What The "Pros" Say About Branding + Why They're WRONG

WHAT THE "PROS" SAY ABOUT BRANDING + WHY THEY'RE WRONG

Today, we are going to be chatting about color psychology in branding. I don’t know about you, but I have heard so many things about branding. I’m sharing some here so you can peruse them and see if you can relate to any of these or if you have heard them from people that you trust. 

You know I’m passionate about color psychology, and I’m hoping now that we have a few episodes of this season under our belt that you are starting to feel that same excitement when it comes to your brand colors. By the end of this season, I want you to have tweaked your brand or maybe to have done a total rebrand. Of course, tag me on social so I can see what you have done. I would love to see the before and after! 

We will discuss:

• Misconceptions about branding
• Statistics on the impact of color psychology
• Addressing the objections about color in branding
• The importance of your visuals for marketing
• Your branding matters

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MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BRANDING

There are too many people out there who were not taught about the impact color psychology has in marketing, and I would love to hear that you believe this can affect your sales and attract your ideal clients. I teach classes on this all the time, and I run into so many people who have never heard of color psychology. We start our businesses and we usually choose our favorite colors. I’m not trying to throw stones, but most people don’t know that color psychology exists. This is why I studied the biggest brands and integrated what I had studied in film, design, color medicine, and color science to come up with these theories.

So, I want to know if you have heard any of the following things:

•  Branding doesn’t matter.
•  People buy because of YOU, not your brand. 
•  Don’t waste your money on branding until you’ve hit your first million.

I’ve heard all of these, and every time I do a class my students have heard most of them as well. It can be confusing, because when we grow our businesses we are often investing in masterminds, memberships, courses, group programs, high-cost programs, one-on-one coaching, VIP days, events, and all kinds of things. We build our skills in being better communicators, having stronger messaging, structuring our funnels, posting on social media, making sales conversions, and the list goes on and on. All of those are worthwhile practices, but there is zero attention put on branding and visuals - and they account for so much!

STATISTICS ON THE IMPACT OF COLOR PSYCHOLOGY

Look at the stats. 

• 92% of people polled said they bought something because of the color. Eighty percent of those people said they think color increases brand recognition.
• There is a reason why these big brands put so much money into their marketing and into the study of color psychology.
• So, why aren’t we doing that? Why aren’t we taught this? I think it’s because the people we follow haven’t done it and have never had that opportunity.
• That is why it’s so important for me to come in and encourage others to pay attention to this. It’s at least 50% of your marketing strategy, so it’s really important. 

There is a reason that Starbucks is the world's most popular coffee shop. There is a reason why their logo is the most recognizable logo in the world. It’s not because of the word ‘Starbucks’, right? It’s the color and the visuals they use. Their marketing is strong, and they convert.

ADDRESSING THE OBJECTIONS ABOUT COLOR IN BRANDING

It’s important to understand that this is a gap or a missing piece in a lot of our marketing so that we can make better decisions when it comes to our visual marketing. If you have heard some of these things and you want to work on branding, but you feel too busy with your business right now, I hear you. It is, however, so important to get this in place. Once you have it down, you won’t have to actively work on it.

Let’s say that you do this process and your visuals increase your brand recognition. That will up your conversions (be it traffic, subscribers, or customers) by around 30%.

Wouldn’t it be worth putting this into place, knowing that it would increase your conversions? You could, therefore, exude 30% less effort on the front end trying to get more clients or customers. It is a worthwhile investment, because it will save you time and money. 

Once you have your branding in place, you can hire a social media marketing person or an ads specialist and feel confident in the visuals that they can incorporate into your visibility strategy. You can get a stronger return on your publicity. I really think it’s worth it.

So if you have encountered some of these objections, I want you to understand that they are incorrect. 

Branding doesn’t matter.

If branding didn’t matter the huge businesses wouldn’t do it. 

People buy because of YOU, not your brand.

As we learned in Donald Miller’s Building a StoryBrand and so many other intensives, we know for sure that people buy because there is something they need. They are paying for peace in some aspect of their lives. They might really like you, but they’re not buying because of you. They’re buying because they want to solve a problem.

Don’t waste your money on branding until you’ve hit your first million.

I guess that can give you some confidence that your messaging is on point, but imagine how much faster you would hit that first million if you put this into place sooner. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR VISUALS FOR MARKETING

There is nothing more heartbreaking than someone not getting the results they want in their business and blaming themselves. It must have been my offer, or my messaging. It must just be me. This line of work must not be cut out for me, because it’s just not working.

All those things are heartbreaking, right? So my mission is to ask, what if that isn’t true? What if it’s just your visuals? It could be something so simple. It’s at least worth a shot to see if it makes a difference before giving up, right? I think so.

So I would like to say that the people giving the advice I listed above are 100% wrong. The ones that say, if your messaging is on point you won’t need fancy branding or a fancy website - I say, maybe. BUT, you’ll convert a heck of a lot faster if you put this into play. 

It would be like going to a drug company as a marketing specialist and telling them that their messaging is on point and if they air enough commercials they will make the same amount of money. They would say you were crazy! I watched an ad the other day and their primary color was purple. Throughout the commercial, purple was everywhere! Purple shoes, shirts, staircases, chairs - everything. Do you think if I went in there and told them to take out the purple that they would still convert as highly? They would say no. They have done the research and looked at the stats, and they know that using that color increases their sales. 

YOUR BRANDING MATTERS

I know it can be challenging to break free from certain beliefs in this industry. Just because something is heard everywhere and is “common knowledge”, however, doesn’t mean that it is correct. I’m here to shake that up and say that your branding does matter. The color psychology in your branding matters. Why not be that lighthouse for your ideal client? Why not choose that color with intention, knowing how you’re going to make them feel? There is nothing worse than figuring out that you have actually been deflecting and rejecting your ideal client based on your branding.

The example I like to use is if you’re a trauma therapist and your primary color was red, that would be a disaster. Red physically increases heart rate, dilates the pupils, and increases blood pressure. If that is what they are seeing when they first come to your website, and they are dealing with unresolved trauma, that would definitely be a turnoff. Using a more balancing and calming color to symbolize what they can achieve would do much more to attract your ideal clients.

If you had no awareness of that and you were the best therapist in the world, that branding would still lead people to disconnect from you and leave your website. That would be devastating. So this is something we need to know. This is something that we, as business owners, deserve to know. That is the mission I’m on.

If that is something you are interested in, I would love for you to take the color quiz and the color masterclass. 

I wanted to break some beliefs that a lot of the big people have about branding in our industry, and I hope I’ve done so successfully. I hope I’m leaving you thinking about some of these things in a different way.