In this day and age, with so many different places to interact with your clients, it can be difficult to maintain consistency. Email, social media, your website, the telephone, and your actual physical location – you interact with your clients in so many different ways and it can be difficult to maintain consistent branding and messaging across all these platforms. What can you do to not send mixed messages? And why is consistency so important anyway?
Your brand is the representation of your business, and any communications you send on its behalf are representing your business as well. It’s fine to have varying messages or versions of your voice, depending on who your specific target audience is. You want to make sure you tailor things to match the audience. But you want to make sure that all your communications have consistency and fully represent your overall brand and voice.
Consistency helps breed trust in your brand. And that positive gut feeling that your potential and regular clients have about your brand is what will drive their purchasing decisions. So using consistency to create and maintain a positive feeling about your brand will ultimately help build your business. It’s also comforting to clients for them to know what sort of experience they will have when they deal with your company. Make sure it is a positive one.
So what are some things you can do to maintain consistency?
Make sure your branding is consistent
Your clients should be able to recognize your brand across all platforms. Logos and color schemes should be consistent whether your client is receiving an email or visiting your Facebook page.
Keep your voice and message consistent across all platforms of communication
Maintaining a consistent message across all social media platforms & email communications make your message even more powerful. This is not to say that every single outlet should have exactly the same format or exactly the same message. Obviously, your messages need to be specifically geared towards the channel you are using (whether it is email, print, or social media). But you want your overall message to be a consistent one that supports your branding, and it should be in a voice that is recognizable as your brand’s voice.
Provide Excellent Customer Service
Make sure you are providing excellent customer service to your clients. It establishes trust and cultivates loyalty. Consistency means that your clients will always know what to expect when they deal with your business, whether it is online or in person. Consistency here also means that your clients will feel comfortable recommending you to family and friends, because they will feel confident in the experience and level of service they are recommending.
Create Clear and Standardized Business Policies
Consistency in your day to day operations makes your business run smoother. It also makes your business more easily scalable as you grow. So make sure you provide consistency to your employees through clear and standardized policies. They should always know what to expect and how they will be treated. Maintaining this sort of transparency with your employees increases the level of trust and engagement. Employees who are secure in their position and know what to expect (and what is expected of them) are much more engaged in growing the business and providing a high level of service. Clear business policies also help you and your employees provide the best customer experience possible, because they have consistent guidelines to follow. This helps inspire trust and loyalty.
Consistency is the key to building a strong brand that your customers will come to trust. By properly implementing it into your business and communication practices, you will find it much easier to not only run your business, but to create a strong brand identity. Both of these things also translate into more regular sales growth.