When creating your brand, it’s imperative that you think about everything from your logo to color scheme to the tag line. You also have to develop an awesome brand and have a memorable brand name, strong message, support system, and all of the necessary legalities, like getting trademarked, in place.
But, that’s only the beginning of your branding process. To help you complete creating your awesome brand, give these nine tips a spin as well.
How do people see you?
“The interesting thing about your personal brand is it’s never what you say it is, it’s actually what everyone else says it is,” writes founder and chairman of the award-winning matchmaking firm PCBA Paul C. Brunson. “Therefore, the first place to begin in the building and growth of your brand is to know what people think of you.”
Paul adds that you can find out how others view by: “googling yourself, holding a focus group (of close friends), or asking a life coach or business coach to conduct a 360 analysis on your behalf (we do this for all of our clients and it’s very effective).”
Build your online platform
Blogger, author, digital strategist, and speaker Jeff Bullas recommends that you, “Build your own online platform such as a blog or website that you own, then amplify your content and engage with your audience on social networks.” Be adds, “Use LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter or even Pinterest and Instagram. You have options. Find what social network resonates with you.”
Also don’t forget to harness the power of content marketing, guest blogging, and networking.
You can’t please everyone
Years ago at a marketing conference, my friend Jonathan Long from Market Domination Media told me that “You’re never going to please everyone, so don’t try to be everything to everyone. Learn to be the best brand possible to a specific set of users.” This still sticks out to me as myself as a business owner really can’t do everything. If I try and please everyone… it’s not even possible.
Don’t be afraid to be yourself – even if that means saying the things that no one else will. Remember, you’re not in business to please everyone. You’re in business to grow a business, not please everyone.
Weave your brand into everything you do
Personal branding should be a large part of everything you do. It should be weaved into your life. It shouldn’t just be in the clothes you wear but in your every action with friends and business colleagues.
Keep weaving.
Your brand should show in how your blog online. For example, my personal brand always is helping entrepreneurs. When I attend networking events I try to have the same person you read about online, shine at networking events. If you try to be someone you’re not, it will show.
Associate your business with strong brands
“Your personal brand is strengthened or weakened by your connection to other brands,” said Shama Hyder is Founder and CEO of Marketing Zen. “Find and leverage strong brands that can elevate your own personal brand.”
You can begin by looking at the three C’s: company, college, colleagues.
For example, you could contribute content to your alumni or company newsletter or blog.
Be consistent
As a customer, think about the brands that you are most loyal to. Chances are that they’ve earned your trust because they are dependable. For example, Zappos is known for delivering superior customer service. Dropbox includes it’s signature hand-drawn blue box logo on all of its messaging.
Bot examples prove just how important consistency is for brands.
As Hannah Fleishman states on HubSpot, “All of your communications and marketing assets should tell your brand’s story.”
Create value
You should be producing value with whatever you do. You don’t have to be Apple to have an amazing product. Even lower-end products like Ikea produce a lot of value to their customers.
When thinking about the value that you can add, ask questions like;
What sets your product, service, and company apart from your competitors?
What value do you provide and how does that value differ from that provided by your competitors?
So you see it’s not about what you think that makes the brand. It is what consumers think and feels about you.
And people will form opinions about your business whether you want them to or not. So it is critical to take explicit branding actions to influence these opinions.
It is an essential component of your marketing foundation.
Looking to create a smashing brand image?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your continuous learning for yourself and your team?
Do you have a lesson about making your brand marketing better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of a small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
More reading on brands and branding from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
These days, a business will not be able to sustain itself if you are not careful about raising brand awareness. Creating a brand is about awareness. Customers are looking to purchase from someone who is recognized, especially when it comes to particular products, like clothes, shoes, bags, etc.
It may sound ridiculous, and contemporary society’s vanity does
not help, but the quality does not play as prominent a role as it did before.
It is all about word of mouth and getting everyone to notice you.
However, a few articles will not cut it as the more you read, the
more you are going to win. Thus, it would be worth paying attention to the
methods written below. Continue reading and find out what those are.
Finding Other People’s Opinions
It is easy to get lost in your own world and fail to recognize
that it is actually the opinions of other people that matter the most.
Think of it as part of the planning process and try to gather as much information about how others see you and where you need to improve and so on. See what social media has to say, do a quick search on Google, and speak with people in real life. Conducting such research will help immensely when you have to move forward.
The internet is the best place to advertise and raise brand
awareness. Regular people spend hours on their computers and smartphones
browsing the net and even if they have no intention to buy something at that
particular moment, it helps to know that they see your name floating around.
Everything starts with a well-developed website. Search engine optimization, browsing on mobile devices, responsive UI, a blog, social media
icons, a favicon, a search bar, live chat for customer support queries, contact
page, and so on.
The worldwide web is not going away any time in the future. In fact, it will continue to play a more important role so not investing in your presence online would be a huge mistake.
Consistency
Like with most other things of marketing, you want to emphasize consistency as well. If you end up abandoning the whole thing in the middle
of your journey, virtually anything you did before will only end up as a waste
of resources.
Brands are not built in
a day. Nor are they built in a week or a month. You need to be constantly doing
the same things over and over again. And even after you reach a really good
point, stopping will give a chance to the competition.
Focus on Value
Brands that emphasize
money-making and trying to sell as much of their stuff instead of quality. Of
course, it does not limit one to just the products and service quality.
No, it is much more
complicated than that. Even things like delivery times, packaging, customer
support, etc. need to be of the highest possible caliber.
In other words, it is
necessary to establish a great relationship with your audience and keep at
it.
Social Media
Social media platforms
are another great method to leverage more leeway and improve your standing with
the customers.
These days, virtually
everyone is using at least one social media website. Facebook and Instagram are
without a doubt the top of the food chain and every brand ought to do their
best to get as many followers as they can.
Giveaways and contests
are one of the best ways to gain more traction. All it takes is a simple
comment and a share and before you know it, thousands of people have engaged.
Since everyone loves free stuff, they will be more than happy to enter.
Reward Loyalty
Your most loyal
customers should never be forgotten. If you have a subscriber list and send out
a weekly newsletter, offer some perks through that. At the same time, encourage
customers to spend more and the word of mouth will travel, giving you a more
positive reputation.
Start a Podcast and a
YouTube Channel
YouTube channel.
Look to expand. Brand
awareness will not grow if you are static. Thus, other channels are a natural
choice.
One of the few things
that come to mind immediately is podcasts. They have become quite popular as
entertainment and education. Coming up with weekly content might be a bit of a
problem, but a podcast once or twice per month will be a good way to spread
your name out there.
The same theory applies
when you have a YouTube channel. These days, it would be too difficult to make
money from it directly, but as far as brand awareness goes, it still holds up
pretty well.
