Did you know that presenting your brand consistently across all platforms can increase your revenue by up to 23%?
Developing your company’s unique brand is a lot more than just choosing your favorite colors and logos. It affects every other aspect of your business, and most importantly — sales.
In this article, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about brand development and why it’s important for your small business.
Keep reading to learn more.
In today’s hyper-connected world, new businesses (both eCommerce and brick-and-mortar) are popping up by the thousands every single day. As more competition continues to appear, it’s becoming more of a necessity to stand out from the pack with a beautifully built brand.
One way to think about your branding is how it will trigger emotions, memories, and a sense of relationship in your customers’ minds. You want to build the strongest connection you can to your market so that they instantly recognize you and relate to you.
You want to be a welcome friend that they allow into their homes and trust with their family.
And it’s not just about “feelings” — having strong branding leads to more sales. In a Brand Intimacy Report by MBLM, they found that the most intimate brands had an average of 10.3% in annual growth in the last ten years.
Compare this to the 3.2% growth for the Fortune top 500 companies!
So how do you build your business brand to attract your loyal fanbase? There are three main levels that all great brands operate on:
Let’s take a look at a few ways your business can take advantage of these three levels.
It’s important that you aren’t trying to sell to everyone in the market — that’s the fastest way to the bottom. A good brand-building strategy is very specific and selective about where its brand will be in the marketplace.
You need to be clear about who you want to serve and who you don’t. A good way to do this is to step into the shoes of your customers. Imagine what they are thinking about and what they are feeling when choosing which brand to purchase.
Whether they are buying groceries in the store, clothes for their kids, or tools for their home, there is always a real purpose behind the purchase. This includes both social reasons and emotional elements.
For example, imagine someone buying a certain brand of sausages for a party that they are hosting. A social reason that they might have could be to tell their guests how they only buy that brand because the butcher only uses the best ingredients and hand makes the product. They would never think about buying a lower-quality sausage from the market.
From this example, you can see that there are much deeper and more complex layers to how brands engage with their market. While this particular brand speaks to that customer, other customers may not care as much about what they have to offer.
To create a brand message that clearly states what your company stands for, make sure that it is:
Coming up with a clear brand message will be an important foundational piece for your business for as long as it functions.
Your brand name is the first point of contact that your market has with your brand. It needs to be appealing and sustainable.
Just like the rest of your brand messaging, it needs to fit with your positioning as well as hit the right emotions that you are targeting.
It’s important to understand how the name will come off to your customers. Having a name that is literally the name of the product could limit you in the future. Names that are a play on words could sound corny and cheap.
It’s important to come up with something simple, unique, and memorable. Take a look at some of the biggest brands in the world:
Again, look to your target market. What are they looking for? Find a name that will strike an emotional chord with them.
Your brand identity consists of how the visual aspects of your branding are designed. This includes your logo, font style, imagery, color scheme, and more. This is what brings your brand to life.
Several aspects go into building your brand identity, and they will affect how your digital marketing is presented. It is important to be consistent across all different platforms. This allows your customers to find you easily and quickly.
Without consistency, it can make it harder for your customers to identify you, which makes it harder for them to trust you. Ultimately, you want to be as recognizable as your customer’s family members are.
To execute your brand identity, create a style guide. This allows you to put all of your brand ideas in one place to make sure that things stay consistent across all platforms.
That’s a great start in the world of brand development. It can be a bit overwhelming jumping into it because admittedly, there are a ton of different factors to choose from. Just take it one at a time and choose trusted partners to learn from.
If you’re looking for a single hub to find everything your business needs to succeed online, make sure to check out The SMBHub today!
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