Here are five basic brand-building tips to help you strengthen your brand and make your business stand out in a noisy global marketplace.
1. Understand Your Business
Before you can even start building your brand you must research the following questions and plan on where your brand is best positioned in a competitive market.
What is your business?
What product/s or service/s do you offer?
Who are your competitors?
What is your brand promise?
What is your niche?
The better you understand your business, the better you will be able to create a strong brand.
2. Know Your Audience
No business exists without customers, so you really need to firstly know your audience before you go about building your brand.
What is the demographic breakdown of your audience?
What product/s or service/s do they want?
What are their consumer habits?
What motivates your audience?
What social media do they use?
Playing it too safe with a particular demographic group could leave your brand looking boring, so it is important to keep your branded communications and marketing professional, creative and engaging at all times.
3. Consistency is Crucial
A strong brand is created through consistency and strong brand consistency allows your target audience to recognize your brand in a saturated marketplace.
Consistent messaging across branded communications
Consistent quality across visual communications
Consistent tone across written communications
Keeping your brand consistent will ensure your target audience develops familiarity with your business, and with familiarity comes brand trust and loyalty. Having clear brand guidelines will provide consistency for your business across various media such as web-based, television, radio, print, social media and related marketing activities.
4. Embrace Social Media
If your target audience is using social media, then your brand needs to be socially active. There are plenty of social media platforms to choose from, so take the time to research and plan which platform your target audience is engaging with on a regular basis.
Unless your business is a major global brand, you are probably safe starting with just a few from the more common platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube.
5. Monitor Your Brand
As your brand grows, your target audience reach may shift and change. You will need to monitor and analyze your communications and marketing campaigns regularly to keep on top of your competition.
Did you have increased search engine traffic and website visits?
Did your target audience engage with your branded campaign on social media?
How many new sales/sales leads or product/service enquires were generated?
How many social media users clicked over from your campaign to visit your website?
Only by researching, planning, monitoring and analyzing branded communications and marketing activities can you strengthen your brand for future growth opportunities.
Scopic works with you to create strong branded communications and marketing solutions for your business, contact us to find out more.