Helping Small Businesses Grow
Brand Marketing: Build a Brand
Not only your product or services matter to customers, but also your brand and its story. Prospects need to know if your business is well-known, and if it is trustworthy.
The 101 of building brand marketing is all about adding meaning, and establishing trust.
What Is A Branding Strategy?
When asked about their brand strategy, most business owners will immediately think about logos, website design, online visibility, using social media, etc. It’s a common mistake to confuse marketing with branding these days. However, the two are not the same – it makes more sense to think about marketing as a tool kit with which you can promote your brand. This tool kit includes, for example, social media, SEO, PPC and local search. So what exactly is a branding strategy and brand marketing then?
Simply put, branding revolves around your business culture and the unique selling point: what is it that makes you special? Why are you more interesting than other brands? Who runs your business, and how do you offer solutions to your customers? Branding means establishing a meaningful core message, your personality and, most importantly, your purpose.
When it comes to branding, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. However, there are a few guidelines to keep in mind when developing a branding strategy.
What is Your Brand’s Personality?
- What is my company’s identity/culture?
- Who are my competitors?
- Who is my ideal customer?
- How do I want to be perceived?
What Are Your Brand’s Core Objectives?
Defining your core values will be the next step: it all starts with you writing down a set of values that you want your brand to have, and of which you think your brand can stand by. The latter is especially important, since you are now choosing core objectives which have to be reflected in every piece of content, performance, customer contact and other service you put out there. Consistency is key – it will create a clear message and breed loyalty among your customers.
For finding a solid set of core values, you should ask yourself these questions:
- What are my brand’s core values?
- What is my brand’s unique selling point (USP)?
- What problems does my brand solve?
- What do I want my brand to do for my company?
What Is Your Brand’s Culture?
From my experience, many businesses fail at engaging their employees in their branding strategy. Potential customers want to know your brand’s story and your business culture, they want to know who’s behind the business, and what the day-to-day looks like.
By engaging your employees in the creation and communication of your brand’s values and culture, you will make sure that everyone is on board with the main message that your brand wants to convey. A good example for creating and then advertising a great company culture is Google: due to its consistent narrative about employee benefits, a great working environment and the general idea to ‘make work fun’, it has repeatedly been voted as one of the best companies to work for.
In order to get the employees involved, you should ask yourself, or them, the following:
- How can I improve my company culture?
- How can I best make sure that my employees participate in the communication of the brand’s core values?
- How can I communicate my company culture to the outside world/potential customers?
How Can You Communicate Your Brand To Your Audience?
- What are the best platforms to communicate my brand?
- What are the appropriate calls to action?
- And, again, what problems does my business solve?
Conclusion
Authenticity, clarity, consistency. Your branding strategy and brand marketing (i.e. its communication to your target audience) should be authentic, clear, and consistent. This way, you are more likely to establish trust and gain loyal customers.
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