Creating A Memorable Brand Experience As A Small Business

Let’s begin with asking ourselves ‘what is a brand experience?’

In its most basic explanation, it’s the way in which consumers experience and connect with your brand! But if we look more deeply, ‘brand’ defines what you represent, while ‘experience’ is how it is received and the growth that comes from it.

In a more extended explanation, we define brand experience as the experience before, during and after all interactions with your brand.

Before we continue to the steps there is one last part to look over at, namely the elements that form a brand experience: 

• Brand design
• Brand voice
• Brand image
• User experience
• Customer support
  

Now let’s review the six steps that lead to positive brand experience:

Find your Purpose

Always start with the questions WHO AM I? And WHY I AM DOING THIS?

The answer to your ‘who’ question will indicate what type of experience you are focusing on. When in an oversaturated market you need to have a niche purpose that distinguishes you from the rest. Therefore, the ‘why’ question is solely focused on your audience, because everything you’re doing is for them!

Storytelling 

Successful brands always have something to share with their audience! Customers want you to be more of a sincere and honest brand rather than a pushy, sales focused one.

So tell them who you are, how you started, what drives you, what your goals are, and how you can make a difference for your target audience. Be authentic!

By using your social media channels and website (if you can include blogs) you have such a wide opportunity to unveil yourself and connect with new and existing consumers. 

In case you need more guidance with storytelling then you can try implementing Stillmotions’ 4P’s: People, Place, Plot and Purpose to make your audience feel, think and act!

• People: Who is in the story?
• Place: Where does it take place?
• Plot: What’s the conflict and the journey?
• Purpose: Why should anyone care?

Consistency

If different elements of your brand are speaking different languages, you lose consistency. This may damage the integrity of your brand and lead to issues with customer experience.

Be mindful of your brand assets and guidelines over visual consistency e.g. colours, typography, logo. With consistency we also mean tone of voice when communicating and the attitude you convey. Your social media posts also have to be in one line with your brand personality.

Look for engagement opportunities

Engagement is often a good sign of customer experience. Do your customers see, hear, read about you? Do they talk about you or your product/services? If the answer is no, then try to boost your visibility, audibility and accessibility!

If you want to find out more about what impact you’re making - positive or negative - you can send them surveys or questionnaires about their experience. You could offer some type of benefit attached to completing these as an incentive - it’ll also make them feel that bit more special.

Prioritise experience over sales

The entire process of the 3 stage model (pre-purchase, service and post-purchase) is what establishes the significant steps of a purchase. People remember everything, and that’s how they form their opinions over your brand - make sure you constantly provide them with positive experiences. 

For online stores - simplify the process, minimize the pop-ups and have eye-pleasing colours.

Adapt and evolve 

We all know that this is a fast moving environment where we constantly have to adapt to new trends, behaviours and evolve our technology. Now you can learn what experiences people have with your brand on review websites, social media, etc. That’s why the ability to adapt is more important than ever, and more accessible than ever.

Before we end, here are a few tactics to boost your brand experience:

• Except from being visually appealing, the websites also have to be updated regularly to for optimum experience
• Very soon video content will be the go to method of communication and brand experiences - start thinking about incorporating these visuals
• Events - soon we will have life go back to normal, and events can be arranged for the audience

We're experts at creating a memorable brand experience for our clients, and you could be next! If you need the professionals to help you out, get in touch with us today.