With the increase in online, print and social media, there are more opportunities than ever to build your brand. To fully utilize the many resources available today, following are five ways to create a strong brand.
1. Identify your target audience.
Often, companies don’t know or understand their target audience and completely miss the mark when aligning their brand with the interests and needs of their consumers. Knowing your audience is essential for making valuable connections and fostering loyalty. A deep understanding of your core market ensures your messages reach, and are understood by, the right people. For example, a law firm’s branding should be tight and professional, while a children’s education company should be fun and playful.
2. Establish achievable brand goals.
Ask yourself what you want to achieve with your brand. Establishing measurable goals is a sure-fire way to close in on your brand and create actionable items for success. Identify areas you want to enhance, like building brand awareness, motivating purchases and creating emotional connections with your target audience, and brainstorm specific steps you can take to improve.
3. Determine your key messages.
Equally important to establish is what you want to say with your brand. Developing key messages is a great way to pinpoint and focus in on promoting your public image. Key messages need to be distinct, memorable and relevant to your audience. Narrowing your key messages will also help keep your messaging consistent and reinforce your brand’s defining characteristics.
4. Clarify your brand internally.
An often overlooked, but important, step is to clarify your brand internally. Making sure everyone is on the same page will prevent conflicting external messages and encourage employee engagement. If everyone is focused on the same long-term goals and has a clear understanding of the organization, there will be an overall increase in productivity and collaboration.
5. Promote your brand.
An essential step in building a strong brand is promotion. Some strategies to ensure you are taking full advantage of your brand promotion resources include hiring a public relations and marketing firm to spread brand news and messaging, utilizing social media to proactively promote your brand, and ensuring your website content has been evaluated for search engine optimization (SEO) so your brand appears first in search results for key terms and phrases related to your brand.
Effectively communicating your brand will position your organization for long-term success. If followed correctly, these steps can help your brand be better and stronger than ever.
Cooksey Staff
