The brand is the most important and valuable thing about your company. There are plenty of reasons for this but most notably, people love buying from brands that they already know and love. According to research conducted, 59% of people would rather buy products and services from brands that they are already familiar with.
Small businesses often get scared when they take a look at their odds in the brand business – big companies are already beloved and respected in their niches. However, this is a mistake. They can build a brand that’s just as successful and unique. The only thing that they need to do is find out how they can differentiate themselves on the market.
This means much more than just designing an eye-catching logo. It includes a deep exploration of your goals, audience, and creativity. Here are some tips on building your brand:
Table of Contents
Set Yourself Up For Success: 6 Most Important Elements Of Launching A Strong Brand
Understand your target audience
Before you start telling a story, you have to know who you are talking to. You wouldn’t, for instance, tell the same story to a toddler and an adult. Carefully think about what you want to achieve and who the recipient of your message is. Create buyer personas and speak to them directly.
Mandy Callings, a Marketing Manager from Big Assignments, explains, `The beginning of every good and successful brand is a good understanding of the brand’s target audience. If you start with this, you can be somewhat sure that you’ll establish a strong brand. Do all the research necessary for you to know your audience properly.’
Follow the footsteps of big brands and try to notice how they choose their target market and how they address it.
Have a unique and authentic story
Every brand has a unique story – it doesn’t matter if it’s a popular company like Coca-Cola or just a small, local business. Before your company was created, there was an idea and that idea had to come from somewhere. There were struggles at the very beginning, small triumphs, setbacks, anecdotes etc. There is a story behind everything. If you are not the best writer out there, there are simple writing guides online, like the one on State of Writing, for instance.
Utilize this, your history, which is unique to your brand. It can’t be copied or taken away from you. According to a study, people love business storytellings– offer them one.
Make sure that your brand story is authentic as well. There is no need to make up fake things when you have so many interesting things to say on your own.
Authenticity and uniqueness should be seamlessly included in every element that users see. From logos and advertisements to content which can easily be checked by plagiarism checkers like Copyscape. Originality doesn’t cost a lot but it’s priceless in the big picture.
Utilize the testimonial economy
People love hearing that others approve of your brand as well. It makes their decisions to purchase from you that much easier. According to statistics, testimonials provide effectiveness rating at 89%.
Use this to your advantage by gathering brand ambassadors, influencers, statements from newspapers or any other kinds of reviews and display them proudly where everyone can see that they can trust you.
Have an emotional appeal
Brands and everything that comes with them is there to humanize your company. Tell a story that provokes emotions – happiness, nostalgia, excitement, melancholy, even love. If you make people feel something, they will not forget you that easily.
‘ Be confident when trying to achieve this – causing emotion, I mean – it’s a rocky path to take, but a rewarding one too. Try to picture your brand as a human and what kind of feelings would that human provoke in people. That’s the most genuine way to utilize emotional appeal. ‘ says Cathy Gregor, Social Media Manager from Paper Fellows.
Create value for your audience
Before you start thinking about rewards you’ll reap from creating such a great and relatable brand, remember that you have a long way to go before asking for something in return from your customers. For example, you may be an established and strong brand, working towards accessing a larger market and expanding your niche. But some years ago, your brand was just at its beginning. It would have been easy for the brand to ask people to give back to the brand right away, but it’s best to be patient and wait until you feel like it is the right time until you feel your brand has provided enough value for its customers.
Have a backup plan
Having a backup plan is always a good idea. This way, you are safe no matter what happens. As you create your first brand strategy, make sure to create another one, just in case. Your data might fail you at some point and an element of your brand could fail. That would be the time to implement a plan B.
Final Thoughts
Building a brand is as hard as it is fun. You get to explore all of your passions and utilize your creativity to create something that people will love and use. If you build your brand right, you’ll be able to relate to your audience on a deep, human level. In the world of technology, that is something irreplaceable and valuable to people.
Author Bio
Brenda Berg is a professional with over 15 years of experience in business management, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Consultant and tutor for college students and entrepreneurs at Oxessays. She believes that constant learning is the only way to success.