The branding for your company should be a top priority, regardless of if you are a large or small business. It’s also one of the most difficult aspects to tackle. You want people to talk about your company, and having a lasting brand impression is the best way for this to happen. Your first impression to consumers matters, and you’re able to ensure this through different marketing strategies to help build your company’s reputation. You want to be able to show who you are and what your company’s core values are. For the most part, you will always have a rival in your industry, but the one thing they can’t take away from you is your brand. Below are 5 tips to help you develop a lasting brand impression.
Find your purpose
In order to build your brand, you need to figure out your company’s purpose. The answer to why your company exists and why it matters will help you distinguish your brand’s purpose. While an obvious answer might be to make money, that can’t be your sole purpose. Your brand needs to find the one thing that makes you different from everyone else and spread the word about it.
Actively engage with your customers and target audience
You need to be actively engaging with your customers and target market. You should always be looking for opportunities where you can educate your customers about what your company has to offer. However, when trying to get your message across it’s important to be concise and to the point. They don’t want to read paragraphs about your company or hear a 10 minute sales pitch. A great way to make sure you keep things short is to incorporate infographics, video tutorials, or e-books.
If you’re wanting to engage with your customers and target market, you should be attentive to any requests you receive from your customers or potential customers. You also need to keep customers entertained and able to interact with your company, which can be done through your content marketing strategies.
Along with this, make sure you have communication lines open so that you can hear from any customer or potential customer. Whether they need help or just have a few questions regarding your product/service, people like to know that they can easily get in contact with a company. This can also allow you to receive positive and negative feedback, which is important. Regardless of the type of feedback, you need to acknowledge it. It’s reassuring to customers if you thank them for enjoying your product/service. Also, you’re able to show them you care if you take the negative feedback and genuinely try to make a change to better accommodate them.
Invest in your online image
Social media image can be very effective in terms of cost and customer perception. You need to make connections with your audience through targeted messages on social media. However, a company can either do great or terrible with this, and you need to keep in mind that simplicity is key.
It’s hard to not think about the multitude of things you can put out on social media to show how great your brand is. Which in return, can be overwhelming to try and simplify the key aspects that need to be put out. Something to keep in mind is that, with all of the changes going on in our society, more consumers are starting to look for brands that align with their beliefs. So you can use that as a starting point on what you want to put out. Also, you need to avoid being too vague about your company. If the message you’re putting out says nothing about your brand, you will become forgettable. By keeping things simple and straight to the point, you can increase brand awareness.
Reward your customers
When you have loyal customers who understand your brand and all that you stand for, they are willing to take on the role of a brand ambassador for you. This doesn’t mean that you have a contract with them as a brand ambassador, but it just means that they value your brand and only have good things to say about you to those around them and online. When consumers can truly identify with your brand, they become vocal about it.
If you have a handful of customers in this position, you need to reward them when they aren’t expecting it. Whether it’s a discount or promotional item, sending it to them when they least expect it will only make them advocate for your brand more. If you aren’t sure how to find out if you have any customers like this, go through purchase history and learn who has been around a while and who consistently purchases from you the most. These little gifts can go a long way, and if you ever do get to the point where you want brand ambassadors, you already have some options on candidates.