Welcome to marketing short attention span theater. Your audience arrives at your website. Maybe they found you through search, or a social link. They’re going to spend about five seconds determining if you are the right company to buy from. How do you win at that game? The short answer is by building your brand.
Some of the most successful companies in the world achieved their status through a highly recognizable brand (think McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Nike, Amazon, or Starbucks). They may do very different things but each has built a brand their customers love.
Your methods for building your brand may be unique to you and your strengths. Maybe there’s some humor in your voice. Maybe you’re good at visual communication. Whatever your strengths are, capitalize on those. But do it in a way that you can also resonate with your audience. We’re getting ahead of ourselves here. First, let’s take a little deeper look into what a brand is, and then talk about how you can go about building one in an effective manner.
A working definition of brand
People want to conflate brand with a logo but it’s more than that. While your logo is certainly part of the brand experience, your company’s brand is how people perceive your business wherever they might interact with it. The swoosh, golden arches, and funny green mermaid-looking thingy are part of that, but they are certainly not the whole story.
A lot more goes into this, including:
- Company name
- Products/services
- Logos
- Colors
- Fonts
- Brand voice
- Reputation
All of these aspects come into play as we consider how your brand is received by your audience.
Building a brand requires deliberate thought and consistency as you consider any and all areas that may impact how people perceive you. People can form an impression of your business through marketing, customer service, sales, or any other interaction. In order to be successful in brand building, you’ll have to factor all of this. We have some considerations below that can help you in building your brand as it relates to marketing.
Follow These Considerations for Building Your Brand
Build a brand strategy
As you look to build a stronger brand around your company it’s important to consider the response you’re hoping to evoke from your audience with every piece of marketing you publish, or every interaction. Brand strategy is how you’re going to go about delivering positive and unique experiences to your audience that will make them not only want to buy from you but talk you up with their friends and family.
Develop your brand identity
Brand identity involves all the visual elements of your business. This can be logo, website design, or graphic design for example. It’s more than how these visual elements look, however. It’s about the emotions they evoke when people experience them. The goal is to have a brand identity that triggers positive emotion.
Pursue Your Target Audience
It’s important to determine who you’re speaking to and who your marketing is aimed at. Without targeting the right specific audience, it’s possible to develop a brand that doesn’t resonate with anyone. The more you know about your audience, the more effectively you can market to them. You can choose the right marketing channels and find a more appropriate voice.
When you’re trying to understand your ideal audience, consider factors like gender, age, profession, income, and marital status. Don’t discount things like their personality, values, or lifestyle, interests, or hobbies either.
Find your brand voice
Brand voice is essentially the personality you’ve established for your business and should remain consistent across all platforms and channels. It should be in alignment with your company culture and values and authentic to who you are. For instance, if you are the type of company with a relaxed, casual dress code yet everything is uber-formal on the website it might be time to re-evaluate the brand voice.
Pick the right channels and execute
It’s important to think about your target market and what social media and marketing channels they’re using the most. Think about the channels where your business may already have the strongest presence, or you will be able to produce the best, most relevant content. These are the places you should focus your effort. No social media presence may be better than haphazard or spotty social media presence.
Building Your Brand Doesn’t Have to Be Overwhelming
Building your brand may sound like a monumental task but it doesn’t have to be. You can create and test new marketing collateral one piece at a time. You can find out how your customers feel about certain aspects of the brand experience and continue to tweak and evolve them. The important thing is that you end up in a place that leaves your customers feeling positive, and is more authentic to your business.
Are you interested in finding out more about how you can build a brand? Contact us today!
