5 Brand Health Review Methods to Keep You on Brand and Ready for Growth
Just as it’s important to review the operations of your business regularly, it’s also essential to evaluate the state of your company’s brand presence and marketing throughout the year. If you have company and/or operational standard procedures to hold you and your team accountable, you should have brand and marketing guidelines to strengthen your business as well. Without a strong foundation and consistent actions, you can lose clarity and flow.
The word ‘brand’ is thrown around so much these days and there are many ways to interpret what that word even means. The definition I have worked with for years is that a brand is a collection of symbols, experiences, and associations connected with a product, a service, or a person. A brand is so much more than just a name and logo. It’s in the image (logo, patterns, colors, images, fonts, etc.), the telling of your story, the unique customer experience, the reputation, and in products or services offered, etc. So how do you know if your brand is healthy?
A strong, healthy brand clearly and consistently tells your company’s story, engages your target audiences, and makes it easy for people to purchase from you. It’s ready for anything, can handle challenges with ease, and can handle growth.
An unhealthy brand is scattered, confusing, inconsistent, inefficient, and can’t keep up with the demands of growth or the competition.
In my previous roles, I oversaw brand and marketing reviews for a major restaurant brand with over 1,000 locations. I performed audits, taught others how to do them, and created system-wide inspection tools for the managers and franchise business owners to utilize. The goal of these audits was to make sure the restaurants used marketing methods and collateral that were appropriate, that they were ready for increased promotional traffic, and were protected from a brand and marketing standpoint.
I have carried this brand health knowledge with me as I have worked with independently-owned businesses and have found that it has helped small businesses create structure around their brand and marketing helping them to identify gaps and deliver recommendations for improvement. I suggest adding a variety of review methods to your annual plans and find that including your teams in the process of reviewing as it’s a great way to get on the same page.
5 Ways to Check In With Your Brand
One: Marketing Assessment
Before you execute any marketing, it’s important to be ready. Ask yourself, are we operationally sound and ready for new customers? Is the team aware of the marketing push that we are about to do and do they understand their roles in it? Are you visually aligned as a brand (logo, interior space, colors, online presence, etc.)? If you can answer no to these questions, it’s time to take a pause and get your foundation reset. There is nothing worse than spending time, effort, and money on marketing that drives new business, only for the new client to have a bad or confusing experience with your product, services, or brand. Creating an annual marketing plan that includes assessing your branding and marketing 1-2 times a year will set you up with a strong, consistent brand message across all platforms.
You’ll want to review everything that your brand touches for inconsistencies.
This is when you should review your branding, marketing materials, content, and advertising to make sure everything still aligns with your brand standards and represents you well. Look for off-brand visuals, outdated or disheveled materials, copywriting opportunities, and search for errors.
Two: Website Checkup
Website checkups are a helpful tool to ensure you are putting your best foot forward online. Your website is so much more than a placeholder, especially now when having a strong online presence is so important. Your website is your online home base: it houses all of your information, is meant to be a high-functioning tool for you, and is the end of the trail your marketing efforts flow. A website checkup is a great way to make sure your new website is ready to launch or that your current website is being optimized. The process of giving your website a checkup makes sure you have a responsive website that will stand as a strong foundational home for your business. A responsive design should include a clean layout, apparent branding, automation, and compelling content that clearly communicates what you’re about and why someone should buy what you’re selling (services, experiences & products). The website should run quickly, be simple to navigate, and should be easy for search engines to find. Taking a deep dive into the front and back end of your website is essential in the review process.
You’ll want to look for inconsistencies, errors, and update opportunities in the following areas:
Design (branding, colors, fonts, etc.)
Content (copy, blogs, videos, lead magnet opt-in, CTAs, shop, etc.)
SEO
Framework, formatting, navigation, layout, responsiveness, integrations, links
Images (high-quality graphics, load time, file name, etc.)
Overall cohesiveness, clarity, and consistency
Security & Backup
Compile detailed notes on your findings with recommendations for changes that you can either do yourself or you can hire out to make the changes for you.
Three: Social Media Audit
Your social media presence should be engaging and give an authentic view of who you are, what you do, what you offer, and how to get it. However, we all know social media moves fast and furious and that engagement isn’t always easy. It is challenging to keep up with the ever-changing algorithms, demand for constant content creation, and effort it takes to be noticed. I tend to think about my social media profiles as digital billboards for my business where visitors can get a quick snapshot of my brand vs. a place where I put all my marketing strategy effort in. I strategically build out my profiles and feed so that it’s clear what my business is all about. If you take that same approach, a social media audit where you do a deep dive into your social media profiles can help you find what’s working with your digital billboard and what’s needed. Your social media profiles should ignite curiosities and should send messages that help followers realize that they need you.
What to look for?
Using the correct account type (business, creator, etc.)
Edit follower/following list so it’s relevant to your business
Analyze your profile so it’s maximized and visitors know exactly who you are and what you do within seconds
Are you waiting for people to come to you for engagement or are you also commenting, saving, liking, and sharing other people’s content too?
Content (type, frequency, variety, etc.)
Caption copy consistency
Hashtag analysis (what works, use/remove, follow, etc.)
Four: Direct Customer Feedback
An ideal way to evaluate your brand health is through direct feedback from customers. Finding out more about who they are, what their experience has been, and how they perceive your brand, allows you to make immediate improvements and lasting changes that improve customer satisfaction and attract more of your target audience. Learn about what they love, what they haven’t enjoyed, what suggestions and requests they have, and where areas for improvement are. It’s a wonderful way to get feedback right from customers who interact directly with your business.
Ways to collect customer feedback
Request a testimonial
Send out a questionnaire via your newsletter
Create polls in your stories or feed on social media
Print surveys that would be handed out and collected by your team
Five: Brick and Mortar Walkthrough
If your business has a physical location such as a vacation rental, restaurant, or boutique shop, I suggest adding a walkthrough checklist into your brand review mix. Take the perspective of a brand new customer, experiencing your space for the first time. You want the time spent with you to be memorable and positive, one that aligns with the way you are promising the experience to be in your branding and marketing. You want them to feel like they are in the right place and made the right decision. Make sure you are starting outside and moving through each area of your location inside to get the full customer perspective.
Some checklist items to include:
Is the outdoor signage (marquee sign, windows/doors, etc.) clear, clean, and on-brand?
Is it clear what the business is all about the moment they walk in? Does it feel like what your marketing is telling people they will experience?
Basic info displayed? (guest rules, hours, owner/mgr info, phone, open/closed sign, etc.)
Are you providing helpful information to enhance the experience?
Marketing advertising/promotional materials up to date, in good shape, clear, and on-brand?
Consistency throughout
Distractions (broken, dusty, cluttered/messy, sticky, dust high/low, overwhelming smells, etc.)
Are you over messaging (ex: 6 copies of the same promotional sign)
Is your cash wrap/POS area organized with easy sales execution?
Merchandising and all sales opportunities set up properly (vendor displays, gift cards, etc.)
Internal team notifications hidden from customer view?
Brand health reviews help assess what kind of online and in-person presence your brand has. They help give the brand a fresh view from a guest's perspective, uncover necessary changes, show clear areas of success, and will keep you up to date.
Business owners and operators are extremely busy and it’s hard to carve out extra time outside of an already jam-packed schedule. But what can happen if you don’t take the time to review your brand and marketing throughout the year? You can end up with inconsistencies, can look inexperienced, may lose potential customers, and could risk falling behind.
It’s why I offer a variety of brand health options. I want my clients to feel comfortable and confident in their online presence and in-house experience.
You can learn more about my brand health options here.
