To help you stand head and shoulders above the competition Conqueror, the specialists in business communication have created an 8 point plan to help you create the right image and get your business noticed.
1. Consider your corporate image and identity
Unless your business is a start-up, it already has a corporate image. It’s the brand, your personality, how employees behave, what your customers feel about you and how well you present yourself. Our research revealed the most successful companies, whose profitability has risen significantly over the last 5 years, attribute 33% of their success to their business image.
2. Find the Big Idea
To establish or improve your image, a proposition statement is needed. It must reflect your company’s values and state what the company is and what it does. If you’re unsure, sit down with senior staff, key employees and willing customers and thrash one out. The result must be a single message that’s sufficiently realistic and persuasive to stick in people’s minds, inside and outside the company.
3. Logos, symbols and straplines
A logo can work hard to communicate your message and image. The most effective logos contain a visual idea or capture the brand’s spirit non-verbally. In addition, straplines or ‘taglines’ can reinforce your message, especially if the business name doesn’t say what you do. If you decide to use a strapline make sure it clearly communicates your main benefit. (Just remember - straplines, names and logos are ‘intellectual property’ and may be legally protected, either by you or others)
4. Involve and inform
Once you’re sure of your business identity, you should apply it across every business activity. Before any of this can happen it is vital that internally everyone understands it, endorses it and is able to express it with enthusiasm. Consider internal pre-launch events, information packs and give-aways explaining the new identity to gain buy in from those who will be expressing it day-to-day.
5. Your website
Make sure your Internet presence is another natural extension of the corporate identity. Use the same themes, colours and typefaces to create a seamless ‘look and feel’.
If resources are tight, include images taken with a good-quality digital camera or ‘borrow’ them from your company literature. Be careful that you own usage rights for anything that’s been shot professionally or purchased from an image library.
6. Branding people and places
The skills, dedication and ingenuity of your employees can make your corporate identity come alive. Kitting staff out in appropriate and stylish uniforms can instill a sense of pride. For those in more office-based or sales roles, branded accessories can help communicate your identity more frequently.
Don’t overlook signage, both external and internal. Reception areas, vehicle deliveries and windows are all opportunities for projecting your image.
Two-fifths of those we surveyed highlighted the importance of their 'company website', whilst around a third deem 'product package/branding', and the 'quality of printed materials' as important in building and projecting business image.
7. Create a strong initial impression
Your business card represents you long after your meeting is over, so think about its design, feel, weight and ways to make it stand out. Envelopes can also be a great door opener, provided the quality is right. Direct mail delivered in a high quality envelope, which co-ordinates the material inside, feels more personal, which means it’s more likely to be opened and read.
8. Image enhancement through the right choice of paper
Specify quality paper for your external communications and you’ll immediately raise the stakes. Not least because this is the medium through which your customers will see you most often. Everyday items - letters, invoices, statements, compliment slips, reports and proposals - all play a part in projecting your image and style.
