In his book, "Advanced Brand
Management," Paul Temporal asked
research participants to rate the personalities of two competing companies
with Internet presences. He found that consumers preferred to buy from the
company they perceived as "easy going, modest, helpful, caring,
approachable, and interested," rather than the one they perceived as
"sophisticated, arrogant, efficient, self-centered, distant and
disinterested." Not surprisingly, the latter company was doing much
better in the competition.
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Which, if either, are you?
1. How
conventional or unconventional is your website?
Are you a "rule follower" or an "innovative
ground-breaker"? My website takes longer to load than is recommended,
which reflects that I'm not in a hurry, not intimidated by
"rules," and not afraid to sacrifice time over quality. Therefore
I attract clients pre-qualified for their willingness to invest in
coaching--the time, money and effort great results require. My website is
loaded with information, resources, and ways for surfers to interact --I'm
eager to share, interact, and help. So are my clients, and they're ideal.
This is how branding works.
2. Do you write
your own copy?
Writing yourself, or with the help of a professional who can take what
you write, tweak it, make it "more" you, and get this across on
the Internet, is part of branding. Canned website copy reads like canned
website copy. You have then branded yourself as
www.i_mass_produce_mediocre_websites_and_only_value_
speed_and_money.com.
3. Do you use
an autoresponder?
Using one may reflect speed and efficiency and focus on money, not
people. Not using one may reflect personal attention, treating individuals
as individuals, and your eagerness to interact personally with your
consumers and prospective clients. Remember, what you do is your brand, and
reflects your values.
4. How
technically correct is your website?
Typos and grammatical mistakes reflect several negative things you don't
want associated with your brand: speed over quality, lack of education or
intelligence, lack of expertise, inability to think straight, or
carelessness. This is an "elimination" factor: no one's going to
choose you because your website is proper, that's what they expect, so they
will eliminate you because it's improper.
5. How is your
website organized?
Is it visual, more like a mind-map, reflecting creativity and
originality, oriented toward creative right-brainers? Is it linearly laid
out, logical and conventionally organized, aimed at left-brainers? Or is it
rich with both, appealing to those with balance and good communication
between the brain hemispheres, a reflection of high emotional intelligence?
Or is it poorly organized and difficult to maneuver, reflecting your own
scattered thinking, haste, carelessness, and lack of intentionality, and
essentially appealing to no one?
6. Do you offer
Internet courses?
Are you an expert in your field, able to teach others and interested in
doing so? Are your courses interactive, offering the learner an experience,
not just information? Have you branded yourself as an expert and an
educator? If it's interactive, do you offer unlimited email response as part
of your "exceptional service" branding?
7. How do you
handle your ebooks?
If you write them, you're branded as an expert, a writer, and a teacher.
If you send them out manually with an email note of thanks, you're branded
as someone who cares about individuals and isn't so busy and successful they
don't have time for anyone.
8. Is your
website all about you?
Then that's your brand; you're going to appear self-centered, distant and
disinterested in your clients.
9. Do you reply
with speed but use excessive jargon and stilted phrases, and demand picky
perfectionistic behavior from your prospective clients/shoppers?
If so, you'll appear sophisticated, arrogant and efficient; turnoffs.
10. Did you pay
a website assembly-line company to produce a cookie-cutter,
fill-in-the-blank website for you-sterile and unimaginative with fuzzy
graphics, and like thousands of others?
If your website was constructed, I hesitate to use the word
"designed," by a mass-producing web company that uses
fill-in-the-blank templates, it will have that look to it. Your website is
"you". Is that how you treat yourself? If so, that's how you treat
others. If that's what you have, you have spoken, and you have branded
yourself. Like communication, if you're present, you're branding, whether
you intend to or not, whether you know it or not.
-- (C) Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, markets clients on the Internet.
Article-writing service, ezines, unique web design, affordable, innovative
branding web strategies. www.webstrategies.cc
February 11, 2003
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