The mark of a successful business is easy to recognize and understand. However, knowing how to brand your business can be challenging for many entrepreneurs. Consider top brands – like Nike, Starbucks, Apple, or Target – they all have one fundamental thing in common: they have established brands that instantly set them apart from their competition.
Building an effective brand will differentiate your business from others within your industry. Your brand needs to be strong, consistent, and recognizable to your audience. Branding typically includes
- Your company name
- Logo
- Color scheme or visual identifiers
- Fonts or typefaces
- Slogan or tagline
- Core messaging and company principles
- Advertising methods you are using
When executed, branding is the complete representation of your company that sets you apart. Are you struggling with how to brand your business for success? Follow these steps to achieve your brand effectively.
1. Define Your Brand Identity
Chances are, your competition is vast, with many people vying for top spots within your industry. It can be hard to stand out. Your brand identity is at the core of your company. It answers who you are, what you have to offer, and how you will make that happen. Defining your brand identity is the initial step in your business branding journey.
A huge part of defining your identity is knowing your target audience and finding your focus with that audience in mind. To begin developing your brand identity, try asking yourself these branding exercise questions:
- What is your positioning statement? Figuring out your positioning statement helps you create your tagline. It is a mission statement that clearly states your offer, your audience, and your value proposition.
- What words do you associate with your brand? Build a brand cloud of words that constructs your brand’s personality. These words, or identifiers, help develop your tone and set the foundation for visual and written marketing.
- Who is my customer persona? Sit down and get to know your consumers. Create personas that answer these questions: what age range are they, what do they do, what are their goals/ambitions, and why do they need your product or service?
- What is your brand story? This one is deeper and takes some thinking power. Give yourself time to consider why you started your business, what you have to offer, and what your brand’s core values are.
These branding exercises will help you hone in on your target audience and create a platform for your brand.
2. Develop a Brand Messaging Strategy
Now that you have an identity created, you need to translate that into messaging. If you have already worked out your mission statement and core values, these should keep you focused on your overall messaging.
Your messaging strategy includes any way you communicate with your audience. Alongside your mission statement, consider a catchy and easy-to-remember tagline. Taglines, or slogans, help convey what your company is and does.
Your content on your website, social media, and across different marketing materials should be cohesive and keep your tagline, mission statement, brand personality, and core values at the heart of your messaging.
3. Create a Consistent Visual Identity
Your consumers should be able to identify your brand at a glance. Once you have ironed out the details of your brand identity and messaging strategy, visual identity comes next. Like the Nike swoosh or the Target bullseye, these visual identifiers are just another way your brand communicates and how to brand your business for success.
Create visual guidelines for your team to use, including
- Brand colors: A cohesive color scheme used on all branding assets and marketing materials.
- Fonts: Fonts fall under the categories of Sans-serif or serif. Many businesses choose one or the other, but there is a mixture of both across the board. Your typefaces speak volumes, so choose them wisely.
- Imagery: Consider your message and what type of imagery promotes that message. What illustrations or graphics do you want to see on your products or marketing materials?
- Logos and sub-logo marks: Gone are the days when one logo cut it. Various sub-logo marks can act as additional identifiers for your business. Work with a designer to pull your visual elements into a cohesive suite of logo marks.
4. Build a Strong Online Presence
The cornerstone of a strong business is its marketing efforts. Consistent communication through your online channels with autopilot and evergreen content will propel your business. Strengthen your marketing efforts with Boldheart’s Leveraged Business Guide.
How to brand your business with an online presence includes a professional website, well-designed and well-written drip email campaigns, and an active social media presence. Consistency is crucial, no matter what methods you use, in developing a powerful online presence for your brand.
5. Engage with Your Audience
Your business will plateau if you are not finding ways to connect with your audience genuinely. Build a community where your brand is actively engaging with its audience. What could this look like:
- Inviting the audience to go behind the scenes with you
- Organizing events, meetups, or webinars
- Engaging through polls, surveys, or direct messages and comments on social media
- Setting up social media channels where your community can engage with one another while interacting with your brand
Let Boldheart Help You Build Your Brand
Proactively following these five steps is how to brand your business for success! Branding is the most effective way to create a cohesive identity in the business world. Branding helps you build a strong presence that connects with those around you and supports your industry expertise.
If you feel stuck or misguided along the path to branding your business for success, a Boldheart coach can help jump-start the process and get your business where it needs to be. Our client success stories showcase how partnering with a coach can transform your business.
Connect with a Boldheart coach today and schedule your free strategy session.
