When it comes to developing a brand strategy, it’s not enough to have a rough idea of what you want to do. You need a detailed plan of what methods you will use, as well as a thorough understanding of why you are choosing those methods. The more detailed your branding strategy is, the easier it will be to implement it.
More than just a logo or a color scheme, a brand is about how you make your customers feel, built by taking a consistent approach across every interaction they have with you. Your brand is your company’s most valuable asset and for that reason, developing a stronger brand should be your top priority. To help you out, we have broken the brand development strategy into 7 steps.
1. Define Your Target Audience
Who is your target audience? If your answer is ‘everybody’, you’re not on a good track. Research has shown that high-profit companies have a clearly defined target audience. In addition, companies that research their target audience tend to be more profitable and grow at a faster rate.
Doing research will help you understand your target customers’ priorities and perspectives, predict their needs, and compose your message in a language that resonates with them. It will also tell you how they perceive your company, helping you reduce the marketing risks related to brand development.
2. Think About Your Messaging
Your messaging strategy should translate your brand positioning into a message that resonates with your target audience. Your target audience typically includes prospective customers, potential employees, as well as referral sources.
Even though your core message should be the same for all the above-mentioned audience segments, each of them will be interested in different aspects of it. In addition, each segment will have specific pain points that need to be addressed. Therefore, the messaging to each of these audience segments will need to address the needs and emphasize the most relevant points in order to make your brand relevant to them.
3. Work on Your Name, Tagline, and Logo
Every brand needs a unique brand logo, name, and tagline which helps the audience to associate positive things with the company. These elements will become the visual markers or “the face” of your products and services in the market. Choose something remarkable and distinguishable because it will become your brand’s identity on social media, amongst your audience, as well as your competition.
Don’t forget, your brand is much more than a logo, name, and tagline. These elements are just one segment of your brand identity, i.e. the way to symbolize or communicate your brand.
4. Leverage Social Media
When you see the figures, it is easy to understand why businesses consider social media to be crucial to building a brand. According to reports, the number of social media users has exceeded 3.8 billion, and 80% of consumers are more likely to consider products and services from the brands they follow on social networks.
Social platforms are a perfect way to get the word out about your brand and offering. By creating a solid brand presence on social media, you can reach a wider audience.
If you decide to leverage social media, be sure to use social media managing software
From creating and posting content to reporting and analytics, it can be quite overwhelming to think of all the tasks you’ll need to complete on a daily basis. Social media managing tools can help you streamline your workflows, save time, and even make sure that your content reaches the right audience at the right time.
5. Build Your Site
When it comes to brand development, your site is probably the most important tool. It’s where your target audience will go to find out more about you, your products or services, and the people who use them. Even though potential customers probably won’t decide to do business with you based solely on your site, they will definitely not take you into consideration if it’s not visually appealing or if it doesn’t send the right message.
Your site will also house your content, which is the focus of your SEO strategy so that your prospective customers, referral sources, and employees will be able to find you online.
A branding website should tell your story and convey who you are and what you offer. In other words, it should convey your brand message.
Image source: designrush.com
6. Create a Content Marketing Strategy
Your brand strength depends on both visibility and reputation. Increasing visibility without strengthening your reputation is not likely to be successful. That’s where content marketing comes into play.
Traditional “awareness-building” advertising often yields poor results. Content marketing, on the other hand, uses relevant, high-quality content to attract, nurture, and qualify prospects. It helps increase both your visibility and reputation while at the same time making your brand relevant to your target audience.
7. Monitor and Improve
Make sure to track both the execution of your branding strategy, as well as the results it yields. Check if the strategy was executed properly and if so, how many web visitors and how much search traffic it has yielded. In addition, see how many leads, partnering opportunities, and employee applications were generated.
Tracking the whole branding process will help you draw proper conclusions and ensure that you make the right improvements.
Final Thoughts
There it is – a 7 step guide to help you develop your brand and drive profitability and growth for your business. Take the time to do this right from the start, and you will have a much more successful marketing strategy.
Featured image image source: imaginasium.com
