Break down and find your brand ‘hook’
Getting the basics right is just as important for international companies as it is for SMEs. Though it goes by different names, a brand ‘hook’ is one of these essentials.
It’s your elevator pitch, your marketing collateral tagline and the centre of your tone of voice guidelines.
Yet even though it’s essential, creating a brand hook that works across all these areas isn’t easy.
If your product or service is straightforward to communicate, then differentiating from your competitors is tricky. For large companies with complex offerings, encapsulating everything in a short sentence can seem impossible.
To help you uncover yours, here’s a breakdown guide to finding a brand hook for your business.
What is a brand hook, anyway?
A brand hook is a short statement that connects your customers to your business. The acid test is it should make them want to buy from you.
Seems simple right? Well, not quite.
As well as reeling in your prospects, audiences or long-term loyalists, your brand hook also needs to:
Standalone with no further explanation
Clearly sum up what products or services you offer
Set you apart from your market competitors
Encapsulate your company’s character and tone of voice
Be good enough to work effectively anywhere, on anything
All in around four to six words. So, where should we start?
How can you create your hook?
If you need a starting point for your brand hook, here are a few sources to spark your creativity.
Read customer reviews
If you’re going to connect with your customers, then seeing how they talk about your business is a good place to start.
For businesses not already monitoring these comments (no offence, you should be) then your Google Business Directory, Trustpilot or industry-specific review sites like Check-a-Trade are go-tos. Scrolling through comments or reviews on social media is a good secondary source.
By looking at both positive and negative comments, you won’t just get feedback and actions to send back to your teams. You’ll also uncover a clearer definition of what you aren’t as well as what you are. An understanding that’s essential when marking yourself apart from competitors.
Plus, as you’re looking through, be sure to leverage maximum value by:
Marking the subtle changes in how different audience types talk about you i.e. do prospects have an alternative perspective to current customers?
Noting down any common themes or words in the comments. For example, do they call you ‘friendly’, ‘professional’ or repeatedly talk about how your business solved a specific need?
Highlighting ‘golden nugget’ phrases with the potential to become a hook
This information will give you a rich creative base that taps into how customers think and speak about you.
Get feedback from sales
Whether you have a telecomms function or a small face-to-face sales team, these guys regularly talk to customers. They’ll know exactly what prospects’ needs are and why customers choose your business. So asking them for this feedback will help you understand what is and isn’t hooking your customers in.
Video or audio recordings of sales calls or conversations are even better. You can hear thoughts straight from the source’s mouth, in their own words. They’re a gold mine for picking up specific phrases and commonalities you can use to craft your final hook.
Ask your customers directly
A revolutionary thought I know. But what better way to get to grips with what your customers think? This can be done in a few ways, though using different methods will give you a mix of qualitative and quantitative data:
A wide-net survey sent via email or social media
Incentivised feedback through a competition or prize draw
Individual phone calls of randomly selected customers
Focus groups with a widespread demographic
Pulse surveys sent at key engagement points
Whichever methods you choose, make sure you’re getting feedback from different audiences at various stages in the conversion journey. This won’t just help you to understand what attracts prospects to you in the first place, but what keeps them on the hook. This will only add value and depth to your creative brainstorming.
Take a look at competitors
This might seem counterintuitive, but comparing yourself against your competitors is one of the easiest ways to understand what differentiates you. Even if they don’t have a hook themselves, looking at their messaging can help you identify the gaps you fill within the market.
What do competitors offer that you don’t? Why might a customer choose competitors over you? Why might they choose you over competitors? Introspection might be difficult. But asking these questions in your customer surveys or when looking at online reviews will pay dividends for both your brand and business later.
Dig back into your history
To paraphrase Odyssey, going back to your roots will remind you why you started your business in the first place. If this isn’t central to what customers like about you, then I don’t know what would be. It’s been key to your success and growth, so why shouldn’t it be at the heart of your brand hook?
Mottos, values, stories and passions are all valid entries into the brand hook brainstorming pot. They’re the essence of your brand and should sit at the base of your final statement.
How can you start reeling audiences in?
Finding your brand hook is great and all. But what the hell do you do once you have one?
The truth is a brand hook is just the beginning.
(I know, my bad. I’ve led you up the garden path somewhat.)
Plastering this new shiny statement proudly across all your collateral isn’t a bad idea. But to leverage your brand hook to its full potential, you need to use it to drive all your marketing activity.
This means putting it at the front of your prospect’s minds and keeping it at the centre of your strategy, too.
That way, the essence of this statement will come through at every stage of the customer journey. So you won’t just hook your audiences in, but reel them all the way back to the boat too.
