Branding is critical for every business; however big or small. Your brand is who you are, it is how the world sees you and recognizes you. It is this association and loyalty to you and your brand that will inspire loyalty and build credibility. You brand is what makes you memorable and what ultimately brings in customers. According to Entrepreneur, branding is “a marketing strategy that involves creating a differentiated name and image — often using a logo and/or tag line — in order to establish a presence in the consumer’s mind and attract and keep customers.”
Now that you know why branding is important, how are you going to actually take steps to start branding your business? Candice Landau, managing editor of Bplans, share a 5-day exercise plan to help you get started on building your brand:
Day 1: Who are you? What is unique about you? What is the value that you provide? How do you make a difference? Answer these questions to describe your business, visualize it and define its personality. You need to know who you are before expecting your customer to know you.
Day 2: What do you look like? What does your brand look like? What colors, images, fonts or personalities describe your “look”? It’s the little things that help customers remember you and associate you to positive experiences.
Day 3: Create or update your logo. This is the real-life embodiment of your brand. Make sure your logo speaks for your business, communicates your core values, and is unique and practical.
Day 4: Create or update your marketing material. However big or small your business is, you need to ensure that you have some marketing material. Get together a basic marketing strategy document that will act as your go-to guide. Include material on your brand position and how you want to reinforce the brand and its communication in every touchpoint you have with customers. In the midst of the social media storm, you absolutely need to have a top-notch website and relevant social media platforms. In addition to those, ensure you have swag that speaks for your brand if it makes sense (such as t-shirts, uniforms, flyers or brochures).
Day 5: Prepare for lift-off. Now that you have a brand all set up, you’re ready to move into the phase of marketing your venture. But before you get started, it’s important to do some basic research. Ask friends, family and existing loyal customers about whether (or not) your brand resonates. Once you have a first-step confirmation, go ahead and have fun building your brand image. Make sure to remember to analyze how well your brand is doing to gain insights and continue improving your overall marketing strategy.
Once you have your brand in place, it will be easier for customers to identify you. How far along are you in the process? What step did you find most challenging in the brand identity process and how did you move forward from it?
For the full story, check out: http://articles.bplans.com/how-to-build-a-brand/
Thanks for reading and until next time… stay WISE!
Image credit to Hubspot.