We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bronson Ma a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bronson, thanks for joining us today. How has Covid changed your business model?

Honestly, it hasn’t to a large degree because our business has always been remote – our team and our clients.

I think what COVID-19 has done is helped clients to feel more at ease working remotely, at least for those who traditionally work only with companies with a local presence. I believe at the end of the day, clients don’t really care how the work is done and where the business is located as long they can count on their service providers.

Bronson, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Bronson Ma Creative, an agile and scalable creative agency focused on branding and brand identity for growth-stage organizations working with the Founders/CEOs/Executive team as well as supporting marketing teams and leadership at enterprise organizations.

I decided to start the business after gaining invaluable experience working for a boutique design firm in Dallas for 8.5 years right out of college. The experience learned on my job there has helped me continue to work with clients in developing their brand that is strategically and creatively expressed. The brand expression is how the brand is seen (visual design) and heard (messaging) through various elements and channels such as logos, look-and-feel, marketing and communication materials, signage, promotions, and marketing campaigns (email, print, social), and websites.

Branding is my absolute passion and aligning the creative/design aspect with business strategy to accelerate revenue growth for organizations is very rewarding.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Brand loyalty in my opinion is the ultimate place within the Brand Funnel (Brand Perception > Brand Purchase > Brand Experience > Brand Loyalty) that small and large organizations want/need to get to but it is not easy. Let me explain in a high-level perspective.

Everything your buyers (customers or prospective customers) see, read, or hear about your brand is essentially a perception formed in their mind. Nothing is real to them until they go through the brand funnel – to Brand Purchase. Once they have decided to move forward with your brand (purchasing a product/services or hiring), they then move into the next stage of the brand funnel – Brand Experience. At that stage, they are starting to experience your brand (product experience, onboarding, customer support, etc.) and if that experience aligns or exceeds the Brand Perception, then it can potentially move the brand to the last stage of the brand funnel – Brand Loyalty. Brand Loyalty is powerful because it does two things: 1) Capture repeat businesses from the buyer, 2) The buyer will tell others (colleagues, friends, family, etc.) about your brand. They essentially become your unpaid sales team.

So with all that in mind, I keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty these days with marketing and nurturing relationships, mostly through digital channels such as LinkedIn. Marketing is often thought of as “promotions” and selling. I believe no one likes to be “sold” to but might be open to being educated how something (a service, product, and/or a process) can help solve their pain points. By bringing topics and content that are relevant to your customers’ greatest concerns, over time, you can create a demand for your brand/products/services without interacting with them directly. If it is done consistently and done well overtime, you will create a demand for your brand and they will come to you instead of your reaching out to them.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For any entrepreneur starting out, there is often a lot of excitement, passion, and fear all in a mixed bag. One of the most challenging things for any business owner is sales and business development. I have shared with others that you will often be working to get the work, and keep the work.

Now with 19+ years of owning my business, I had to unlearn to not give too much – giving too much of my time in speaking with a prospect that is not an ideal prospect or just want to “pick” my brain, for free. I often pre-qualify prospects by asking some questions before I engage in a deeper conversation so that we are not wasting each others’ time. And if someone truly values my expertise and advice and want a lengthy conversation, they can book a pre-paid session through a platform like Clarity.fm (https://clarity.fm/bronsonma). You will be surprised how quickly you find out if they are serious or not.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bronsonma.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronsonma
• Other: https://clarity.fm/bronsonma

Image Credits
None credits.