eBusiness Weekly
Robert Gonye
Brand building is key in keeping customers in mind and deliver messages that support your company’s mission. In a business environment that is never static, branding will remain important.
As it turns out, there are some creative ways to brand your business effectively without a lot of cash. While it can require an investment of time, the ROI won’t go unnoticed — in some cases, it can help you save money, while also growing your business.
Building your brand is a crucial part of developing your business. It’s the foundation of giving your organisation a voice, identity, value, and awareness among consumers. Below are a few actions that can be taken to achieve a strong brand presence
1. Create a persona to understand your audience.
Knowing your audience is the key to creating marketing messages that appeal to them. A great way to get to know them is through creating a buyer persona — a semi-fictionalised representation of the values and characteristics of your ideal customer.
Personas outline the challenges of that customer and where your business fits into solving their problems. Make sure your personalists demographics, like age and education as well as expectations of the customers.
The needs, goals, and behaviour of your potential customers dictate how you convey your product or service.
Understanding those goals helps you determine what kind of media your personas are consuming, what motivates them, and where they “live” online. This information allows you to develop a compelling, effective brand that reaches the right people.
2. Develop an identity and voice for your brand.
Once you’ve identified your buyer personas, your brand can start to take shape. Create a brand identity, what makes your brand, your brand, and its voice, which is the tone you use in any copy or public communication.
Developing brand voice and identity is similar to constructing your personas. But instead of answering questions about your target audience, you’re answering questions that are more introspective to your brand such as what are your company’s values, what do they represent, and how do you want people to talk about you?
When you answer these questions, focus on creating content that supports them. Craft compelling emails, blogs, social posts, and multimedia that reflect your company’s mission, values, and how you want to appear to customers.
For example, if one of your values is to be accessible to customers, communicate contact information on social media pages, and answer service questions that appear in comment sections. Developing your voice comes through in the copy of that content.
3. Map out a consistent social media presence.
After a clear picture of what your audience is interested in, next, understand where they’re spending the most time on social media and that includes their online behavior.
An easier formula would be to check out competitors — see where they’re most active and how their language may or may not connect to audiences.
Additionally, look at how your audience interacts with social media. For instance, men and women who use Facebook are from the ages of 24 and 45. So, if your persona fits that bill, focus your strategy on Facebook.
If you find the majority of your audience prioritises one social network, you’ll have an idea of where to allocate your resources. But don’t ignore other sites. When you build a presence on multiple social media platforms, you’ll have an opportunity to diversify how you reach audiences. Diversifying the methods and channels you use for obtaining new leads helps you to connect with as many potential customers as possible. Maintaining a presence is just as important as building one
4. Start a company blog.
Blogging is a fundamental step in inbound marketing. It helps you reach qualified customers, like your personas, by creating the content that matches what they’re searching for. That’s why it’s so important to make blog posts relevant to audiences (and optimise them for search engines).
Customers are looking for the information you’re able to provide. Plus, that content can serve as material to populate your social media networks. To find what your audience is searching for, conduct keyword research that will tell you what the most important topics for your audience are via search engines. While blogging is fiscally inexpensive, it does take time.
5. Make customer service a priority.
The recognition that your brand has earned, not paid for, from people talking about something you do makes you remarkable.
For example, when shopping on a new website, the first thing you do is read reviews. If you see reviews that mention speedy shipping, friendly customer service, and high-quality products, one is more inclined to purchase. This rubber stamps the importance of your identity and voice.
6. Take advantage of co-branding.
While Larger companies may have a large reach, however, there is something they do not have.
When you’re just starting to build a brand, you might not have the reach. You can take the steps to build it, but that takes time. Until then, one way to get your name in front of a broader audience is to partner with a brand that does have that reach.
Make sure it’s one that’s aligned with yours so it makes sense in the minds of your audience.
Building a brand might seem like a huge undertaking, especially when resources are limited.
But there are plenty of economical ways to not only get started but to continue the momentum. Lastly do not forget to educate your customers via a webinar on your brand. It will always sell you well.
◆ Robert Gonye is a Business Growth Expert and Influencer. He writes in his capacity. Comments and views: [email protected]: follow us on twitter: Robert_Gonye
The views given herein are solely for information purposes; they are guidelines and suggestions and are not guaranteed to work in any particular way.
