Ride Your Great Brand: Who Are You?

There are different types of fishing.

In bait fishing, you take the bait that’s most likely to draw the fish you’re looking for and sink it out in the water. Fish sees bait, fish nibbles on bait, fish is hooked – then the fisherman has to reel them in.

Marketing is about catching people’s attention and sticking in their minds. What’s the critical ingredient of great marketing? A great brand. Before there’s a yard sign, a lettered truck, a mailer, or a website, there’s your brand. What do I mean by brand? In this instance it’s your name, logo and anything else that goes with that logo.

It’s the bait on the end of every hook that you have out in the water. It’s how your customer identifies you from every other home improvement contractor out there trying to get their business.

Just being in business means your name is out there, but anybody can slap their name on the side of a truck. That alone doesn’t make it memorable or get the phone to ring. A home improvement contractor who wants to dominate their marketplace needs a great brand, the kind of brand you can ride to even greater success. What makes a brand great?

A great brand:

1) Sticks, 2) Tells what you do, and 3) Inspires trust.

Let’s go back to fishing for a moment. What happens when a whole bunch of fishermen converge on the same stream? Well, the ones who position themselves well and use the right bait are less likely to go home hungry. It’s not so different than marketing your home improvement, home service business.

Think about it, how is the homeowner going to make their decision on who to call? If there’s no memorable brands out there, it’s going to be an open-ended web search or a call to “that guy my sister had do that work a while back”.  (You’re going to want a strong web presence as well as referrals, but we’ll touch on those in later entries).

But what if there is a memorable brand out there, and you’re it? Then you’re top-of-mind when said homeowner decides they want to get that work done. That makes getting leads a lot easier.

It takes creative thinking to come up with a great brand, but it’s worth the effort. Once you’ve got one, you stand out from the pack, people know who you are, and it’s easier to become ‘famous’ in the marketplace. A great brand is something you can ride to even greater success.

Want some help working on your brand? Check out Contractor Nation’s School of Entrepreneurship.