What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of business branding?
If you’re like most people you probably think “logo” or “Nike”. And I would tell you you’re not wrong, but you’re not entirely right either!
I eat, sleep, and breathe branding… I’m serious, it’s what wakes me up in the morning, keeps me up at night, and gives me joy (and goosebumps sometimes!). I love the process of finding out the reason, purpose, solution… behind a business and the person running it. There’s always a story, have you noticed that?
There’s always a passion or driving force that pushes someone to start a new business. They find a niche, or a need that they are passionate about… and they desire to provide the solution to others that have that need!
So here are the 5 branding (or rebranding) essentials you need to define:
Define Your Audience
Think about your ideal client. Who are they? What do they care about? What problems are they having that YOU can solve?
You must know what the pain points are and determine the precise solution you can provide to help the customer who is in pain. (I’m not a fan of pain, are you?)
Define Who You Are
You need to know who you are and who you are not. Read that again, please. This is so important in order to work with your ideal client and ensure you remain authentic and intentional in YOUR work. This really streamlines your business and puts you right in front of your customer.
Take time to discover what you don’t want to do. Identify what your expertise is… and do that… and only that! Don’t water yourself and your talent down by focusing on everything you CAN do and focus on what you WANT to do.
Define Your Goals
You wouldn’t drive somewhere without knowing exactly where you hope to end up, right? Same is true for setting your business and branding goals.
You need to have the business “map” in place in order to effectively reach your customer through your brand, and create that stickiness that keeps them coming back to you for the solution to their problem.
Define Your Brand
Here comes the super-fun part! Create a visual representation of your brand that you can (and should) use on everything you do to market yourself whether it’s online or on marketing/advertising collateral.
Be sure to work with a skilled brand stylist (like Soul Creative!) to dig into your passion to create the most visually appealing brand that will grow with your business and won’t require rebranding in the future.
Define Your Online Presence
We live in a world where practically everything we need is at our fingertips in the form of our smartphones, tablets, laptops, smart devices… well you get the idea. Everyone is looking everything “up” or “googling it” — am I right?
So you want to make sure that your customers SEE that you are the expert or the go-to-person for this solution to their problems. If you say, “my customers aren’t on Facebook”… again I say, you’re not wrong, but you’re not entirely right either!
Even if they aren’t on social media… someone in their tribe is and they’ll be looking up your profile! Use a social media strategist (like Soul Creative!) to clearly define your audience on all of your social media accounts by targeting your brand to your ideal customers.
Of course, existing businesses need to be aware of their brand presence too. Not just new businesses. If you noticed your sales are lacking, people aren’t identifying your brand with your service, you’re in need of a re-brand… (and we excel at re-branding as well!).
Increasing your brand awareness can involve a wide variety of tools and strategies, but the objective will always be to attract new customers while retaining your loyal customers. You will do this by giving them a product that aligns with what your brand promises. But how you do this involves your brand strategy.
Power Digital Marketing
Here’s the 30-second gist that you might’ve been looking for when you decided to read my article:
Do:
- Tell a story
- Be personal and passionate
- Use vivid language
- Always be consistent
- Associate yourself with strong brands
- Fall back to your positioning statement when in doubt
- Do your homework and conduct your research
Don’t:
- Ever refer to yourself as brand
- Steal someone else’s brand values; create your own
- Forget to engage your audience; it’s just not about you
- Become a broken record with your position statement
- Badmouth others
Contact Soul Creative today to start your branding or rebranding process!