Do your marketing platforms inspire and captivate your ideal client’s attention?
Is your content interesting and relevant enough to help your potential clients?
If you want to stand out on social media you need to earn the attention of your audience. And you only have a short time to earn this attention.
And even if your content is great quality, if it is visually unappealing you will not get much of a look in.
The right looking brand will breathe life into your accounting practice. You will expand your reach, boost engagement and get remembered.
Crafting the look of your brand is essential for your marketing success.
So how can you create a strong visual brand on social media? How can you create a signature style that is recognised?
13 Milliseconds!
Our brain is the most powerful processing tool, and it can process images in as little as 13 milliseconds. If this is the case, as your audience scrolls their LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram they can make an instant decision on what they see.
Do they like it, is it worth clicking, does it look like something they want to read/watch?
It takes a matter of moments to enable the click, or be scrolled past. Given the speed at which people are scrolling on their phones a strong brand presence is crucial. Without it the opportunity to engage with them can be lost… forever.
The right graphics, images, pictures, fonts and colours will either get someone to click, or not.
The Opportunity
With knowledge such as this you can leverage the opportunity. You have a chance to engage and connect with your audience.
What Does A Strong Brand Look Like?
When you think of a strong brand image what comes to mind? In most cases the logo is the first thing you think of, then its colours, then it’s how that brand makes you feel.
Coca-Cola is a great example, their brand can be conjured up in your mind. You can envisage the shape of the Coca-Cola bottle, the colours of their logo, and if you are like me, you can hear the Coca-Cola jingle in your mind from the 90s.
Coca-cola is one of the most established brands around and has an undeniable look and feel.
They have leveraged their brand across all the modern marketing platforms, from Instagram to Facebook. They have continued to make sure that they stand out, and they continue to be the most recognisable soft drink on the planet.
So what enables them to stand out, and stand the test of time, even when their product is being berated for being unhealthy.
1. They have a streamlined look and feel. No matter what you see, the colours, font, and images they use are consistent. There is no confusion in the audience’s mind as to what product is being displayed.
2. Their tone of voice is the same across all mediums. They are fun, flirty and upbeat.
3. They have a clear message. There is no ambiguity in who this product is for and what is does.
4. They tell stories. Look at the spin-off product with Diet Coke… we all know the phrase “diet coke break”. What about the Coca-Cola Christmas truck depicting the fact that “the holidays are coming”. They don’t try and sell a drink, they sell stories.
5. They have built trust with their consumers. They deliver the same product, in the same way, time after time. Well, that was until they made a big blunder in 1985 when Coca-Cola announced that they were scrapping the original soda formula for a newer sweeter formula. However, even this faux-paux didn’t affect them too negatively. After realising their mistake they brought back Coca-Cola Classic and sales surged again, restoring it as the dominant leader in the worlds competitive soda market.
How can your accounting practice “Be More Coca-Cola?”
1. Have a strong logo that people can get to know, and recognise when they see it. Have a look at Deloitte and see how they have a strong logo, which stands out online.
2. Stick to two/three colours with your branding. Embracing the rainbow is not what an accounting practice should be doing when choosing their brand colours. If you end up looking like a Skittles advert or something out of Joseph and his technicolour dream coat, you will look messy and not cut through the online noise.
3. Be clear on your message… whilst a tag line is not essential, knowing what your practice stands for is. One of the most important drums that we beat here at TwentyTwo Agency is that “If you think it’s about marketing your practice you are missing the point, it’s about creating a life of freedom”. What is your message that you want to bring to the world?
4. Tell stories. Why do you do what you do? People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
5. Build trust. The easiest way to do this is to be consistent with all that you do. Show up regularly, be consistent in your delivery and do as you promise to do. Never break your brand promise.
If you would like to be inspired by some accounting practices who are pioneering their way forward with strong brands, here are some visuals:
The websites above can be visited here:
Branding is one of the 9 key strategies that we teach in the Pioneering Practice Programme. If you would like to find out more about the programme and how we can help your accounting practice to engage and connect with an audience and convert them into clients please book a call here.
P.S. When you’re ready… here are 3 ways we can help you with marketing and growing your accounting practice:
1. Grab free copy of my book
It’s the roadmap to attracting better prospects, signing higher value clients and scaling your accounting firm. – Click Here
2. Take the test.
It will benchmark your firms ability to effortlessly attract, connect with & convert high value clients using the Pioneering Practice Scorecard. – Click here
3. Join the tribe and connect with firms who are growing too.
It’s our new Facebook community where ambitious founders, owners, and partners learn to attract better prospects, sign higher value clients and scale their accounting firm. – Click here
