Building a brand can be tricky, and with so many others competing for the same space, making it stand out can seem all but impossible. It’s always a good idea to get help with branding, but there are practices you can put in place to help give your brand a head start. Here’s what you need to consider.
1. Be consistent
Customers are easily confused, so consistency is key for your brand messaging across all platforms, from your website to your social channels to any above the line marketing. If you’re struggling to keep a consistent message, always question why you’re putting each particular piece of content out there. This consistency also stretches to your brand logo and key colours, which should always be visible across all of your content – even something as innocuous as a colour palette on an infographic can help with consistency.
2. Be relevant
Keeping up with current trends and topics can help your business to stay relevant with your customer base, even at times when business is traditionally slower. It also helps ensure you create regular content for your website and social channels. Keep up to date with the latest industry news and report it in relation to your business. It also helps to put your brand’s point of view on any stories. You should also consider topical social content, such as memes, to help give your brand a voice.
3. Be interesting
Creating interesting content is sometimes easier said than done, particularly for anyone working within a less-than-interesting industry or offering products that don’t get the pulse racing (no matter how essential they may be). But an interesting spin can be put on anything. Info graphics based upon your own research often capture the imagination, particularly if you can do regional comparisons. And there’s an interesting story behind every business and within every team, which can be perfectly captured in written or video content. And everyone loves a short ‘how to’ video.
4. Be receptive
No matter how much work you put into building your brand, the public perception of it might not be what you expected or intended. In short, brand identity is what your customers think it is, not what you do. The best way to get a handle on how your brand identity is perceived is to simply ask your customers. You then need to take the findings and fold it into your proposition at every customer touchpoint.
Any customer studies should be both quantitative and qualitative, so you get a broad sample range with enough numbers to be truly representative, as well as critical feedback that you can use to hone your brand identity and shape your output.
5. Be critical
Building your brand is only laying the foundations for your future success, and you’ll need to regularly audit and evaluate your proposition to find out what works and what doesn’t. Social media means customers have more choice than ever – and a shorter attention span – so it pays to make your brand stand out with a consistent message that resonates over that of your competitors.
