Important Questions to Ask to Identify your Brand

Want to build a stronger brand? Stand out from the competition? Craft irresistible messages that resonate deeply with your ideal customers?

One of the most important steps to take to make that happen is to identify what your brand is.

You need to know what makes your business unique and why your customers value what you offer. So that your brand messages are clear, unique, and consistent in order to leave a strong impression. The kind of impression that helps people remember you when it’s time to buy and trust that you are the one who can help them.

How do you figure out what your brand is? Ask your customers.

With the valuable information you’ll collect, you can develop stronger brand messages that resonate with your customers or prospects. Messages that clearly explain the value you offer them and why that is unique. Messages that grab their attention in a cluttered marketplace and make your marketing easier and more effective.

We’re going to help you figure this out because we want you to Brand Strong and grow. Let’s start.

Your customers have formed a perception of your brand based on what you have told them. And then it is reinforced by their experience working with you or using your product. Every touch point you have with that customer – presentations, social media posts, emails, sales pitch, delivering the product or service, and even billing them – is an opportunity to strengthen or weaken your brand.

So, it’s important to find out what they think because if they think you stand for A and you think you stand for B, you have a brand disconnect. Your messages will confuse your customer rather than attract them. It needs to be fixed.

Your customers buy from you because you offer them something of value. So, what do they value? Why do they continue to work with you? Who do they see as your competition?

Wouldn’t it be helpful to know this? Yes! So, let’s interview your customers to gather this important data.

Which customers should you interview?

You want to identify the customers who really understand your brand and value your product or service. In other words, your best customers. Build off of their perception of your brand because you want to find more people just like them. You can interview one or two customers who maybe aren’t your best to find out why that’s the case, but you don’t want to focus on what you don’t do well. There’s probably a reason for that or you would have fixed it. Instead, focus on what you can do really well, so that you can replicate it more often and target the type of customer who values it.

What should you ask?

To get you started, we’ve put together a list of 10 questions that should help you unearth the value you provide and identify your brand. However, you know your business and industry better than we do, so if you want to swap out a question or add a few more questions specific to a service or product you provide, have at it!

Don’t be afraid to be creative with your questions. Sometimes the more surprising the question, the better the information collected.

Believe it or not, after 20 years of helping companies identify their brand, the question that gives us the best answers to identify a brand is – “If you had to describe our company in three words, which would you choose?” It seems easy and sort of silly, but it stumps people, makes them really think, and you get at the true nature of what they value with this one question.

Also, you want the emotions and feelings the person has about your company, so if they are giving you one word answers to questions, keep asking, “Why?” until you get the information you need.

Here are the 10 Questions You Need to Ask Your Customers to Identify Your Brand

1. 1. In your words, what does our company do?
2. 2. What value do we offer you? (or What problem do we solve for you?)
3. 3. Can you get that value from anyone else?
4. 4. What is the one thing we do that you can’t get anywhere else?
5. 5. Who do you think is our ideal customer?
6. 6. If you had to describe our company in three words, which would you choose?
7. 7. What do you feel is our biggest asset?
8. 8. What did we say that made you want to work with us in the first place?
9. 9. Would you refer us to another firm? Why or why not?
10. 10. Who do you think is our biggest competitor? How are we different from them?

BRAND STRONG TIP: If you can, conduct some of these interviews using Zoom or Google Meet. Why? Because you can record it and if your interviewee says something great about you, you can ask them if you can use that portion of the video as a testimonial on your site, blog, or social media accounts.

To have a strong brand, you need to be strong enough to ask questions and hear the answers. So, on your mark. Get set. Go line up those interviews!

For more help on this process and what to do with the data once you’ve collected it, grab a copy of my ebook “10 Questions to Ask Your Customers to Identify Your Unique Brand.”

If you need help, don’t have time, or want an objective, third party to interview your customers, give me a call at 847-963-1805 or shoot me an email at [email protected]. I would be happy to help you identify your brand so you can accelerate your growth.