High-quality branding is the cornerstone of every successful business. 60% of consumers prefer to buy products from brands that they already know and are familiar with.
It’s also the image that you carry as well as the reputation that precedes you. That’s why you have to prioritize the brand-building process.
Branding will dictate everything from the selection of your products to your marketing efforts. Therefore, the failure to cultivate a cohesive, and well-received brand image will hamper your business’ success.
If you’re wondering how to do it right, here is an 8-step process to building your brand:
Know and Understand Your Target Audience
Your brand will go hand in hand with your audience. For your brand to take off, it must be received by the right people. So, the first step that you need to take is defining your target audience.
Think about who you’re trying to reach with your product and service. Create an image of your target audience in your mind. Then, consider their needs, wants, behaviors, interests, and demographics.
Be specific.
Once you have an ideal buyer persona in place, you can move on to the next steps.
Establish a Mission for Your Brand
The next thing that you need to consider is establishing a mission for your brand. Before building a brand, you need to have an idea of the value that your business offers. Your brand mission will define the purpose of your existence.
From your business’ logo, tagline, personality, and voice- everything should clearly reflect your brand mission. It will be the answer to what your brand offers.
Research Your Main Competitors for Benchmarking
This doesn’t mean that you have to imitate what your competitors are doing completely. However, you have also to be aware of the things that they’re doing well (and the ones that they’re not good at.)
The goal here is to rise above the competition and convince customers to choose you over them.
To make sure that your branding is effective, it should be easily recognizable to people.
You can make a spreadsheet for competition research so that it’s easier to make a comparison. Great tools that you can use are Excel or Google Sheet.
When comparing, figure out:
- If your competitors are consistent with their messaging across all platforms.
- The quality of the products and services of your competitors.
- If there are any customer reviews or product mentions of your competitors.
- How your competitor market their business- is it both online and offline?
Create Value Propositions
Your focus should be what makes your brand valuable and unique. Search for value propositions that will set you apart.
Put in your value proposition each marketing communication you’re driving across channels. It’s one of the most crucial steps in creating a successful brand.
Create a Brand Logo and Attention-Grabbing Tagline
Visuals are crucial to every brand. The most important part of building a brand is to make an attention-grabbing tagline or logo for your company.
Ideally, your business logo should be related to your business. It helps define your business identity.
That’s why you must be willing to invest the time and money to offer people something exceptional that will help strengthen the core of your business.
If you can, you can work with a professional logo designer that will not just make a unique mark for your business, but help develop its guidelines as well.
Build a strong style for your branding by considering the following:
- The size and placement of your logo
- Color hues
- Font and typography
- Iconography
- Web elements
- Photography and image style
Form a Unique Brand Voice
Your brand voice will depend on your company’s mission, niche, and audience.
Your brand voice is how you communicate with your audience and how they respond to you.
Your brand voice could either be:
- Friendly
- Professional
- Authoritative
- Service-oriented
- Promotional
- Conversational
- Authoritative
- Technical
- Informative
Select a brand voice that makes sense and resonates well with your target audience.
This is vital, especially when publishing social media posts and blog articles. A consistent brand voice will make your brand more recognized on several channels in the same way. Your followers, fans, readers, and subscribers expect a certain brand voice or personality when consuming your content.
Let Your Brand Personality Shine
People will always be looking for something different. They’ll be looking for things that other companies aren’t offering. They’re searching for businesses that cater to what they need and will give them genuine interactions.
To brand your business exclusively, make your personality shine through and stand out from the rest of the pack. Be consistent in building your brand, as well.
Creating a unique brand personality is simple. When interacting with others, you can include a conversational tone, tell real-life stories, and describe your products and services.
Be Authentic to Brand Building
Maintain a consistent attitude throughout. Utilize a unique brand voice to every piece of content that you create and share.
The guidelines for your brand should also be well-documented. Don’t expect large returns if you aren’t consistent with brand building.
Remember, any kind of inconsistency in your end will just confuse your customers, making it difficult to create long-term success for your brand.
Market Your Brand
Have a definite marketing strategy to market your brand. You can apply branding to every piece of communication you have with your prospects, from your packaging to your marketing efforts.
Identify new channels as well, like email, affiliates, and other ways to promote your brand. You could also market your brand in unexpected locations like your pages in social media, or office goodies like t-shirts.
The Takeaway
Having a successful branding process will help outshine the competition and will play a role in cultivating the loyalty of your customers. After all, you need to establish a strong connection with your customers to make your company successful.
Your branding will define your company’s purpose and mission. It will also help establish your position in the market. That’s why you need to find ways that will help you stand out by having a solid brand-building strategy.
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