No matter the size of your business, branding is essential. It’s a practice of creating a name, logo, and message unique to your company. The most significant role of branding is that it distinguishes your products and services apart from the competition. It’s a way to show what you truly represent and how you wish your business to be viewed.
There are many ways to build a brand. That can include the simple customer service you provide every day, your overall reputation among your audience, and marketing materials such as advertisements and your logo. The goal is to use them to create a cohesive and pleasing image of your business.
The Importance of Branding
Branding should be your number one priority when it comes to marketing your business. Here’s why it’s essential.
- Increases recognition — As discussed earlier, branding distinguishes your offerings from the competition. With a memorable name, logo, or even tagline, you’re sure to stand out. Just think of Apple’s iconic logo or Nike’s “Just Do It” tagline. When you see those on a poster, you’ll instantly think of the companies they represent.
- Improves trust — Having an established brand will help your business create trust, not just with customers but also with business partners. ; It makes you look professional and polished.
- Establishes emotional connections — Marketing is all about creating emotional connections with customers. That can be a slow and gradual process that starts by making a good impression. With a good-looking logo and memorable message on your advertisements, you’ll be able to get customers to fall for your brand.
How to Improve Your Branding
Enhanced trust and recognition, and emotional connections, help improve the growth of your business. Know how to establish your brand and keep it in good shape.
- Know your audience better — You need your brand to be unique, but you also need it to be something that your customers will love. This way, you can catch their attention immediately in your ads and other marketing materials.
Work with a market research firm to figure out who your target audience is. They’ll do quantitative and qualitative research to ensure you’re getting accurate information about your customers’ demographic data and their interests, personality, and attitudes towards certain subjects. That will help you create a brand message that your audience can relate to.
- Make a brand bible — Now that you have a company mission and vision together with data about your customers’ preferences, it’s time to create a style guide or brand bible.
- Use the information you have to come up with your brand’s language. For example, if the demographic data says that your audience is mostly made up of young people, you may want to talk casually. If your industry provides professional services, you may need to use a more authoritative tone for your content.
- Work with a professional graphic designer to develop the right typography, colour palette, and logo for your business. Give them as much information as possible, including your company’s branding information and newly-acquired market research. They’ll create multiple mockups based on the data you provide.
If you’re still not satisfied with their output, try to look at other companies in your industry that you want to emulate. Show their logos to the designer so that they have a peg to base off when creating a unique graphic.
- Implement your brand bible — Now that you have a cohesive voice, typography, colour palette, and set of graphics for your brand, it’s time to implement them across all your marketing mediums. If possible, use the same logo, colours, and font type for every material you put out, from online display advertisements to your employee’s customised printed workwear. Align your content with your brand voice. That ensures you have a consistent tone that customers can identify almost immediately.
- Monitor your branding performance — Now that you’ve implemented methods to improve your brand, your next step should be to see if it’s useful. Check your social media comments and reviews to see if your customers like your new look. View your website analytics to see if people are buying more of your products or staying longer on your content pages. Make the necessary changes according to the feedback you get.
Your brand defines how you want everyone, from customers to business partners, to see your business. As such, you need to establish one that presents how your brand is and update it as time goes on. Use these suggestions to create a unique brand that your customers will surely love.
