But others will know you’re the right fit for them.
4. Brand consistency contributes to business growth.
A solid branding strategy forms the basis of brand consistency. The work that goes into developing your branding strategy – values work, target client personas, competitor analysis, brand positioning, business goals – go hand-in-hand with your business development strategy. The two should be completely aligned to ensure you are laser-focussed on your growth goals. A consistent brand is also an attractive and reassuring proposition for partners and stakeholders who want to help your business get to the next level.
5.) Brand consistency ensures the brand lives on without you.
At some point, you may start to think about scaling back your work week, handing the business to the next generation, or even selling your business. Many founders want to leave a legacy – this is, after all, your baby. Brand consistency ensures that your vision and impact can live on, even if you’re not physically present to keep everything aligned.
Brand consistency can only be achieved when you have brand flow – when the foundations of your brand are so assured that everything seems to naturally cascade from them.
Maintaining brand consistency will never be effortless, but with the right attention and nurture, it will reflect a conscious and consistent vision of what your business offers and stands for.
