7 Ways to Improve Branding Strategy for your Business
While it's certainly difficult to determine the most critical ingredients for having a successful business or a company, branding should definitely find itself at the top of everyone's list.
Of course, the foundation has a great product, but in this day and age, there is so much competition in every niche, which means that getting through to your target audience is going to be a herculean feat.
Developing your brand is something that is an absolute must these days, since 75% of consumers worldwide list brand origin as an essential purchase driver.
For instance, one of the reasons why Coca Cola is so successful isn't because it's that much different from Pepsi or Dr Pepper, but because it has chosen to focus on selling a brand, rather than the product itself.
Apart from helping to shape the image of Santa Claus, they have also produced ads that feature family time, and young people having fun, with Coca Cola being the common denominator.
Basically, they are selling a particular lifestyle, and it works.
To help your own brand find its way to the target audience, here are seven ways in which you can improve your branding strategy.
Table of Contents
1 – Establish a Consistent Visual Identity
Creating a strong visual identity for your brand is easier said than done because it's a considerable challenge,
People are very receptive to visuals, and if you can manage to get your logo and your visual identity right, you should make sure that it's consistent across your entire presence, whether we are talking about your website, blog, emails, social media channels, and newsletters, or print media, billboards, or television.
When you collaborate with a graphic designer, you should think about what sort of emotion and meaning you want your brand's visual identity to evoke.
According to Samuel Hughes, who works as a marketing manager, they have been able to boost their revenue by 24% simply by changing their brand's colours and tweaking the existing logo.
There is enough research to suggest that we associate certain colours with certain emotions and traits, so it goes way deeper than consistency too.
2 – Get the Influencers on Your Side
Influencer marketing has been on the rise for quite some time, and it's showing no signs of slowing down.
For instance, as much as 86% of women look to social media influencers for purchasing advice, and over 70% of teens are more likely to believe in an influencer than a celebrity.
Naturally, if you can get one or more influencers in your niche to promote your branding strategy, you will experience a whole slew of benefits.
For instance, it will do wonders for your brand awareness, since it will expose your company to an entirely new audience, not to mention that it will improve sales.
You can either contact an influencer and agree to sponsor one of their events or recruit them as your company's spokesperson.
Alternatively, you can simply provide them with your products, after which they will mention them in one of their posts.
Sometimes, they don't even have to mention it; it's enough for the audience to see them use it.
A good idea would be to reach out to YouTube vloggers, Instagrammers, or even celebrities if you can get them to go along with your proposal, according to Mike James, who is a marketing manager for a reputable company.
3 – Improve Your Credibility
These days, people are more shopping-savvy than ever, which means that you will have a much higher chance of turning them into customers if you have been able to establish your company as a brand that inspires authority.
Moreover, while building authority is not something that happens overnight, you can do plenty of things to boost it.
One great way to do it would be to organise or sponsor an event or a seminar that will gather the best business people and companies in your local area.
Alternatively, you can get in touch with a publicist and together you can put together a list of publications in which you would be able to publish your brand's story or even an interview.
Also, you can set up a blog and publish blog posts in which you will focus on sharing knowledge regarding your industry on a regular basis.
This will help you position yourself and your brand as a source of authority, which will make people more likely to trust you, not just when it comes to expertise, but also when it comes to your products.
4 – Perform SEO
Whether you like it or not, to get your brand in front of the eyes of as many people as possible, you will have to do SEO or hire someone else to do it for you. Why?
Because most people usually don't bother to venture beyond the first page of Google search results. In addition to providing great content with your blog, you should also make sure to target relevant keywords, which should expose your brand and your content to the right kind of audience.
In addition to that, you should also make sure to build high-quality backlinks.
On-page SEO is also a must, and if you can manage to do all of that, Google will hopefully rank your website higher.
Of course, it will take time for you to see any real results, as well as to climb up regarding ranking, but it's a long-term branding strategy that is definitely going to help your business.
5 – Maintain an Active Presence on Social Media
Regardless of what your business is, it is fair to assume that some or most of your target audience is going to be on social media.
It is up to you to determine which social media platforms they are using.
Even if some platforms might not be the most relevant for your industry, you should still open an account on them, because you want to make sure that nobody else opens an account under the same name as your brand, since they could cause potential harm to your reputation.
As far as where you should be active, Facebook is always a good idea, not just because everyone uses it, but because it allows you to engage your followers and speak to them directly and gather valuable feedback for your brand, as well as to develop a more personal relationship with them.
Instagram, on the other hand, allows you to leverage the power of social proof.
For example, you could ask your Instagram followers to share their opinions, as well as personal images of them using your product to give your brand even more credibility.
Also, like Facebook, Instagram allows you to engage your followers and built an active social media community around your brand.
6 – Use Branded Packaging for Your Products
What is the first thing you come into contact with as a customer when you receive a product you have ordered?
That's right; it is the product packaging.
In most cases, it is a bag or a generic cardboard box that you can't wait to tear apart to try out the actual item inside.
However, if you are looking to take your branding strategy to the next level, you should realise that the first positive experience a user has with your brand is with your packaging, not with your product.
If you can afford to send out your product in custom packaging with your brand's logo and colours on it, you will create an additional emotional connection with your customers and get your brand to stand out from the rest.
Just imagine a situation where you and a whole dozen of your competitors offer a similar product at a similar price.
In that case, branded packaging may be just the thing that will provide you with an edge.
7 – Provide Excellent Customer Service
Regardless of how hard you try, not every customer is going to be satisfied, at least not right off the bat.
To provide an experience that can be characterised as positive, you will need to give excellent customer service on top of a great product.
Although it may seem like a drag, it can become one of your biggest strengths to push in your branding strategy.
Customer service is just the thing that can help you in case one of your customers is having a public complaint about your product.
By addressing it publicly and remedying the issue, your brand will come off as a business that cares about its customers and what they have to say, and you will also decrease the number of negative user reviews out there.
Concluding Branding Strategy
As you can see, improving your branding strategy takes some time and effort, but if you can implement all of the tips laid out in this article correctly, your brand will be able to reap the benefits in no time, and your business will turn into a success story. Good luck!
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