Launching a business is no easy feat, but if you want to stand out in your market and surpass the competition, you need to take your commercial efforts to the next level by establishing and building your brand. At the most basic level, this consists of creating a recognizable name, logo, slogans, and so on. It requires you to create imaging that consumers grow to associate with your brand.
Think of the Apple logo and the brand’s iconic, white products, packaging, and store interiors, just for example. Consumers know the look of Apple because the company has worked hard to create cohesive imaging across every aspect of their business.
Of course, there’s more to it, as any experienced Asheville branding and marketing professional can tell you. You need to create a thoughtful and comprehensive strategy designed to fuel long-term success, one that encompasses your core values and goals and speaks to your target audience. Here are just a few tips to help you build strong and lasting branding and marketing strategies.
Understand Your Brand
The place to start is by determining what characterizes your business as a brand and what sets you apart from competitors. If you don’t know what this means, it’s not a bad idea to partner with a branding services agency that can ask the right questions and help you come up with relevant answers.
What are your brand’s core values? What drives you to create consumer goods or services? What are the ideals you want consumers to associate with your brand? What are your goals? You don’t just want to make sales – you want consumers to enjoy a positive experience. You want your products or services to improve their lives in some way.
Once you understand the foundations of your business, the things that make you special, you can begin the process of transforming these goals and ideals into branding, messaging, and a long-term marketing strategy.
Understand Your Audience
Once you have a strong sense of what defines your brand, you need to think about how you can use this knowledge to connect with your target audience. What characterizes this group of consumers? How can you speak to them with marketing content that is relevant, engaging, and valuable?
It’s important to pinpoint a target audience with identifiable characteristics – not just an age range, but aspects like gender, income level, marital/family status, job type, interests/hobbies, priorities, etc. You don’t want to be so niche that you only connect with a few individuals, but the more you know about your audience characteristics and preferences, the better chance you have to connect with them in meaningful ways.
Keep in mind that your brand can have more than one target audience – you’ll just have to tailor your efforts to speak to different groups, and this can increase the time and money you devote to your branding and marketing efforts. If you’re just starting out, try working with your preferred Asheville branding and marketing firm to grow your influence with the target market you’re most aligned with before expanding your efforts to embrace a more diverse audience.
Translate Your Goals into Marketing Messaging
Now that you have a firm understanding of what defines your brand and the audience you want to connect with, it’s time to figure out how to turn your goals and ideals into relatable messaging. You want to try to find ways to convey to your customers that you understand their problems and that your products or services have the power to improve their lives in some way.
Develop Branding Outlets
Businesses have several platforms for extending a hand to their audience. Traditional outlets like print and broadcast marketing are not dead, as pundits would have you believe, and they can be especially impactful with local audiences, but you may get a lot more bang for your buck and more potential connectivity through online marketing efforts.
Your trusted local marketing agency can help you to come up with strategies for cohesive branding and messaging across a variety of online platforms, including your website, your social media accounts, and advertising options like Google and Facebook ads, as well as promotions on industry websites and blogs, just for example. You need to take the time to consider the strengths and demands of each medium so that every component of your strategy can play a unique and supportive role in your overall and ongoing success.
Work Closely with a Reputable Branding Services Agency
As a business owner you have to wear a lot of hats, especially early on. This can leave you with little time or energy to devote to developing your brand and creating overarching and long-term marketing strategies. Partnering with a reputable and experienced Asheville internet marketing firm is a good way to relieve some of your burden and gain expert assistance when it comes to building your brand from the ground up, or alternately, finessing your strategy to create greater successes.
If you’re looking for a branding and marketing partner that offers customized solutions based on your specific messaging goals, contact the experts at Storypowered today at 828-450-2551 or online to learn more.