When you are setting up a business, the first step you do is pick a name. Then you choose the logo. As you choose the logo, you pick the colours that you want to be associated with your business. So what you are doing is building a brand.
But to build a brand is so much more than picking a name, brand logo or colours. With branding, you are defining your business to yourself, your team members and employees, your clients and the world.
With the right branding, you can make your clients fall in love with you. So much so that they start advocating you. And that’s the heart of branding. You are connecting with your audience, building relationships, catering to their needs, and resolving their issues with a smile. In doing so, you are encouraging their loyalty which will one day drive advocacy for you online and offline.
So how do you build a successful brand for your business?
Let’s start with these 4 steps:
Start with a strategy
You need a strategy when you are starting anything new. For the strategy to be effective, you need goals. And those goals need to be closely related to your business goals.
So research your competition. Go back to the research you’ve done on your target audience. Create your mission statement.
You do all the above to make the world see your business the way you want.
Choose your brand personality and voice
Your brand identity consists of your logo, brand colours and fonts, advertising, packaging, even your website design. But most importantly, to establish the right brand identity you need to pick your brand personality and voice.
Think of your brand as a person. Your brand personality is the characteristics of your brand, while the voice is the language and words you use to talk to the world.
For example, the Apple brand personality is about innovation and imagination. Nike’s is athletic performance.
And then, the Apple brand voice is quality, while Nike’s is about confidence.
Browse these popular brands and your competition brands to figure out what kind of brand identity you want to associate with.
Focus on marketing
If you’re not marketing yourself, either via your website or social media, or even advertising, no one will know you exist. You can choose to rely upon word-of-mouth marketing, but even though strong, it’s still an unreliable method of marketing.
So get online. Put out your website. Be active on social media. Share your mission statement. Let your audience see your brand personality and voice. Connect with them and find a common ground to have genuine conversations.
As your conversations grow, your brand popularity will grow as well. And your business will flourish.
Stay consistent
It’s easy to get distracted with business issues and not focus on branding. Branding tasks can get easily sidelined when you’re working to complete your orders or targeting more sales numbers. But the key to your success lies in your consistency.
If you are not consistent, your audience will most likely head over to your competition. And you’ll be left alone.
Now, over to you..
And that’s how you start to build a brand for your business. Keep in mind that as your business grows, your branding will also evolve. And your branding will also be affected by changing technologies, client needs, even pandemic situations. So you have to stay alert and keep evolving with your brand to drive more success to your business.
Share your experiences on brand building with us in the comments below.
