It’s easy to spot a poorly branded business, but it’s tough to remember one off the top of your head. That’s because a company without a powerful brand message is one we tend to forget without even realizing why. But once you learn the steadfast components a great brand message, it’s easy to see where other companies have gone awry and where your own brand could use some work. Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to do a brand image overhaul, keep these key branding components in mind.

Identify Your Identity

A powerful brand doesn’t have to be a mogul like Coke or Nike. It doesn’t have to be designed by marketing executives in a room filled with hand-selected test subjects and carefully written questionnaires. A good brand message is simple: It is an artful combination of mechanics and personal passion that not only inspires customers and employees alike, but also can be written down and described succinctly.

It’s your elevator pitch. Imagine you’ve just gotten into an elevator with Mark Cuban. He asks you what you do for a living. Before the bell dings and you both have to get off of the elevator, how would you describe your business to him?

Write It Down

You need to be able to communicate your message efficiently through copy. Simplicity is key here, especially as the attention spans of consumers continues to shrink.

Forbes has a great list of 10 questions to help you develop a brand identity that is rich and complex and still accessible to your customers. Don’t be surprised if you learn a lot about your business and your passion for it while completing these questions. Pay special attention to the "why" questions on this list.

Also, watch the amazing Ted Talk from leadership legend Simon Sinek. He uses the Wright Brothers and Apple to demonstrate why the question of “why” is so important, as well as how to use it to truly inspire others.

Learn from the Best

One of the best ways to better understand your brand is to study other successful brands. From Microsoft to McDonald's, they all have one thing in common: consistency. We are creatures of habit, and developing a relationship requires trust.

To build the best relationship with your customers, they need to see consistency in everything that your brand does, from social media to clearance sales. Cabela’s isn’t having a regular old Black Friday sale like everyone else on the planet; they're having a “hunt for bucks” holiday cash giveaway. McDonald’s doesn’t have prizes or gifts with purchase; they have a Monopoly game with collectible game pieces and ongoing opportunities to win everything from french fries to a million bucks.

Look for brands that take classic marketing techniques and make them their own. Even if these companies aren’t the most powerful brands on the planet, they are invaluable resources to learn from.

Website design often becomes an exercise in redundancy and unnecessary complication as you try to build something that stands out from the crowd. After all, people have an overwhelming number of choices available to them when they surf the web. As of last year, there are more than 861 million registered host names and over 180 million active websites, according to Tech Made Easy. Despite that, the best way to build a site that brings visitors back for more is to keep it simple and usable. With that in mind, here are some tips for applying the “keep it simple, stupid” or “KISS” principle of design to your site:

Back to Basics

When designing a website, it is important to determine what the goal of each page is, and then design each element within the page to reach that goal. If you have a page element or widget that doesn't support the page's objective, it should be removed. On the same note, if a page is unnecessary to your website's overall objective, it too should be removed or changed.

To see what changes are necessary, approach your site form the perspective of a visitor and ask yourself what you would stand to gain from visiting each page. If you already have a website and are just updating or redesigning it, take a look at your analytics and see which pages have the lowest traffic, and ask yourself why. Finally, if any product or article on your site takes more than three or four clicks to reach from the homepage, your site has too much depth and its hierarchy must be simplified.

More Before the Break

When a visitor lands on your site, you only have a few seconds to make an impression and keep the consumer on your page. In fact, a recent Microsoft study found that the average attention span has dipped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013. To grab people's attention and keep it, you need bold headlines and content that immediately addresses your purposes.

Additionally, put your most important content where it can be seen right away, so a visitor doesn’t need to scroll down to it or visit another page. A website that does this well is T-Mobile because the company's shop, information, shopping cart, customer service number and product are all displayed prominently above the fold on the landing page. If a visitor has to scroll to see your best content, bring it up to the top and eliminate what comes before it.

Fast Loading Times

It can be tempting to add huge streaming videos, complex HTML 5 and other design elements to your site, but if a visitor leaves before they get to your actual content, your site has failed. Website fads comes and go, and your site shouldn't buckle to trends that increase load times and irritate customers.

For example, many sites today integrate a slider that covers the home page, but this actively drives away visitors. Instead, design your landing page to be simple, clear of elements that clutter the screen and rid of features that create long load times.

By definition, every company needs customers. It would be great if they just showed up on your doorstep, but in today's competitive business world you usually need to fight, tooth and nail, for every client you receive.

Finding new leads and locking down new business can be a difficult task, but following these tips can help you attract a wider customer base.

Define Who You Are Targeting

Whether you are in design or any industry, the key is to define. Who exactly are you looking for? What profile traits do your current and previous clients have in common? Are you attracting a certain type of customer, or have you just been getting by through word of mouth and chance project acquisitions?

Many businesses -- especially small businesses -- make the mistake of trying to attract everyone. That's a great strategy if you are McDonald's, but for your business, it may be better to figure out who you appeal to most and why those types of people keep coming back. Only then can you branch out and attempt to capture even more of that segment.

Research, Research, Research

If you don't know your industry inside and out, you don't have much business being there. There was once a time when a small conclave of experts could run a whole sector for decades without concern that outsiders could enter the space and steal their position.

Not anymore. Now, anyone who knows how to use Google can teach themselves most of what there is to know in a few months. That will never replace real-world experience, of course, but it also means that you need to be that much smarter and work that much harder. Read everything you can find. It can be hard to make the time to continue learning when you want to stay busy churning out projects. But if you don't do it, someone else will. And if you can't convince potential customers that you're the best expert in the room, it will be hard to attract the clients you covet.

Attend Events

You cannot simply bury your nose in books, however. You also have to get out in the real world. Pound some pavement and meet with potential customers to find out their wants and needs. Go to industry conferences, events, lectures and casual meetings. Discover where your people are — and go there.

Whether you are actually swapping business cards and gathering leads or just soaking in the concerns and needs of those that may someday desire your services, these face-to-face meetings have so much value. Even just listening in on a conversation can provide more value than combing through the most thorough, overarching industry report.

Leverage Social Media

It is 2015, so you also must be aware of social media options. Networks like Twitter are now legitimate acquisition channels, and companies like LifeLock are showing how you can leverage the platform. Not only is a great place to monitor the services that potential clients are looking for and find new customers, but the identity-protection firm also uses social media to engage with the community, provide customer service, and keep clients informed about industry news. These things matter.

It isn't just Twitter. There are certainly Facebook groups in your industry as well. Search around in different locations to find collectives of people who are already engaging with one another to find new solutions to problems. If you can offer advice or a service that will help them overcome their challenges, then you can make a lot of headway in a short time. Groups like Design Modo and Smashing Magazine have hundreds of thousands of likes. These ready made lists of people are ripe for any design firm to mine.