Embarking on the journey of building your brand is a strategic process that requires careful consideration and a clear roadmap. This can be a slow process, but each step is essential to establish a strong and distinctive brand identity. From defining your business values to building a community around your brand, each step contributes to the cohesive growth of your brand and future Brand Voice.
Let’s delve into these crucial elements that lay the foundation for a successful brand-building endeavour:
LET’S BUILD YOUR BRAND
Step 1.
Determine what your business really stands for and believes in.
Building your brand is about sharing your authentic self and true business ethics with the world.
Ask yourself:
- What unique skills do I offer?
- What are my core values?
- What am I most passionate about?
- What unique experiences have shaped how the business came into being?
- How can I most effectively serve my core audience?
- What do I have to offer that no one else does?
Step 2.
Determine what you want to accomplish.
Once you’ve identified the core of your business, it’s time to think about what you want to accomplish with your brand.
Ask yourself:
- What would I like to accomplish, both personally and professionally?
- What do I want the business to be known for?
- What key message do I want to communicate through my Brand?
- If I could only give one piece of advice, or offer only one service best, what would it be?
- What is the “personality” of my brand?
Step 3.
Identify your target audience.
There is a core demographic of people who will resonate deeply with you, your brand, and what you offer. This core demographic is your target audience.
To identify your core audience, ask these questions:
- Who can I most effectively help?
- Who will benefit most from my skill set and knowledge?
- Who am I most passionate about serving?
- Who will resonate most with me and my brand?
It can also be helpful to create a persona for your ideal client. This should include demographic information, desires, and aspirations, as well as pain points and challenges that they face.
Step 4.
Determine your Unique Selling Proposition.
Your USP is simply your brand summed up into a single, powerful compelling statement or slogan that describes exactly what you do for your clients (who will be your target audience) and what makes you different from your competitors. A USP typically looks something like this: I help (target person) to (achieve X) so that they can (outcome).
Your USP doesn’t have to say everything about your brand, but it should get right to the heart of what your business is really about. Do not overlook this crucial step. Creating your USP gives you a high degree of clarity about what your brand is all about.
Examples of some well-known USPs – Unique Selling Propositions across different industries:
- Domino’s Pizza: “Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free.”
- FedEx: “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”
- M&Ms: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.”
- Apple iPhone: “The smartphone that just works.”
- Head & Shoulders Shampoo: “You get rid of dandruff and get great-looking hair.”
- Amazon: “Earth’s Biggest Selection.”
- Nike: “Just Do It.”
- BMW: “The Ultimate Driving Machine.”
- Uber: “Get there. Your day belongs to you.”
- L’Oreal: “Because you’re worth it.”
These examples showcase how a USP concisely communicates a unique benefit or value proposition that sets a brand apart from its competitors.
Step 5.
Start treating yourself as a brand.
Begin recognising yourself as a brand and extend this to your team (if you have one). It’s essential for your employees to align with your brand guidelines, ensuring a unified Brand Voice. Then, maintain authenticity in all your interactions with your audience, be it through blog posts, emails, podcasts, social media, and more. Encourage consistent personal engagement with your audience while echoing the core values of your brand.
If you don’t have a website yet, now is the perfect moment to do so! I offer brochure website design – Contact Me.
A website can be the epicentre of your online activities, acting as base for everything else marketing wise. Another suggestion entails crafting a media page or media kit on your site for media inquiries, especially for start-ups, disruptive industries, or unique success stories.
Also, respond to emails with clarity and professionalism, and don’t forget to incorporate a distinctive email signature with all your contact details and position.
Read more about What is a Brand Voice?
Step 6.
Optimise your Website and Social Media.
Your website functions as your “home base” of sorts. It is one of the primary places people get to know about your Brand and what you do. Your website also functions as one of the primary ways you turn visitors into paying clients. Optimising your website includes having a professional logo designed, showing off your USP, using professional photos of yourself, your staff, or your products, using testimonials, presenting a clear call-to-action, creating a compelling “About” page, creating a services or product page, creating a contact page, and using SEO for all content.
Keep brand consistency across your website and social media, using the same identifiable business logo or colour variants thereof, with profile banners optimised for each account, and use same Brand Voice.
Step 7.
Develop your content strategy.
The primary way you’re going to build your brand is by creating strategic content, such as blog posts, videos, social media posts, emails, promotions, and even podcasts. Each piece of content you share with your audience should serve to build your Brand. The content can be to promote products, introduce your services, or just general communication such as image “quotes” or milestone celebrations to share and engage with your audience.
You can also use the Pillar Method for your content. The Pillar Method involves creating longer pieces of content that function as pillars, of sorts, such as blog/news articles on your website. These pillars pieces are then cut up into smaller pieces of content that are shared across a variety of social media platforms. Using this method allows you to re-purpose a single piece of content in a variety of ways.
Learn more: What is the Pillar Method for content creation?
Step 8.
Constantly add value for your audience.
It’s essential that you constantly give value to your audience without asking for anything in return. The main thing people should take away when interacting with your brand is how much value you provide. There will be times when you ask for a sale or ask someone to become a new client BUT the main emphasis, however, should be on adding value to your audience.
Step 9.
Build a community.
One of the best ways to build your brand is to build a community of people who can share ideas, support each other, and reach out to you directly. You create a tribe of passionate people who care about the same things you do. Some simple ways to build a community include hosting live events where you can interact personally with your audience or creating a membership site where people can get exclusive access to you or your business.