Sounds corny, doesn’t it? Sure, but our products and services are our promises to you, aren’t they? It’s our promise to our audience or clientele. And while most people don’t realise this, your business promise is as simple as the product or service that you offer. The guarantee from the seller to the buyer.

Whenever a business makes or sell’s something, a promise is made, and the audience is compensating for a difference that happens as a result of that promise. Popular businesses are built by being upfront and highlighting the various brand promises and managing customer expectancies. So, what are you promising and what difference is your audience anticipating?

If you asked your audience that question, would they know how to answer it for your business?  And if they did, would you be confident they would agree your business delivers on that answer?

There are businesses that are tremendously precise about what they do. Their brand promise has been clear from the beginning and are now recognisable purely based on it.  Do you think your audience would be able to identify your business by hearing the brand promise alone? For example, who do you think of when you hear the classic “The Fresh Food People”, “I’m lovin’ it” or “Lowest Prices are just the beginning”. Do these businesses immediately jump to your mind?

So, what’s so memorable about these brand promises and how can you follow their lead? Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.

We all know it’s not a secret that branding is an integral part of your business. With the growth of social platforms such as Instagram, YouTube and Twitter to name a few, the demand for an audience’s time is ever growing – and insanely competitive! It’s easy to get caught up in wanting to speak to multiple audiences with several messages – but in reality – it’s better to simplify what you do and own it – be the master of it! Once you have caught the attention of an audience, you want to be able to deliver on the promise as soon as possible and re-capture their attention over and over again.

While this seems simple enough, it’s important to remember that when you want to attract an audience, you should focus on numerous words that target and highlight the key message. Conveying your business brand promise needs to be done in a short, concise and immediately identifiable way.

A great way to approach your brand promise, is to imagine your business only having 120 words to explain what they do and what they offer – almost like a Twitter post – you are enforced to be straight to the focal fact – Just don’t go all Donald Trump on everyone! Do you think you can create a business promise shorter than these characters? If not, it might be helpful to take a look at your business and re-focus on what sets you apart from your competitors. Be blunt about what you do and what you are committed to doing.

The overarching objective of doing this is to create a recognisable message for your audience. Remember; keeping at the forefront of your mind- what is a phrase or promise that would make your audience think of you?

Yes, we agree – it’s like playing a game of charades – except you want everyone to win. It shouldn’t take more than an expression or a modest sentence.  If it’s more, go back to the up front, blunt researching of what it is you do and what you are committed to doing.

It’s perfectly fine (and normal) if you have a million ideas floating around for your graphic designer. A lot of creatives and businesses are looking to the designer for the direction. But, the more information and ideas, the better! So, you will need to explain your vision to your graphic designer. You could do this by providing the following:

Not yet? That’s okay – our next tips are still a great read for when you are ready to take the next step!

The how?

The how is your audience going to remember and acknowledge your brand promise. Of course, you want to become well-known for your services or products, and also the experience your audience have with your business – this is part of your promise. Eventually, your audience will be able to not only recognise your business by a phrase around your business promise, but also start to feel a distinct connection that forms when your business promise is kept.

This then becomes a connection that goes beyond an audience’s loyalty and instead, a blooming relationship. When your brand promise is kept and relationships nurtured, it gives your audience something more – a feeling of inclusivity or being “part of the club”. When your audience feels included, they begin to own your brand promise.

What does this look like in an everyday scenario? Think about when you hear “My bakery has the best…” or “My Bed Linen is so…”. These are all part of the emotional tie between a business and the promise they offer their audience. If your audiences’ needs are met in line with your brand promise it’s quick to see how alliances occur and, the “ownership” the audience has, generally based off their emotions.

So, are you building a promise that makes your audience feel like they are doing businesses with the people in the business and the genuine offerings, as opposed to the business’ poker face? What does that even mean?

Well like most loyalty, it isn’t built primarily being focused on a product or service. Any great business promises and delivers a valuable service or product, at an established, rational fee with an optimistic audience experience that includes building a relationship with the audience.  This is without fail the 101, charming combination where a business meets its audiences’ requirements and at the same time forms a human connection that recommends the consumer to their business.

For most businesses, we aim to create an ideal vision of ourselves to our audience. But it is, in the end, the audience’s judgement if that business succeeded in this vision. So again, what promises are you making to your audience?  Are you selling a service or product that solves an issue for them and was it in a nice environment or a great interaction?  Is your audience opinion of this experience in line with what your business wants it to be?  If so, well done you but more importantly, you have a parallel between what you want your audience to think of your business, which is your brand promise, and what your audience actually does think.

If your audience opinions are in line with your business brand promise, you have taken a major, big leap to surpassing their anticipations and deserving their allegiance – and eventually their ownership of your brand promise aka spreading that good word about your business!