It's a challenge to create a unique and compelling brand from scratch. How should it appear? What emotions should it evoke in viewers? Will my intended audience find it appealing? Does it align with my mission and strategy?
I understand how overwhelming it can be to either launch a new brand or grow your brand. I’ve done it with several clients as well as at companies I have worked for in the past. Finding the right way to create your brand can be stressful among a thousand other businesses competing to stand out in the market. I truly believe that creating a branding strategy will give you an identity, voice, value, and create brand awareness.
What is a brand?
An interesting question. Right? Let’s dig into Branding 101. A brand is more than just your name and logo that will help you stand out in a crowded market. Every time a customer interacts with your business, they are forming an impression of you, and both of those impressions are part of your brand. That goes for EVERYTHING from the top down in your company equals your brand.
Why is branding important to your business?
Companies of all sizes must invest in branding to stay competitive and relevant in the industry they are thriving. And here’s why it is so important for your business:
Helps in distinguishing your businesses from the others
Makes you more recognizable
Helps in building customer loyalty
7 Keys to Creating your Brand
Creating your brand takes time and should be planned very strategically. By learning these key steps below, you’ll be able to craft your image so that people can relate to it and create a positive brand experience.
1. Identify your target market
One of the most important steps in building your brand is to know your target market or audience. A target market is a group of people who share the same characteristics. It involves researching different kinds of individuals who would most likely buy your product or service.
2. Create your buyer persona
This is something I get into a great deal with my clients. You can have many different buyer personas. So take the time to delve into who they are, and who represents your ideal customer base. Research the ideal types of customers who will benefit from your product or services and understand their issues and concerns. Be sure that you include their demographics, organization type, jobs, pain points, and preferred contact methods to create a total picture of their persona.
3. Do market research
Market research is critical especially when you are launching a brand. This will help in learning industry trends, customer preferences, buying habits, and the like. It is also an effective way to gather information about your competition, and define key differentiators.
4. Plan a consistent social media presence
Now that you have created your buyer persona, it is time to utilize the power of social media. These days, social media has a great influence on the lives of people. Therefore, being active on different social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and the like will help you gain a brand reputation that can acquire and retain customers.
5. Start a blog
I can’t stress this point enough, creating a blog is an important part of inbound marketing because it helps in turning “browsers” into regular visitors, and potentially raving fans down the road.
Blogs help greatly because it attracts potential customers with content that is relevant to them. Be sure that your blogs are not only appropriate but engaging as well. Additionally, blogs that engage should include keyword-enriched or SEO-optimized articles where audiences will be directed to your website. This is what marketers like to call the pull-not-push-method of inbound marketing.
6. Prioritize excellent customer service
Show of hands… do you read product reviews? Chances are you have when researching a product you want to buy, or a restaurant you want to dine at. It only takes one bad experience to potentially lose a customer, as all businesses will point out. According to reports, many customers switch to competitors after having just one bad experience. Therefore, it is important to always respond to your customers concerns.
Be prompt in responding to them and if need be, provide them incentives or product replacement to ensure that their expectations are met.
7. Conduct webinars and training
Another excellent way to increase your followers or grow your brand is by conducting webinars and training. There are many ways that you can present them by hosting free through YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms.
Webinars, podcasts, or training opportunities are excellent ways to show your expertise about your brand. It creates a SME (subject matter expert) perception about your brand, and also helps in promoting and educating people about it.
Let’s Create Your Brand!
It is not impossible to create your brand. All you need is to have a branding strategy and use whatever resources are available. And, if you want to make an impression, launch your brand and make your brand go BAM! … I can help you with that! We provide different marketing and PR services that will suit your needs. Let’s chat and work together!
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