Your brand is your claim of distinction, backed up by the evidence of performance. This is the most clear, concise way to define a "brand." If you're reading this, you know how important a brand is to your success. A strong brand will go a long way to help you conquer the boom and bust periods that we're all familiar with in the mortgage industry. While some were shutting their doors during the recession, the strongest brands were strategizing their next steps and taking action, looking into the future.
Despite knowing the importance of a brand, some companies place too much focus on their product or service and fail to invest at a minimum an equal amount of time on the customer experience or the brand. So, when it comes to the brand, the focus is more superficial and the end result can be disappointing for the customer.
Here’s a list of the nine most troubling branding mistakes and how to avoid them:
1. Not defining who you are. Defining who you are is much deeper than just "we're a mortgage company" or "we provide LOS technology." Your goal needs to be to define who you are in just a few simple words so that your audience understands what your driving force is or what they can expect from you. The answer is usually right in front of you because you had a distinct purpose when you started your company, right? For example, maybe you're a mortgage company that specializes in helping underserved population segments, like entrepreneurs, more easily achieve homeownership. Make it obvious to your audience.
2. Not defining what makes you different. Now, if you're a mortgage company, this can be quite difficult because many offer the same products you do and claim to stand out among others in similar ways. So, it's not necessary to try to "own" a way of doing business that no other company can duplicate. Rather your goal should be reasonable; to position yourself as a top-tier company with which to conduct business. The positioning you adopt should be authentic and not be forced upon you by the results of a competitive survey. Rather it must come from within your company and ideally from the founder. All great brands have gone through this process, whether on their own or with the help of a professional. If you're a technology provider, the task of defining what makes you different becomes much easier. Surely, your technology was created to solve a problem others can't at the present time, right?
3. Too much focus on products and services. One of the biggest mistakes companies make, especially when starting out, is not placing enough focus on the customer or borrower experience. Yes, having the right product(s) is absolutely important, but this shouldn't overshadow designing the experience you want your audience to have through the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase cycle. People emotionally connect with experiences, not products. Be sure that the experience is smooth and memorable.
4. Not defining what you aspire to be. Your employees need to understand you're aspirations as a company. This understanding shows them what the future looks like and helps them understand and appreciate what they’re working towards. Think of it this way. Without hopes and aspirations, how would that affect the way you move through life? Would you be excited about your future? Probably not. Every day would just be another day on autopilot, taking in plenty of television when you are not working, not exercising, sleeping a lot and you might even be depressed. Don't allow your company to move in this direction. Let everyone know what you're working towards and make sure you do what’s necessary to keep the excitement and momentum going so that they give everything they can to help you.
5. Having a dated or unprofessional web presence. Your website and social media presence says a lot about your company, just like the clothes you wear for a meeting says a lot about you. First impressions count. The old adage "never judge a book by its cover" is not practical because people just do. Many companies exist with substandard websites that have clipart, are weighted down with copy, have a ridiculously small font size and links that don't work and the list goes on. This tells your audience that you lack technological prowess and probably don't have the right technology and internal processes to facilitate a smooth transaction or get things done on time. Worse yet, it could also communicate lack of success in what you do. The solution? If you're bootstrapping it or just fell on hard times, there are many places you can go to purchase a website cheaply online. Not an ideal solution, but if what you have now is sorely lacking, it could be a big step in the right direction to at least give you an updated, clean appearance along with some updated functionality.
6. Your messaging is inconsistent. This is quite common, especially for mortgage companies with many branches that don't have brand guidelines in place and loan officers that bring old habits with them. In these cases, marketing materials look inconsistent, messaging is inconsistent, Facebook pages exist that you never knew about, individual landing pages may even exist that you can’t keep track of and the list goes on. All of this contributes to a messaging disaster and compromises your brand. When these mortgage companies wish to right the course to better position their brands for success, they realize a culture exists that will be very hard and expensive to reverse.
7. Putting your social media involvement on autopilot. The whole point to social media involvement is to prompt and encourage conversation while building awareness of your expertise and your brand. 82% of people trust a company more if they are involved with social media (source: Forbes). People will share information about their experience with your company while you share new developments and also respond to comments and more. Pay special attention to those that may have not had the best experience with your company and find a resolution hopefully prior to them leaving comments for the world to see. If they leave an unflattering comment, ignoring it could inflame the situation and attract much unwanted attention. So, monitor your accounts and stay in the conversation.
8. Not stating clearly what you do on your website. This is probably the most troubling of all the branding mistakes listed. When a prospect lands on your website, you have very little time to make that prospect aware of who you are and what you offer before they run out of patience trying to figure it out. Ever click on an "about us" button and after you read about the company philosophy, mission statement and founders it left you clueless as to what they actually do or offer? This will really test the patience of a visitor. I was recently on the website of a technology provider, exploring their offering. After spending about 10 minutes digging through the site, I could not figure out what it really does, the benefit stated clearly, what problem it really solves (seemed vague), exactly why a mortgage company would purchase it or how they would know they need it or what current technology it would replace or integrate with. I was hunting for one simple definitive statement or paragraph on the site that would tell me exactly what I needed to know so that I would be motivated to explore further. The copy was surely written by someone within the company that didn’t take a few steps back and look at the big picture before writing the copy. If you have any doubt as to whether people will understand what you offer, go with that thought and ask somebody outside of your company for their feedback. Ask them "what is my product?" and see how well they answer.
9. Not doing what you say you will do. Ever heard the proverb "the road to hell is paved with good intentions?" Marketing materials are filled with carefully written paragraphs and strategically chosen pictures and comforting taglines to make the prospect feel good. People expect they will be well taken care of if they choose to do business with you. Make sure you live up to the expectations you've set.
Your brand is your most valuable asset. If you don't take care of it then someone else will!
