When a new financial advisor or agent comes on board with Impact, their first stop is our award-winning marketing team for a brand creation or refresh. Our in-house creative agency is made up of graphic designers and copywriters that work one-on-one with advisors to bring their vision for their business to life by collaborating to create logos, brand names, and taglines. Branding is an important step for launching a business, and with such steep competition in the financial services space, it cannot be overlooked.
Elements of a Brand
For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to focus on three key aspects of your brand: the name, the logo, and the tagline.
These elements all work in tandem together to bring your business to life and make you recognizable in your community. Clients and prospects will come to know your name as well as your services. And in an industry overwhelmed with advisors-next-door and financial services giants, it’s imperative that you stand out from the crowd.
Impact’s Branding Process
The branding process at Impact begins with a phone call. New advisors speak with a Marketing Strategist, graphic designer, and copywriter to outline their vision. It may include a history of the business – why you got into the field, what keep you going – or a story or anecdote. We’ll learn your interests and about what makes your brand unique. We believe that every brand has a story, and our first step is learning yours.
At a surface level, your team will discuss your favorite colors, brands that stand out to you, and your language and terminology preferences. They’ll discuss your location and how you want prospects to feel when they visit your office.
After the Call
This is where the real fun begins; the team gets to work building your brand from the ground up. Your copywriter will meet with the rest of the copy team to brainstorm and develop ideas for brand names and taglines. They’ll take into account the story behind your practice and the history of your community. They’ll consider your values and your ideal client – do you place a special focus on military retirees? Are you angling for millennial clients? Perhaps you’d like to help people who are saving to send their kids to school – all of these people have different brand and marketing preferences.
Your team will come up with several different options for brand names, taglines, and even web addresses. All assets will be reviewed by our in-house compliance team so you can rest assured knowing you have an extra layer of protection
Businesses need more than catchy brand names and taglines, though – they also need an eye-catching logo. This is where your dedicated graphic designer comes in.
Over the course of a few weeks, the designer creates several custom logo options for you and your brand. They visualize how your logo will appear in different contexts and on different materials, like business cards, banners, and coffee mugs.
The Presentation Call
Once the writer and designer have finalized their options, it’s time to present them to you. You’ll have another meeting with the team to review the options and give feedback. This is one of the most important steps of the entire process, as it’s your opportunity to make changes if you’d like to. Maybe you initially wanted your logo to be green and silver, but now you think blue and red looks better – don’t keep that to yourself! Our job is to develop a brand that you love and that you feel accurately represents your practice, whatever that looks like.
Once you’ve solidified your logo, brand name, and tagline, the creative team gets to work on the rest of your marketing assets: your business card, envelopes, folders, website, and whatever else you need to represent your business to your clients and prospects.
Branding is a key part of building and marketing a successful practice. That’s why you need a partner with experience in getting it right. Our in-house creative agency has helped create hundreds of Fortune 500-style brands – will yours be next?
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