Your brand consists of your name, logo, design, and most importantly your products/services unique qualities that stand out against the competition. How you present the message with your word choice and imagery is also a part of your brand.
Here are some important keys to creating that strong brand and maintaining it.
Key 1: Know Who Your Target Customer Is
Branding and marketing should be created around what you know about your audience (interests, age, etc.). Most importantly how the product/service solves their problems. Marketing should also be placed in locations where they are present i.e. social media sites they use, locations they visit, etc.
To be successful with your branding you need to have a good understanding of who your target customers are. Many people want to target anyone and everyone. You might say, “My brand is for everyone. I don’t want to limit myself.” I understand that thought process, but by not narrowing down an audience you actually are limiting your potential. Because you likely do have a select age group, a certain demographic that is more interested in your product. Chasing after people who can’t afford it or are uninterested will just suck time and money. It is easier to get creative when you go after the people who will be most interested, and its easier to get their attention when the ads are tailored to them.
You can still bring in some people outside of your target market, but you want to narrow in a bit, but at the same time not too much. However, if your product truly is for everyone you can narrow your focus based on your interests or how you can be creative.
Choosing Based on Your Interests
An example of choosing who to work with based on interests is my business. My marketing can be for any business big or small, but instead I choose to work with wellness businesses. It makes sense for me to specialize since I understand these types of businesses. I have the same passion as these businesses – seeing people’s health improve, more people healing naturally, or just more people living a wellness lifestyle. These are all things I care about.
Since I’ve used many alternative treatments myself, I understand the benefits of them. Additionally, I’ve researched many treatments, read up on history, and I’ve written about them.
I understand living a wellness lifestyle because I have made a ton of changes in my own life that have made a significant difference. These changes I share in my blog, The Wellness Resolution. I talk about clean drinking water, drinking enough water, reducing sugar consumption, exercise, stress, toxins, the power of nature, and more!
Choosing Based on How You Can Be Creative
Even if you are selling a staple product like toothpaste (everyone needs it and uses it) narrowing down an audience can be beneficial. It is easier to create advertising when you choose an audience. Here is a great video ad for toothpaste focused on family. Sure this advertisement could be of interest to anyone, but mom’s and dad’s are obviously the target market here.
This is an emotional ad. It is not just someone standing at a sink brushing their teeth and showing off their pearly whites. This is the type of ad that works with the subconscious brain, which is responsible for making most purchasing decisions.
Content Marketing & Knowing Your Audience
You also need to know how your product or service can resolve one or multiple problems for your audience. You can even help resolve problems outside of your primary products/services you know they encounter with the use of content marketing through email or social media. With content marketing you provide valuable information to build trust with your clients. The more you know about your target customer, the easier it is to create marketing that speaks to them.
The how, what, where, and when with regards to communicating your brand all depends on your target market.
Key 2: Delivering an Emotional Response
The subconscious mind makes 95% of purchase decisions and it is emotional and motivated by rewards.
Always focus on benefits vs features. Benefits are how you solve problems. Features are what the product does, looks like, smells, etc. However, it is important to not only be able to share the unique benefits your product has to offer, but also to be able to tie in a feeling or emotion throughout your branding materials.
The most successful brands stand for something beyond their products or services. An example of this is Dove’s marketing focuses on “everyone being beautiful.” Another example is Apple’s “think different.” Nike stands for “athletic excellence.” These ideas create an emotional response for people, and people buy more due to emotions rather than logic.
The fact that people buy emotionally is one reason why content marketing is so important. By providing useful information to your customers through social media or email, your business becomes more than a product or service. You become a resource of value.
When you can provide consistent, useful information, and give people a positive feeling about the company and culture, people will begin to get emotional about your brand. You have to develop trust with your customers. If you just share things that directly promote your product or service you won’t see results.
Key 3: Be Consistent
Be consistent in your voice, tone, message, colors, and images with all marketing pieces and direct communication with customers. You don’t want to confuse your customers/clients, and you can’t portray a certain feeling without consistency.
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