Your brand is the foundation that will give your business voice, identity, value, and awareness in the market. Building a brand from the ground is no easy task. To leverage your brand you’ll encounter numerous questions – Will it meet my target audience? How much should I invest? What should it look like?
These are the questions that inevitably come up and make you think about how to connect these dots. Make no mistake, build a brand, not a business. Only a brand will be loved and recognized as your valuable asset.
A brand can be anything – your logo, tagline, label, anything to make you distinct. Your brand is how people perceive your business whenever they use your services. As a small business owner, you may compete against giants with unlimited resources, budgets, and devoted customers. To stand out in the market and leverage your brand, you must first build it. Implement these tips to build your brand and establish your business
Discover who you are
What’s the purpose behind your brand? To leverage your brand first figure out your identity. Be introspective and create a list of what you will be offering, your strengths, where you lack, and what motivates you! To decide and discover your niche there are four questions you should ask yourself:
- Why do you exist?
- What makes you stand out?
- What problem are you solving?
- Why should people connect with you?
By answering these questions you’ll uncover the skills and traits you have as well as the areas where you need to improve.
Pick Your Audience
When building a brand, the foundation for it will be the type of audience you’re trying to attract. You can’t serve everything to everyone, right? The key is to be specific.
If you note closely, Nescafe has launched two very different marketing campaigns “For The Moments That Matter” and “ItAllStarts”. Same brand, same product but to get the attention of a different audience. You’ll realize that your competitors narrow down when you focus on serving the target audience. Few of the things to document when deciding on your target customer:
- Location
- Age
- Income
- Gender
- Education
- Social Media Status
Build Your Brand’s Identity and Voice
Now when you know your buyer’s persona, your brand can start to take shape. Building your brand’s identity and voice showcases the values and principles you work on. Instead of finding answers about your target customers, you will be looking for answers for your brand. What will you represent? What are your values? How do you want people to remember you?
When you find the answers to these questions, focus on creating quality content that supports them. Emails, blogs, social media, newsletters, and content that reflect your story and mission behind the building of your brand. Remember to tell your story. A good one. Because to leverage your brand that’s what you can sell before even actually selling your product.
Build Your Business Name and Logo
What’s in its name?
When you listen to or read the word Apple mainly two things cross your mind – a big red apple fruit and the Apple. That’s what a name is. As a small business owner, deciding on a company’s name could be the one big commitments you’ll have to make. With a logo, a brief and descriptive slogan is good to have and your audience will remember it forever. What’s the Happiest Place on Earth – Disneyworld! The Ultimate Driving Machine – BMW!
Grow Your Online Presence
Now when you have the logo and target audience sorted, you want the world to know about your services. Your brand’s position will determine the opportunities that will come your way. To acquire that position make sure you have an impactful online presence. With so many different marketing tools available, building an online presence is much easier but competitive today. Online marketing is for building your brand awareness which includes:
- Website User Experience
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Paid Advertising
- SEO
- Content Marketing
Tools for Building a business brand
Building a brand can be a fuzzy process. It revolves around perception, promises, and strategies. Sometimes it may even seem touchy-feely. But can the process be tracked?
Your brand needs to be represented provokingly in every aspect of marketing. Using branding tools in this scenario can cover a lot of ground. Branding tools ensure that every action, update, message, or piece of content showcases your brand in the market. All you have to do is start looking for appropriate tools for your best use:
- Designing Tools
- Website Hosting
- Office Supplies
- Audio and Video Branding Tools
- Account Handling
- Content Marketing Tools
- Business Books
Another fantastic way to get noticed and grow your leads is by conducting a masterclass and free webinar to promote your services online. To attain clients by this method use Picktime, a web-based event scheduling software, and conduct a successful webinar event.
Picktime provides group bookings 24×7 at multiple locations. With Picktime you’ll have automated booking reminders and a personalized booking page. Not only this if you’re ever conducting a session that requires submission of a minimum fee Picktime will handle your payments and invoices. Using Picktime you can also integrate with your apps – CRMs, Apple Calendar, MailChimp, Constant Contact, PayPal, Stripe, Google Meet, Skype, and many more and handle all your requirements in one place. Sign up for free today to know more.
Make Customer Service Your Priority
It only takes one bad experience to potentially lose a client. Exceptional customer service will turn an irritated customer into a satisfied one. Which will ultimately improve your business name. The name of your brand! And here you have it your last and the most important marketing tool- word of mouth. Some advantages of good customer service include:
- It creates a sense of trust
- Increased Lead Conversion
- Increased Profitability
- Improves Market Image
- Competitive Advantage
While we touched on some tips to leverage your brand, providing good customer service is an important element in the success of building your brand.
Summing up the piece, to leverage your brand, always keep your audience in mind, discover your qualities, establish your unique voice, and there’s nothing unethical in taking additional help. Building your brand is a creative process. Have fun building it and keep growing with your business.
