The 3 magnetic laws of branding attraction

You’ve heard of the law of attraction, but have you heard about the 3 laws of branding attraction? The seemingly magnetic force that draws dream clients or customers to your business, leaving them raving about your products or services and coming back or referring friends and family?

Branding attraction isn’t just a matter left up to fate or the universe, though: it’s a set of applicable principles that require a bit of work, a pinch of effort, and a whole lot of results.

No matter if you’re into the law of attraction or not, the 3 laws of branding attraction apply to any small business as well as major corporations.

We’re going to dive into these three laws and unpack how you can start to harness their power for your own small business or mid-sized business and your branding.

1. Center your brand around your customers or clients

The most important law of branding attraction is creating a brand that is magnetically attractive to your customers or clients, and that means creating a brand that is centered around them.

A simple yet costly misstep many entrepreneurs or business owners make is building a brand that’s reflective of them. They infuse much of their own values, personality, and preferences into their brand, building a strategic and visual identity that appeals to them—but perhaps not their dream clients.

True, a lot of small business owners often seek to serve an audience that is similar to them, so there are still benefits to creating a brand that is highly personal! Further, personal brands (such as for coaches, speakers, celebrities, CEOs, or other personality-driven brands) should reflect the founder or owner—but yet never at the cost of alienating their audience.

There is a delicate balance between creating a brand that you find attractive and one that your dream audience will find attractive.

When developing your brand’s strategy, visual identity, brand marketing strategy, and brand experience, keep those clients or customers you most wish to attract in mind. The purpose of your brand is to serve them, to provide an offering that will benefit them in some way, so naturally your brand should be magnetically geared toward them. Avoid defaulting to your favorite colors or design style and instead ask how the design can reflect your strategy to your audience; decide on brand values or attributes that will be shared with your audience.

A second critical component of centering your brand around your customers or clients is choosing language that is about them, not about your business. Website copy, social media captions, emails, taglines, or overall brand story that is about what you do, you as the founder or CEO, or the history of your brand will not resonate with your audience nearly as much as messaging that speaks to their pain points, hopes, or dreams. What problems do you resolve for them? How do you support their sense of identity, provide security, or just make their life easier? What obstacles do you remove or what benefits do you help them realize?

Building a brand that is attractive to your dream clients or customers begins with centering your brand around them.

2. Align your brand positioning to your ideal brand perception

The second law of branding attraction is to align your brand positioning to your ideal brand perception.

Put simply, this means that the way your brand is presented to your audience should match what you want them to think of your brand and your products or services.

Too many entrepreneurs say they want to be attracting high-paying clients or customers, yet decide to skimp on the time and quality of their brand’s visual identity! They seek to sell based on the quality of their offerings alone without realizing the vital role that brand identity plays in selling for them (or working against their efforts).

Your brand positioning will say more about your brand than your words ever will.

Before you respond, “But my audience doesn’t care about design!”—let’s do a little test first.

Take a look at the two fictitious brand designs below, both in the same industry (let’s say they’re both ecommerce brands).

Which brand’s products would you guess cost more? Which brand is affordable and offers a great bargain, and which one is an exclusive investment?

There’s no right or wrong answer here—but you probably made certain assumptions about one brand over the other just now based on visual identity alone.

That’s also why a black leather purse from Gucci can cost $2000 and a black leather purse from Target can cost $20. Each brand knows the perception they want to take in the minds of their audience, and so they position their brand accordingly.

While we touched on design, in fact brand positioning is so much more than visuals. It’s messaging; values; copy; brand experience. It also touches on your brand marketing, pricing strategy, and packages. Whether you offer discounts, coupons, or bundles will not just be a financial decision, but a branding one.

Positioning your brand to your ideal perception is a critical step to increasing your brand’s powers of attraction. Your customers and clients will, for better or worse, make certain assumptions about your products’ or services’ value and decide whether you are the right brand for them based on subconscious cues given through quality of design and messaging. So then in order to attract the right people, your brand needs to be positioned appropriately to let them know that you are the right brand for them.

3. Treat your brand as an investment, not an expense

The world’s leading business all recognize one thing that small business owners often do not:

Their brands are an investment.

Brands have a monetary value, much as any other investment would have. These global brands aren’t just design assets, colors, or taglines; they are the very heart and soul of the company. Nike’s, Coca-Cola’s, Apple’s brands are the reason why customers choose them above their competitors, why these companies are household names, and why their products draw premium pricing.

And because their brands are investments, these companies spend millions of dollars investing in their brand, protecting their brand, and evolving it with the times so it always stays valuable and relevant.

However, most small business owners operate in quite the opposite. They see their brand as just their logo and colors, or worse, as an unnecessary frill. Their customers don’t care about emotional appeal, they say; they could be spending their money on more worthwhile things than messaging and colors and taglines. (PS: If you’re reading this, you’re one of the exceptions to that general rule. Go you!).

However, following on rule #2 from above, your ideal customers or clients will judge the quality of your offerings based on the quality of your branding. The investment you make into your brand will directly impact the results you see from it; in other words, you get what you pay for.

The quality of your branding reflects the perceived quality of your offerings.

Remember, investing in your brand is just that—an investment. It is a temporary expense that will yield far greater return than what you initially pay for. 

If you can’t afford to make a significant investment into your brand, that’s fine! Prioritize this and save up for it, or invest in small bits and pieces one at a time. Any investment, no matter how large or small, will be beneficial.

With professional-quality branding, copywriting, website design, social media, photography/videography, your brand will be well-positioned to attract your dream clients or customers.