Make no mistake about it: a recognizable and loved brand is one among the foremost valuable assets a corporation owns. As a little business, you’ll be competing against big brands with devoted customers and unlimited marketing budgets. That’s why you’ve got to seek out ways to differentiate with a solid brand building process (Digital Marketing Company) of your own.

What is a brand?

Brand is defined by a customer’s overall perception of your business. The founding father of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, says it even better: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not within the room.” Your brand is your reputation! In today’s market, a successful brand has got to be consistent in communication and knowledge, across many applications:

• Environment (storefront or office)
• Print collateral, signage, packaging
• Website & online advertising
• Content publishing
• Sales & customer service

Now, brand building being simple? The truth is: branding doesn’t happen overnight…or even during a few months. Building a brand is definitely a process. (Digital Marketing Company) However, the continued effort will end in establishing long-term relationships with your customers. This can cause a gentle increase in sales, more projects, word-of-mouth referrals, and advocacy for your products or services.

What is brand building?

The definition of brand name building is to get awareness about your business using marketing strategies and campaigns with the goal of making a singular and lasting image within the marketplace. Positive impression + standing out = brand success. In 2020, the amplification of your brand image can be done effectively through various digital marketing activities: (Digital Marketing Company)

• User Experience (i.e. your website)
• SEO & Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Paid Advertising (PPC)

We’ll dive into each of these elements in detail, later! I simplified the path for a brand building process below, to help your business brand or personal brand gain a more loyal following.

How to Build a Brand – Digital Marketing Company

1. Discover the purpose behind your brand.

In all successful brand has a powerful purpose behind it.

And so should you.

It’s what you wake up every day loving to do for other people (and the world) through your product or service.

There are four questions you should ask yourself when defining a brand purpose:

• Why do you exist?
• What differentiates you?
• What problem do you solve?
• Why should people care?

You’ll use these ideas to inform the foundation of your branding, through a tagline, slogans, voice, messaging, stories, visuals and more. So dig deep and find those nuggets of truth which can distinguish your brand from others. (Digital Marketing Company) Leadership expert Simon Sinek (author of Start With Why), developed an impact model called The Golden Circle. This concept can help in identifying the purpose behind anything in business or life, really.

The 3 Parts to The Golden Circle:

• What – the products or services you offer to your customers
• How – the things that differentiate you from the competition
• Why – the reason you are passionate and why you exist

In fact, in the video you’ll see below, Sinek explains how to truly differentiate a brand when most of them fail. I’ve probably watched this presentation over a hundred times, and still get chills when I do. It’s one that I send to all clients prior to our kick-off meeting for the brand discovery phase. Some people in the marketing industry (Digital Marketing Company) think it’s overrated, but I disagree. And, there’s a reason why it’s one of the most popular TED talks of all time.

2. Research competitor brands within your industry.

You should never imitate exactly what the large brands do in your industry. But, you should be aware of what they do well (or where they fail). The goal is to differentiate from the competition. Convince a customer to get from you over them! We’re always thinking about how to make a brand stand out from what’s out there already. Don’t skip this step in the brand building process. Research your main competitors or benchmark brands. For instance, study how well they need gone about building a name.

Creating a brand competitor research spreadsheet – Digital Marketing Company

Competitor research may be a key element of your own brand development  and start by creating a brand competitor spreadsheet for comparison. You can use Google Sheets, Excel, or even just a notebook.

Then, answer these fundamental questions.

• Is the competitor consistent with messaging and visual identity across channels?
• What is the quality of the competitor’s products?
• Does the competitor have customer reviews or social mentions you can read about them?
• In which ways does the competitor market their business, both online and offline?

Choose a few competitors, two to four (2-4) is a good number for your comparison chart. You may want to take a look at other local businesses, or even aim to benchmark against name brands.

3. Form your unique brand voice.

Your voice is dependent on your company’s mission, audience, and industry.It’s how you communicate with your customers, and how they respond to you.

A brand voice could be:

• Professional
• Friendly
• Service-oriented
• Authoritative
• Technical
• Promotional
• Conversational
• Informative

There are endless adjectives and possibilities which will build a brand voice behind your messaging. Ultimately, you want to choose a brand voice that makes sense and resonates with your target customers. (Again, going back to Step 3!) You’ll see that if you find and use the correct brand voice, you have the strongest chance of connecting with consumers. This is particularly important when publishing blog articles or social media posts. (Digital Marketing Company) Maintaining a uniform voice will help your brand image become recognized on multiple channels within the same way. A community of followers, readers or subscribers will come to expect a certain brand voice and brand personality when they consume your content (see the next step).

4. Create a brand logo & tagline.

When you believe the way to build a brand, visuals probably come to mind first. We haven’t even talked about these until this deep into the branding process! This step may be the one where you need help with creative execution. The most exciting (and arguably the foremost important piece) of the brand building process, is to make a brand logo and tagline for your company. It will become your identity, calling card, and therefore the visual recognition of your promise.

So be willing to invest the time and money by creating something exceptional to reinforce the visual identity for your business. Need help branding your business? Hire a professional designer or branding agency with logo and identity design experience, to help make your brand stand out. Their expertise will make sure that you get a singular and timeless mark for your business. A designer can also develop brand guidelines, to make sure consistency for any future application of the brand and associated brand color palette or fonts.

A strong brand style guide will include the subsequent things:

• Logo size and placement
• Color palette
• Typography and fonts
• Iconography
• Photography/image style
• Web elements

5. Stay true to your brand building.

Unless you opt to vary your brand into something that’s simpler supported measured consumer response, consistency is vital. Once you establish a brand voice, use it for every piece of content you create. (See above, Step 6 within the brand building process.) Document all the brand guidelines you create and distribute internally for reference. What is brand building worth, if it is not consistent? Don’t constantly change your branding. The inconsistency will confuse your customers, and make long-term brand building harder.

On The Path To Branding Your Business – Digital Marketing Company

Branding are often one among the foremost significant belongings you can do for your new or existing business. A solid brand building process can transform your business from a little player into a successful competitor. You’ll discover that your customers will develop a deeper level of trust for your brand, and be more likely to get what you’re selling. Therefore, always develop a uniform message and visual identity to strengthen your mission. Integrate your brand into every aspect of customer experience: from your storefront to your website, to your personal interactions!