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Branded Bull Podcast
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Is Your Branding Attracting the Right Customers? Ep 100.
00:12:21
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This is the Branded Bull Podcast, a show dedicated to helping take your business to the next level with winning marketing and branding tips and strategies built for today's competitive world, ready for your business to make its mark and stand out from the competition. Let's get into it.
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What's up, guys? Adam Fullerton here. This is another episode of the Branded Bull podcast and this is actually episode number 100, which is honestly pretty crazy to say out loud. Quite the milestone and you guys listening is, is, to say the least, it's been nothing short of amazing. And we truly appreciate you guys tuning in, sending us different topics to talk about, asking us questions and subscribing to the podcast. And before we get into today's topic, I just again want to say thank you to everybody tuning in, to everybody listening, to everybody that shares the podcast, Lee's reviews, and of course supports us here at Branded bull. Much appreciated. 100 episodes is again, a huge milestone for us and we definitely don't take it lightly. So again, thank you from me and everybody here on the Branded Bull team. In today's episode, we're actually going to talk about a perfect one for episode 100. And this is something that we talked about recently on my brother's podcast, Fullerton Unfiltered. Just yesterday, that episode dropped on his podcast. Go check it out. And that is the topic of icp, or your ideal customer profile and understanding who you actually want to work with as a business. So I wanted to expand on that a little bit more, build on that conversation in this episode and specifically talk about it from a marketing and advertising standpoint. Because here's the reality. Your branding, your website, your ads, your messaging, your social media, all of it is either helping you attract the right customers or it's actively attracting the wrong types of customers. There really is no neutral in this day and age. And I think one of the biggest disconnects we see is in the green industry is a disconnect with your ICP and your marketing and your branding. And a business owner will say they want higher end customers, they want bigger projects, they want commercial accounts, they want recurring maintenance clients that value quality. But then you look at their branding and marketing and everything about it communicates the exact opposite. Opposite. So cheap logo, cheap website, no consistency, no positioning, no professionalism, no clear messaging. The list goes on and on and on and on and on. And then you wonder why every lead turns into a pricing conversation. That's because your marketing is a filter. That's the part that a lot of people miss in this conversation. And good marketing doesn't just attract more leads, it attracts more qualified leads. And bad marketing doesn't just hurt visibility, it hurts perception. Right? So let me give you an example. If your company's branding looks like it's rushed or it's unprofessional, it's outdated, it's inconsistent, you naturally attract customers who are shopping primarily on price. Because premium customers, whether they realize it consciously or not, associate professionalism with, with trust. And when someone lands on your website and it looks polished, it looks organized, it looks modern, it's intentional. They assume your operation runs the same way. And usually they're right. On the flip side, if your website looks like it hasn't been updated since 2012, it looks like you made a DIY logo. Your shirts look like you just got them printed last second. You guys have blurry photos on social media. You guys get the idea. This looks like you have no clear direction. And that can create doubt immediately. Or at least it can make you look like the wrong type of company and attract the wrong type of customer. Even if you do phenomenal work in the field, perception matters. And perception is usually formed before a customer ever considers contacting you. That's why branding isn't just make things look nice. Branding is about positioning. It's psychology. It's telling the market who you are, who you serve, and what level of service people should expect from your company. And one of the easiest ways to understand this is to think about it. And if we're using an analogy in terms of restaurants, you can usually tell within a few seconds whether a restaurant is positioned as fast food, whether it's casual dining or it's high end dining. Right? The branding tells you, the environment tells you, the messaging tells you, their website tells you, the type of photography they use tells you. The landscaping. The landscaping and lawn care companies, you guys are no different than these other types of industries. They all work the same. If you want to attract homeowners in higher income neighborhoods who value professionalism and reliability, your marketing has to reflect that. Because those customers are making assumptions about your business before you ever speak to them. Like I said, and honestly, they should. It's just how it works. We all judge a book by its cover, even though we're told not to. And that's what marketing exists for. Another thing business owners need to understand is that your ICP should influence almost every marketing decision you make. Right? So, your colors, your photography again, your messaging, your website, your ad copy, your service descriptions, even the types of projects you showcase on your website. For Example, if your goal is to land larger landscape installation projects, but your Instagram and your Facebook and your Google business profile is filled with basic mowing photos, you're sending mixed signals to the market, right? You're training people to see you as the mowing guy or the mowing company, not a premium landscape design company. Or maybe you want recurring maintenance clients, but your entire advertising strategy revolves around cheap cleanup, specials and discounts. Well, now you're attracting bargain hunters and window shoppers instead of long term relationships. Again, your marketing is a filter. And this is where the branding, the websites and the advertising all start to work together. So your branding establishes perception, your website builds trust, and of course, your advertising creates visibility. When those three things align around a clearly defined icp, your business starts attracting the right type of clientele much more consistently. That's when sales conversations get easier. That's when customers stop questioning every dollar. And that's when you start hearing things like, we chose you because you looked the most professional. We hear that all the time from people we talk to in the green industry. And honestly, that's, that's the goal. Because strong branding, branding pre sells confidence before you ever have to show up to provide an estimate. Now, does that mean your branding alone fixes everything? No, of course not. You still need operational excellence. You still need to have great communication. You still need to provide quality work. You still need systems that help you organize and communicate the things that you're doing to your customers. But marketing sets the expectation, and expectations shape customer behavior. And that's why two companies in the same city can offer almost identical services at completely different price points. And both stay busy. One business is competing on price, the other is competing on positioning and quality. And positioning almost always wins in the long run, especially in industries becoming more saturated every single year, like the green industry. As you guys know, there's companies popping up left and right all the time. It's a highly, highly, highly competitive industry. Industry. There are more lawn care companies now than ever before. There's more landscaping companies, there's more ads, there's more competition. So if your only differentiator is we work hard or we care about quality, that's not enough anymore. Everybody says that your branding and marketing have to communicate something more specific. So who are you for? What experience do you provide? Why should someone trust you? What level of service should they expect? Those are the questions your marketing should answer. And immediately and honestly. One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is trying to appeal to everybody. I'm sure you guys have heard that Many a time before. And at the end of the day, when you try to market to everybody, your messaging becomes generic and you're talking to nobody. Generic marketing gets ignored. The businesses growing the fastest right now are usually those who understand exactly who they want to attract. And then they build them. Branding their website, their advertising, their messaging, their systems, everything, their entire image around that audience. And they do it extremely intentionally. Right? That doesn't mean you, you, you have to turn every lead into a customer. It doesn't mean you're going to get every single lead and turn them into a customer. And you shouldn't want to either. A strong brand actually repels the wrong customers as well. That's a good thing, right? And if somebody is only shopping for the absolute cheapest option available in your area, you probably don't want them anyway. If that's not who you're trying to grow your business around, that customer usually becomes the hardest one to satisfy in the least profitable long term. Right? So the goal isn't just more leads. The goal is better leads. And that is the difference. So if you're listening today, I'd encourage you to take an honest look at your business from the outside. If your ideal customer landed on your website today, would your branding and your marketing make them feel confident? Would it feel professional? Would it feel trustworthy? Would it align with the level of customer you're trying to attract? Or are you unintentionally marketing yourself towards potentially lower quality leads? Who knows? You would know, right? You would know. Because whether you realize it or not, your business is already attracting a certain type of customer based on how it presents itself everywhere, online, offline, and every single time you pick up the phone or don't pick up the phone and have a voicemail, every single interaction or touch point with the customer is either helping or hurting your business. And the question is whether that customer is actually the one that you want to attract or want to repel. So please consider this. Look into your icp. Define your ICP and make sure all of your marketing, your branding, your advertising, everything attracts that type of customer. And if you want to learn more about ICP and have a little bit more insight, obviously, like I said, head over to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast where we talked more about this, Brian and I, just yesterday in that on that podcast. And we dig into other aspects of the icp, but that's what I've got. Try to keep things high level, but also share with you guys how this all impacts you and your business on a more granular level, like I said, when it comes to marketing, branding, advertising and so forth. So that's what I've got for you on today's episode. Guys, again, thank you so much for helping us reach 100 episodes of the Brainable Podcast. We appreciate every single listener who's been part of this journey thus far. We don't plan on stopping anytime soon. And as always, if you guys thought this episode was valuable, please share it with another green industry business owner. And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the new episodes we release every single Tuesday. So that's it. That's what I've got. Thank you as always for tuning tuning in and we'll catch you guys next week.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Branded Bull Podcast. The podcast dedicated to giving you expert advice and actionable ideas so that your business can make its mark and stand out from the competition like what you heard in today's show. Visit brandedbull.com to see how we can help you achieve your marketing and branding goals. Also, please consider leaving a five star review. And again, thanks for listening.