Defining your brand

“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business”.
- Steve Forbes

Get your toolkit

“Your brand is the single most important investment you can make in your business”.
- Steve Forbes

Get your toolkit

What is a brand?

The distinctive features and personality of a person, product, or company, that are unique from others and leave a lasting impression.​

A brand sets you apart from other advisors. It’s the combination of tangible and intangible elements that differentiate you, and let prospects know what to expect from you.

Components of a brand

  • Your purpose: The reasons why you do what you do, including your vision, mission, and value proposition.
  • Brand story: Your answer to the question, “what do you do”?
  • Visual identity: The look and feel of your marketing material.

Benefits of defining your brand

  • Set yourself apart: Defining a brand is like building a reputation. It highlights to prospects why you’re unique and what you stand for.
  • Attract ideal clients: Communicating your purpose helps clients easily identify if you’re someone they’d like to work with.
  • Increase marketing effectiveness: Having a central theme and message to your communications helps people understand, recognise, and remember you.
  • Create loyalty and trust: Stating what you’re all about acts as a promise to prospects and clients. Staying consistent in the way you present yourself and serve clients builds commitment. 

Defining your brand is an important exercise for all advisors. Often, hiring a professional marketing agency can be the most effective way to create brand. Consider full service agencies who can help you define your purpose, create a visual identity, and help you implement it into your practice. 

When someone asks you, “What do you do?”, how do you respond?

“What do you do” is a common question to ask someone that you’re meeting for the first time. For advisors, it also represents a key opportunity. It’s the opportunity to explain your value directly to a potential client. Too often, advisors waste this chance. Sometimes, people make their answers to long or complicated. Other times, they’re caught off guard and only give their title.

A powerful way to grab someone’s attention and interest is to structure your answer like a story. Story telling is like using a metaphor. It helps illustrate to prospects the role you could play in their lives.

Use this foolproof formula to craft your own answer to the question, “what do you do?”. 

  • 1

    Identify your ideal client’s problem

  • 2

    State your plan to help them

  • 3

    Describe the successful ending

Sample brand story

Many parents worry about what would happen to their children if they could no longer provide for them. I use a combination of insurance and investment strategies to create airtight financial plans. My clients live in the present and enjoy every moment with their families, rather than worrying about the future.

Use the Brand story worksheet to start crafting your own.

What first impression is your website or business card giving off?

What first impression is your website or business card giving off?

Visual identity

A strong visual identity captures the attention of your target audience, and creates brand recognition. It should reflect the values, and purpose of the brand.

A visual identity includes elements like:

  • Logo
  • Colour palette
  • Fonts
  • Imagery and images of your team
  • Stationery and business cards
  • Templates for newsletters, email signatures, etc.

Coca-Cola’s signature red colour, and classic font are easily recognizable.

John Deere uses their signature Green from their logo on all of their products.

Disney’s swirling font creates an instant recall of their brand.

To design a cohesive and memorable visual identity, consider hiring a professional marketing agency. They can ensure it appeals to your target audience, and aligns to your purpose. After they develop the look and feel of your brand, they’ll equip you with brand elements and guidelines you can use to keep your visual identity alive. 

The benefits of a strong brand are endless. It can create trust, increase recognition, attract prospects, and build loyalty with existing clients. However, these benefits aren’t an automatic consequence of defining your brand. They come through consistent, intentional reinforcement of your message.

Build and maintain recognition

Every form of communication from your practice should align with your brand. Your brand guidelines will determine the look of your marketing material. The more often people see consistent colours and imagery, the greater your brand recognition will be. Make sure that the tone and attitude are consistent as well. If your visuals are light-hearted and joyful, your text copy cannot be cold, and to-the-point.

Include your Brand one-pager as a meeting follow-up, when introducing yourself to prospects or centers of influence and feature it on your LinkedIn profile.

Client service offering

A strong brand attracts ideal clients. Part of creating loyalty, is delivering on that brand promise. Make sure that the services you offer directly correlate to your brand purpose. You can design a client service matrix to adapt the offering for each client segment.

Learn more about designing a magnetic client experience.

Marketing and strategic initiatives

Strategic initiatives are a great way to build brand recognition, deepen relationships with clients, and identify new prospects. When planning an event, consider how it relates to your purpose, and your target audience. The most impactful initiatives will go hand-in-hand.

Bell Let’s Talk is an annual awareness campaign in support of mental health. In addition to raising funds for mental health and building goodwill, they’re promoting their brand. There’s a direct relationship between talking with your friends or loved ones, and the telephone and internet services Bell provides.

Pick a cause that you care about, and plan to support it on an annual basis so it becomes a ritual.

Examples of strategic initiatives:

Communicate your purpose with the My purpose workbook.

Summarize and introduce your brand using the Brand one-pager.

Write your brand story using the 10-Second brand story worksheet.

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