Starting a business is easy but retaining and be consistent on every aspect, every single minute, and every day is the most challenging. Starting is simple, but staying on the game and be recognized amongst is the hardest.
And if you are planning and wanted to go into business entirely, then you should be pressing on one of the most business components — branding.
What is branding?
According to Business Jargons, branding is a marketing process wherein the firm tries to create a unique image of the product in the minds of the customer and establish a differentiated presence in the market with the intent to retain the customer loyalty.
In short, branding is the process of convincing and letting people accept that you are the best in that specific industry on the particular period of time that they dwell into your product or even into your marketing materials or strategy.
Branding is more than just the visuals like the name, the logo, or the trademark. Branding is like the soul. It summarizes or encapsulates the over-all business elements including the mission, vision, values, the company, the people behind it, the emotion and the willingness on how it was done and wanted to be delivered to the customer.
And if you are serious in putting up a business, let it run successfully and became a tycoon, read on below branding tips as you start your journey:
1. Prioritize your brand from day one
Remember that your brand is the overall representation or identity of your business; thus, you need to put time and effort into it in the first place.
Plan and check out how you would like your business to be seen and imagined by your customers anytime and anywhere. Let your customers feel that you are sincere in providing the best from day one.
Remember that people will always recognize and sense whether you are true or not, so you need to build awareness and emphasis on what you are offering.
Create your brand step by step as you go along the way. A brand is not built one-time, so you need to steer your branding and let your market define you slowly on the way you want it to be.
When you don’t follow your branding steps from the beginning, a higher chance is you’ll get lost along the way. Then you need to go back and regain. So now, let your branding begin!
2. Define what influences your brand
As we said, your brand is the soul of your business, and it reflects all the factors affecting inside. And at some point, this includes the company culture, the values the people behind it and how the people are willing to work together to come up in a stronger brand.
When people behind are happy and motivated to bring out the best in them and be proud of their contribution to the company, it will naturally come out. So here are several tips from Moo, on how to build a strong brand culture:
- Brand your workspace. Why not try to align your office on the brand that you want to portray. If you already decided on the theme, colors, and character of the brand, try to reflect it. For example, your product is a book, then work a library-like idea at the office. This will also give an extra feels to the people who will be visiting your place.
- Make sure your team is on board. People are the most essential element in creating a brand. Thus, the people behind it should fully understand what your brand is so they can embed the mission or values as they go to work or on their personal lives.
- Use the power of example. We have different point of views and different understanding so your company can use patterns to align everyone on a single perspective or standpoint. Several tools like videos, photos and a more descriptive explanation will be a good way. Remember that a brand is composed of different people with a single mission.
- Keep it sustainable. Let your brand be natural. If you fail, made a mistake, it’s okay. No one in this world is perfect including your brand. Just recognize it, accept it and make a way on how to correct it.
3. Think about your target audience
After identifying what suits you and establish the brand culture, of course, you need to know your audience. According to Quicksprout, there are three types of audience:
- The people who would pay for your product or the customers. Like what we are trying to reiterate, creating a customer avatar is the best. You need to create a specific persona that you would like to serve which includes demographic, wants, problems or pain points, and other necessary details to come up in a complete package that they will love. When you truly know your customer, you don’t need to find nor push your product to them. They will automatically detect and buy to you because they will feel that it perfectly fits or created especially for them. The more clear and specific you are with your customer, the more you become focused and effective your marketing strategies are.
- The Influencers. These are the people who are interested and can influence the customers who are willing to pay for your product. Influencers can reach thousands or even millions of people without using highly paid marketing campaigns. They can be a blogger, a social media influencer, a celebrity or even an expert.
- Your support team. These are the people who support you along the way. These are your family, friends, your mentor, and co-workers. Your support team is the fuel of your business.
It’s important to identify these set of people so you will know how to treat them and continuously improve the brand and the business.
4. Assess your brand from an objective perspective
The main yet simple step in creating your brand as a newbie is determining whether it is built objectively. “Objective” in simple term means being “unbiased” or “being fair”. Being objective will reveal the real measure or the current status of your brand. Check out the following questions according to Heidi Cohen that you may use to assess your brand:
- What type of product or service are you offering and what are the specific benefits you are solving?
- What are your core principles, goals and values?
- What’s your company and/ or product personality?
- What is your voice?
Who is your target audience? - Who are your competitors?
True enough that you need to be very specific on every single detail for easiness of conveying messages to your market so always be reminded and be guided of these branding tips.
5. Connect brand strategy with marketing
Your brand strategy will be nothing without teaming with marketing. Marketing will be the key driver of your brand. Make sure to tell an honest and authentic story to recognize and let separate your brands from the other.
Different channels that you can use are; Social Media, Emails, Websites, Events, Content Marketing and SEO, Affiliate Marketing, and Pay per Click.
Remember that you don’t need to be present on all the channels one time, build it one by one, then replicate to the others. Just make sure that you are consistent and uniform across all to easily recognize by your customers.
6. Differentiate your brand from competitors
Your brand shall stand out even trends, competitors, or innovations in the industry arises. There must be something in your brand that the customer will never forget and would come back for the experience. Below are several tips from Microarts for you to stand out:
- Differentiate your brand by price. It does not necessarily mean that your product shall always be cheap or a premium. Instead, is the product worth the price? In short, the amount shall compensate for the overall feature of the product.
- Differentiate your brand by niche. What is your specific niche, who are the particular people you would like to serve and what are their particular problems you would want to solve? The more specific and narrow you are, the higher the chance of identifying you as an expert. Narrow your niche and master it.
- Differentiate your brand by innovation. How willing is your brand to improve and accept the fact that everything may change including the trend or the peoples need? Let your brand offer something new, relevant or an upgrade whenever required. Let them feel that what they are buying is an investment rather than a purchase alone.
- Differentiate your brand by convenience. Remember that you are not selling the product alone but the whole experience. Check how comfortable or simple your product or service is on the customers’ point of view. Check whether you are solving their problem in the simplest possible way, and check the whole transaction process from the time the person would try to purchase. People love convenience in the first place.
- Differentiate your brand by service. Make sure that you help your customers efficiently. Nicely talk to them as you solve what they want. Maintain their satisfaction with whatever situation they may encounter as they purchase your product. Remember that satisfaction is the number one reason for them to be a loyal one.
7. Use audits to keep your brand in tip-top shape
When it comes to the point that your business is already stable, the next thing you need to establish is auditing. Auditing by definition is the process of examination or validation of the current position in the market, ongoing operation and practice to review its effectiveness. Strong brands are willing to identify their strengths, but stronger brands are more willing to identify their weaknesses and growth opportunities.
Brand audits will help identify the company and customers point of view in terms of the brand value, brand awareness, deficiencies of the brand, threats, perception, reputation, and attitude of the brand in the market, and the people carrying the brand.
And as the customer reveals their say on the brand, this is now your time to improve and refocus your brand management to align your objective on the expectation of your market.
Remember that once your business is established, you shall not stop there. Your business shall keep improving, growing and adapting on the changes that will come. And if you’ll get lost, you can always go back and check these branding tips.
Conclusion
Start your business small. Go inch by inch to your success! Let these branding tips be a great reminder that no matter how new you are, you can always do it!
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