As businesses continue to evolve yearly, companies need better marketing strategies to be on top of competition! The most effective way of marketing is to brand themselves and create a name for their business, which is common knowledge for marketing areas like in digital publishing and social media. While most aspects of marketing are fast-paced, one part changes not as frequently and is unfortunately overlooked: BRANDING!
By maintaining your brand and finding ways to evolve your image, it can help put your business out there and make it more relevant to consumers. But what exactly is branding and how can you apply it properly this year? Read on as I show you all about branding for businesses!
What Is Branding?
Before anything else, what is branding and why is it so important?
Brand refers to a set of memories, stories, relationships, and expectations which were considered by consumers for them to decide what company to avail a certain product or service.
It is NOT just about having awesome products, cute logos, or catchy tag lines at all. Branding is a more complex concept that goes deeper than that, and while those mentioned elements ARE important, they’re just the start of building your image.
There are different subtle and elusive factors which can make a huge difference to your audience. With even the smallest detail change, it can make or break the way audiences perceive your brand and how they feel about it. Most importantly, it can either have them want to choose you or another competitor with a better and/or more relevant image.
So this means EVERY touch point is important, and you’ll need strategies well thought out to present your brand in the best way possible.
There is no one-strategy-fits-all and it depends on various factors, from what you offer down to your target audience. With that said there are some things you can follow to begin creating an efficient brand and image to kick-start your business.
Tips for Effective Branding This 2020
Now that you’re familiar with what branding is all about, how can you start improving it for your business? Besides hiring a good branding agency, here are four tips you should consider doing:
- Define Your Brand
The first step to creating your brand is to define it. Consumers report that, the main reasons they work with particular brands are for their shared values, so imagine your brand as a person. This can help establish your brand’s core values, purpose, beliefs, among other unique characteristics for it to stand out.
Your brand’s UNIQUE DNA is what will set it apart from similar businesses that sell the same products and services. Defining your brand by seeing it as a person can also help humanize it, making it even more appealing to your target market. Think about the following when defining your company’s brand DNA:
- A background story on how your brand flourished and its inspiration
- The target market, if you’re focusing on specific or general audiences
- Pricing: If you offer affordable or high-end deals
- Community involvement, which can help boost your brand awareness and build relationships with your audiences
- Stay Consistent
Once you have defined your brand, you need to make sure that you stay consistent with it. From the way you message, your tone of voice, the visual identity, as well as the products and services you offer, everything has to stay within your company’s branding.
Consumers like brands that are dependable, getting exactly what’s expected when availing products and services. In fact, this is a crucial part of customer loyalty. If you want your prospects and current clients to recognize and remember your brand positively, then your message should align with your brand’s appearance and audience lingo.
Find your brand voice then use it in all communication channels, having your brand’s attributes, behaviors, and characteristics in every interaction.
- Build Brand Awareness and MORE
There are tons of ways you can spread the word about your company and brand, with the best way to do so is to build brand awareness. So be helpful by providing your audiences with advice on solving problems, answering questions, and informing them about your products and services.
Besides this, you can increase brand awareness by throwing in some freebies and useful items here and there. Try doing the following:
- Host informative webinars
- Collaborate with brands from the complementary industry
- Write and publish useful how-to guides, e-books, and more helpful resources
- Host giveaways with branded freebies
- Offer great deals like free shipping
- Create referral programs
These can help with your branding efforts and show your audience they are more than just customers, and that they mean something than just profit.
- Create Emotional Appeal
To build your brand, you’ll want to relate with the audience and feel as human as possible. This works with emotional sales, which is a sales approach that relies on creating strong emotions in customers. It’s done by putting excitement around products or services, or to tap in negative emotions over other brands.
You can do this by understanding your target market, their problems, and what they want out of products and services. The company brand should give the following emotions:
- Well-being
- Belonging
- Security
All these can convince your potential customers to choose YOU, thanks to tapping into their feelings in a positive manner.
Wrapping It Up
It’s crucial for companies to stay current on evolving their image, which can reflect the present consumers’ needs and expectations. With a solid image can come better marketing strategies that work in and out of the company. As a result, you get to reach goals and get even more clients to transact with you.
I hope my article on branding gave you an idea of how to create a better image for your business. So start implementing these tips now!
Do you have any questions or want to share your tips and experiences on branding? Share it in the comments section below, all your thoughts are much appreciated!