One of the best ways to build a successful business is to build a strong brand identity for your company. The stronger the brand; the better targeted it is to your audience, the more likely you are to generate leads and ultimately convert more customers. Building a better brand takes time. How exactly do you build a strong brand?
Find out what people think of you
The first thing you need to do in building a better brand is to find out what people currently think of your business. Google your company, read reviews and comments, and see how the land lies. Once you know what kind of image you’re currently portraying and once you get insights on your customer’s behavior, you can work on getting rid of any negative views and building upon positives until you’ve created a brand that blows your target audience away.
Check out this video on Conducting a Social Media Audit.
Build your online visibility
As a modern business, you probably have a website and a social media presence at the very least. Chances are though that you could be doing a lot more to promote your company and build up a strong brand identity. For example, you could be creating guest posts on more prominent blogs and websites, which will not only draw more attention to your business but also set you up as a leading authority within your niche. Podcasting would have a similar effect, as would spending more time replying to social media comments in a friendly and informative way. Basically, experiment on different strategies that can build the positive image of your brand.
Keep it consistent
Consistency matters! Businesses fail with branding when their message to customers are not consistent. If your copy, images, downloadables, etc. all have a consistent theme, customers will always know exactly what you’re about, and this is something that will work in your favor. Think about it. You always know what you’re going to get with Apple, Coca-Cola, or Nike, and they are three of the biggest brands around. If keeping consistent is something you struggle with, a good digital marketing agency can help you out, as can using the same team of copywriters on all of your campaigns, but if you simply create a brand mission statement and refer to that before you put out anything new, it will help a lot too.
Give up trying to please everyone
There isn’t a business on the planet that is universally appealing to everyone, so you should give up trying to be all things to everyone. Gone are the days of mass marketing!
If you don’t have a specific target market in mind, chances are you won’t be able to appeal to anyone at all because your message will be so all over the place that it won’t really catch anyone’s eyes. Work out who your target market is and what you’re about and focus on that, and you’ll be more successful for sure.
Offer value
If you want people to look upon your brand favorably, you need to offer them something of value. You don’t necessarily need to be as revolutionary as Apple or as high-end as Gucci, but if you are able to produce high-quality goods and/or services that are useful, appealing, and made to last, this will reflect very well on your business and be a solid foundation upon which to build a lasting brand.
Offer excellent customer service
In building a better brand, we tend to forget that we are talking to people. With this customer service often gets overlooked as something that can help. People are more likely to engage with businesses that have treated them well than those who have not, and if you have a good reputation for listening to your customers, making things convenient for them, making their experience with you a memorable and happy one, people are going to look upon you more fondly than the competition.
Be yourself
Above all, as a business, you should strive you be your own unique self. Do things you won way, even if it’s different from the rest of the crowd, and do so unapologetically because half the battle of building a string crowd is being able to stand out from the competition.
A strong brand can get your further than almost anything else in the business world, so make it your mission to do whatever you can to build one of your own and you will see the fruits of your labor. It may take some hard work and ingenuity, but it will all be worth it in the end.
