Consistent Branding Drives Customers through the Sales Funnel

The generic definition of the word brand goes something like this: a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that identifies one seller’s good (or service) as distinct from those of other sellers. While this definition holds some truth, successful brands are defined by much more than a logo or graphic element.

Good vs. great brands

A good brand has a clear, compelling, and relatable message. Great brands go one step further and take into account every stop in the customer journey, from creating fantastic website experiences or fun interactions on social media accounts to the way you answer your phone and provide customer support. And when brand is consistent across all these channels, the most compelling benefit for companies whether they’re B2B or customer-focused, is increased customer activity through the sales funnel.

Making customer decisions easy

There are countless marketing and sales strategies that drive a company’s bottom line, but today we’re going to focus on how consistent branding can lead a customer through the funnel to the final sale — it’s a growth driver that’s forgotten far too often!

Awareness + Personality and Differentiation

The top of the funnel represents the awareness stage, where customers are evaluating their options for the product they’re looking for. As a result, this stage also contains the largest number of brands, all of whom are competing for the attention of the same pool of prospects.
Although customers have more choices than ever thanks to the internet, studies indicate that customers are actually reducing the number of products considered from the get go. This means that your brand has to communicate your company’s personality – the emotional and human association to your brand – effectively. For most companies, a brand personality mirrors that of the target customer base, helping to shape how customers feel about and interact with the company and can include characteristics such as:

• Uniqueness
• Sincerity
• Friendliness
• Intellectualism
• Sophistication
• Excitement

By giving your brand an identity that your target audience can relate to, you can edge yourself out from competitors early in the decision making process.

Consideration + Messaging Reinforcement

The initial consideration set often expands as customers look outside the brand and its competitors and seek input from peers and reviewers. As more information about a product surfaces, customers will move through the funnel, adding new brands to the consideration set and removing others.

Traditional marketing strategies allocate a majority of resources to building brand awareness, increasing budget at points throughout the funnel that consistently lead to higher engagement and conversions. That said, today’s increased use of social media and online review websites (Yelp, Amazon, and Angie’s List to name a few) have created additional touch points for customers to interact with brands, making it necessary for companies to break away from the traditional tactic of selling directly to the customer, and more about effectively delivering consistent brand messaging across the right channels. Then, when prospects seek the information they need, they’ll be able to gain a solid understand of your brand, offerings, and product value, creating feelings of authenticity and authority to compel a final purchase.

Purchase + Positioning

The customer journey through the funnel is getting longer and longer, with many customers delaying a purchase decision because, as we mentioned, they’re doing extensive research, talking to the right people, and perhaps even checking out the product in-store.

To help move customers to the bottom of the funnel faster, the right brand message is key. When done correctly, it can help position your product against competitors and even help achieve higher prices for your product. Here are a few things to consider when thinking about how to position yourself in the market:

1. How is your brand currently positioning itself?
2. Who are your direct competitors?
3. How is each competitor positioning their brand?
4. How is your positioning different from your competitors’?
5. What is your distinct and value-based positioning idea?

How you position your brand needs to be apparent in everything from how your product is packaged and priced to its availability and the interactions your sales team has with prospects. Creating additional touch points is key to increasing sales.

Brand Loyalty + Trust

The last part of the funnel is using paying customers as a way to drive new growth and revenue through brand loyalty. When customers are pleased with a purchase and happy with the level of service they’ve received, they’ll advocate the product to friends and family.

To build a high level of trust and to earn the referrals of current customers, brands need to execute and fulfill the promises made to the customer at each point of the funnel. When the bond between the brand and the customer is strong, their referral may result in a direct sale (when the friend or family member skips the consideration and evaluation stages entirely).

Global brand messaging

If your growth strategy includes expansion into other countries, it will be just as important to weave your brand message through all of your multilingual websites, apps, or other marketing materials. It would be critical to also ensure you can deliver on your brand promise with the full customer experience. This goes beyond localizing elements like images, colors, font types, time, date, and currency, and includes localizing support for customers. In fact, studies show that localizing support content can be just as beneficial as localizing marketing content, giving customers a way to answer their own questions and interact with other members of your community, gaining additional trust for your brand throughout the process.

Have other questions about localizing content for global markets? Visit our website at www.transifex.com and check out how you can easily localize content on your website, mobile app, support center, and more!