Creating a brand for your business assigns a specific identity and vision to attract your target consumer base. Conduct your research thoroughly to ensure you are fully familiar with the demographics of your audience, including age range, interests, the type of language that resonates best and the drivers behind your potential consumers choosing your service or product over another.
The logo, aesthetic, values and name are pivotal in setting the tone for your branding. By taking the time to refine these key concepts, requesting feedback from colleagues and lead potentials, your final brand assets will shape your future mission statement. A unique and intuitive logo and brand name can attract a huge amount of business. From colours to font, customers need to be impressed by your brand to trust you with their investment. Through this step by step feature, we pose a question and answer narrative to help inspire you to explore and conceptualise your own successful branding vision.
How do l communicate with my audience, and who exactly are they?
To execute an effective marketing strategy, this is the critical question every successful CEO considers comprehensively. Establish your consumer's pain points, requirements and then predict intuitive add on’s. Everyone likes to receive complimentary information or products which they were not expecting. Forge a relationship with your customer that feels two way, by offering free P&P with a product or a discount on services paid for after revisiting your brand after initial purchase, explore what initiates return visits to your website or shop. Speak to your customers directly, requesting feedback and reviews, explore their demographics, then chart this information. All of these techniques will allow you to learn more about your consumer, to then structure the language you use when writing newsletters, social media posts, blogs, website copy or emails. Once you have established a fluid style of communication which resonates with your audience, a key element of your branding is forged.
Where do l want to be in five years?
Pre-determining your goals both short term and long term allows you to define a brand image which is befitting of your company in the start-up stages, extending to when your brand is well established and turning over a significant profit. Dream big. If your brand is only achieving a few sales a week, don't imagine you have to maintain a low key aesthetic. Your branding will be with you for life, unless you decide against what you create in the early days and rework all your brand assets, which can confuse long term customers.
If my brand was a person, what characteristics and personality type would define them?
Refining a brand persona is a critical developmental in your brand strategy. A brand persona is a personification of your company. Social media is the perfect place to help develop your brand persona. Focus on creating a representation of the key aspects of your brand. Be clear on what differentiates your brand from any other and work on communicating that to your audience. Be clear on your companies values. If you're a law firm, a sense of reliability, formality and intelligence should be championed. If you are a design company, a creative vision which speaks on a level with an audience is an integral focus. Read the room and scrutinise what gets hits and likes online and progress those topics.
How do l promote my brand?
Deciding how to promote your product or service is a multi-faceted decision. Promoting your brand, especially in the early stages, requires persistence and consistency. If you decide to hire help to take over PR this can take the stress out of mass emailing and liaising with potential new leads. However, handing the reins over to another team member can convolute the mission statement and language. As a brand owner, you explicitly understand the target audience and your branding goals; however, PRs are educated in rolling out strategies and campaigns outside of your realm of experience. Blending expert advice with personal preferences when promoting your brand identity creates a good balance.
Marry your PR strategy with your social media posting schedule. A strong social media presence can boost visibility and grow your image organically. Once you have established a significant following, the addition of a blog to boost your SEO and help you deliver content to targeted audiences allows your brand to explore it's identity across various platforms from podcasts, YouTube, Ebooks to blog posts.
How do l host an event?
Hosting an event is a great way to gather like minded people together to inspire conversations about your industry and professional experience, which in turn can stimulate fresh ideas. From new product launches, redesigns, anniversaries or simply for the fun of it, parties reward team members for their hard work, customers for their business and promote the brand's evolution in real life. However right now in real life is pretty impossible.
Check out our recent post on hosting online events to get a sense of how throwing a Zoom party can still help everyone get into their good mood space.
