Branding influences the way the world sees your business and dictates the standards and mission you project, but it isn’t always easy to know where to start in your brand-building process. However, some things are obvious, such as creating a logo you can use everywhere and sticking to a specific standard for customer service.
Around 45 percent of the image a brand projects is attributable to the message the brand emits, as well as how it presents that message. How do you go about putting your message out there, and how will you know the reception beforehand? Here are nine specific strategies you can use to showcase your brand in the best light possible.
1. Come Up with a Catchphrase
Take the time to create a catchphrase you want your customers to walk away with. "Have a nice day" isn't enough anymore. Your slogan should be unique enough to stand out, but also encapsulate what you want customers to take away. Use your catchphrase when they purchase from your brick-and-mortar store, as well as when they are buying online.
2. Showcase What Makes You Unique
What makes your company unique? Maybe it’s your sense of humor, or perhaps you have more experience in the industry than any other company around. Whatever makes your company stand out from the crowd, use that element as a chance to brand your company as the best of the best in that area.
Beardbrand shows off their commitment to helping men feel more confident by offering high quality, easy-to-use grooming tools. They come right out and state this about their brand, then back it up on their blog by providing tips for different beard styles and how to pull them off.
3. Wrap Vehicles
There are so many ways to get the word out about your brand, but if you’re looking for some offline ways to market your brand, then a vehicle wrap is an excellent place to start — anyone who sees the wrapped vehicle will see your message. Vehicles wraps have a strong return on investment (ROI), as well, generating as many as 70,000 daily impressions.
4. Highlight Your History
A big part of your brand story is how your business was born and how it’s grown to what it is today. Take the time to tell your story on your website and social media to let your customers know more about you. If you’ve always strived to put customers first, then you should reflect that in your story, which is also part of your overall branding efforts.
Schneider Electric does an excellent job of presenting where their company started and how it has always been on the edge of technological innovation. They also highlight how long they've been in business — 180 years — which lends an air of reliability to their brand. Because the company has been around for so long, they also highlight important dates in the company’s history and offer ranges to show the many phases of the company's growth.
5. Create Social Media Buzz
You already know you need to market on social media, but figuring out how to create a buzz isn’t quite as easy. Facebook makes it harder than before to reach people unless you pay to boost a post or start an ad campaign. However, you can still get social media buzz going by getting your customers involved in the process. Ask them to use a specific hashtag and upload them using your product, or host a contest for the person with the most shares or likes on their post.
6. Show Why You’re the Best
Part of your overall branding strategy should be to show consumers why you’re the best in some area. However, you have to figure out the best ways to share this information. There are many ways you can show you're the best, from comparison charts to simply playing up why your product is impressive.
Figuring out how to compete with mega-store Amazon isn’t an easy task, but one shopping site, Jet, figured out a way to seek out customers and show how they’re the best at pricing. Jet manages to clearly define how they structure their pricing so you can save more money the more you shop with them. They reiterate this by offering free shipping for orders over a certain amount, as well as through their social media advertising.
7. Answer Questions
Before your customers have a question about your brand, go ahead and answer it. Put out information on your site that explains the most common inquiries customers have when they first contact you. Put yourself in your customers' shoes and think about what they might most want to know. Then, don’t make them ask — answer it instead.
8. Get out in the Community
Get out in your local community and be a presence, so people come to truly know your brand, what you have to offer and what your philosophy as a brand is. There are many ways to accomplish this. You can support local causes you care about that match your goals as a brand, for example. Or, take out a presence at local festivals and fairs, as well.
9. Add Custom Content
Add content that focuses on who you are as a brand and what your product provides. If your goal is to help women start their own businesses, then your content should focus on all things that help women start their own businesses. Seventy-eight percent of people feel companies with customized content on their blogs are more trustworthy than companies that only offer generic, non-specific content.
Consistency Is Key
It's crucial that you know the message you want to get out there, as well as the preferences of your typical audience. Armed with this information, you’ll reach just the target you want and be able to provide the content that will make them sit up and take notice of your brand. The key is to keep working on branding and trying different strategies until you find the ones that work best.
Lexie is a designer and typography enthusiast. She enjoys writing HTML code and creating new styles guides. In her spare time, she works on her design blog, Design Roast.
