Your brand image is what makes you unique. Building a strong brand image is like giving your brand a personality all of its own. Without one, your brand could seem flat, dull, and boring! To generate as much interest as possible in your business, take the time to work on developing your brand’s personality, the bigger better!
Let’s dive into the wonderfully creative and interesting world of branding.
Step 1 – Set Your Goals
Your first step in your brand-building task is to set your goals. Your goals will drive your business forward and keep you motivated, even when you’re feeling deflated. To achieve something meaningful, you need measurable goals that you can actively work towards. There’s very little point in working on your brand image without knowing the reasons why.
Equally, knowing your goals will help you achieve measurable results. Measuring your success is essential for improving your business and marketing strategies.
Step 2 – Define Your Audience
You know how there are some people you just click with? You get on exceptionally well, have lots in common, and could talk for hours about this or that. And then, at the other end of the spectrum, there are those people you simply can’t seem to mesh with. There are awkward silences, pointless small talk, and the whole situation is just uncomfortable. You want your audience to consider you the former!
But, to do that, you have to know them. When you’re working on your customer profile, be as specific and detailed as possible about who they are, what they like, and they’re personalities. When you can define your audience, you are able to match your brand image to them. Build your tone of voice around your audience and speak to them how they would speak to you. Use similar writing styles and terminology, and incorporate images that reflect their personality.
Step 3 – Know Your Unique Selling Proposition
Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the key thing that makes you stand out from your competitors. It is the main reason why customers will opt for you. Creating a USP takes competitor research and a comparison between your business and theirs. Note your strengths and weaknesses, your advantages and disadvantages, and your potential vs theirs. This will help you either identify a USP or identify an area for improvement so that you can develop a USP.
Your USP should be presented to your audience as much as possible. Place it on your website, your brochures, your social media posts, and your marketing emails. Display it proudly and emphasize it where appropriate.
Step 4 – Build Your Mission Statement
A person’s mission in life says a lot about their character. Some people are happy enough chugging along with no real expectations of significant improvement. Other people, however, have big, bold, and brilliant plans that push them forward and inspire those around them. Don’t be the person without the mission! Inspire your audience.
What’s the difference between the person with a mission and the person without? One word; confidence! A daring and powerful mission statement will communicate your confidence in your abilities. And, people are more likely to trust the knowledge, skills, and services of someone who believes in themselves.
Step 5 – Get Creating
Your content is what will communicate your brand image. Content isn’t just text; it’s images, videos, infographics, and Gifs. Blog consistently using your established writing style and tone of voice to appeal to your audience. Link your social media posts, ads, marketing emails, and web pages together wherever it’s relevant or appropriate to gain maximum reach.
The great thing about digital marketing is that creativity is encouraged. The more creative and original you are with your content, the more you’ll stand out from the crowd, and the stronger your brand image will be. There are limitless possibilities out there. Don’t make the mistake of thinking everything’s already been done.
Brainstorm ideas and come up with something truly special for your audience. Create something original to put your stamp on the World Wide Web!
Step 6 – Use Your Website To Its Full Potential
Your content is your brand’s personality but your website is its face! Use your website to its full potential by ensuring it not only looks fantastic, but functions smoothly, loads quickly, and does everything it’s supposed to do; i.e. no broken links or 404 pages!
According to Neil Patel, 40% of consumers will leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. In fact, 47% of consumers expect web pages to load in just 2 seconds. No pressure then!
Your hosting provider will play a pivotal role in the speed and functionality of your website. Hosting your own site may be ideal for small personal websites or blogs, but you would run into some serious speed problems when traffic increases. Therefore, we recommend working with a reputable and reliable hosting provider with plenty of positive reviews. This will help you create a positive and lasting impression on your visitors.
You’re Ready For Brand-Building!
Now you know the basics and beyond of brand image building, you’re ready to go forth and put these techniques into practice. Keep these three key things in mind while you work: it’s all about your customer, original concepts will make the biggest impressions, and confidence sells!
