-Creating a Lucrative and Unique Brand
Creating your own unique brand is a crucial part of any small business. Operating on a smaller scale, your brand has to pack extra punch in order to capture the attention and loyalty of potential customers.
In order to create a delicious cocktail of elements that will make up your unique brand, you’ll need to combine a carefully curated selection of visuals, character, messaging and purpose. Crafting an experience that your customers love and keep coming back to is essential.
However, creating a unique and recognizable brand is no easy feat. You’ll need to prioritize and nail down exact details about your brand before you can start implementing it into the world. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting started:
Clarify Your Who, What and Why
Before you can begin to plan out your brand, you’ll need to gain clarity on exactly who your business is and what it exists to do.
Conduct some research and write down who your target audience is in terms of age group, gender, location, values and preferences. Understanding who you’re targeting can inform all the other elements of your brand, from the color palette to the language used in copy and design.
Next you’ll want to answer why you exist. Knowing the effect your desired products or services are meant to have on your customers will help inform the message conveyed and feel of your brand.
Articulate Your Values
Values are the foundation of any good brand. Whether you’re branding a small business or a multinational corporation, it’s essential to set your values in stone early on in the process.
When creating your own set of core values, get laser-focused and write down the exact thing that you want to represent. These values will become the baseline for both how you convey your brand’s story and how you reach partnerships and collaborations.
Start by identifying three to five values should determine how your team behaves and makes decisions. The tighter the better.
Create Your Look
Once you’ve established who you are and what your brand stands for, the visuals come into play. Your look must be memorable and accurately reflect everything your brand holds and gives to customers.
Some of the most important visual elements to focus on include:
• Color palette: Pick a dominate color and up to three accent colors.
• Typography: Font choices can heavily affect the mood of your brand.
• Logo: Make sure this graphic is instantly recognizable and simple enough to scale up or down as needed.
• Design System: Keeping elements in line across the brand will make website navigation more seamless for customers.
• Banner Adverts: Paid adverts that appear in social media channels bring the core of your brand to those who may not have visited your website directly.
Craft Your Voice
Your brand is more than just images and visual displays. It’s how you communicate and how customers interact with you. Using the right tone of voice can make or break how customers perceive your brand, think about it and want to use it again.
Crafting a unique and recognizable voice takes time and some precise outlining. Start by outlining the tone of voice you want to use – funny, formal, inspiring, etc. Then think about how you want to communicate with your customers. Will you express yourself through humour or be more straightforward?
Keep in mind, you will use the core values of your brand to help develop the conversation. Your messaging needs to remain consistent across all channels, from website copy to email campaigns.
Leverage Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to grow your small business and establish connection and loyalty with customers. Leveraging content – such as educational pieces, blog posts, podcasts and more – can give more life to different aspects of your brand.
Additionally, content can help build trust and draw more attention to your brand via search engine optimization. Content should be focusing on optimizing customer journeys from awareness to purchase and beyond.
Sprinkling content pieces with specific core values and language will create consistency across customer visits to your website.
Prioritize Your Platforms
Nothing kills a budding small business like trying to do too much too soon. Take a deep look at every social platform out there, consider your audience and decide which is the most manageable and suitable for your brand.
Social media is a great way to bring the personality of your brand to life, respond to customer feedback and bring in new customers. However, don’t limit yourself to this platform. Create a blog, write an ebook, partner with a bigger influencer and leverage email campaigns. All of these have the potential of creating a lasting impact to your brand and growth.
Remember, the fewer platforms you can master with success, the better for your bottom line.
Start Strategizing
Creating a successful and unique brand for your small businesses is the best way to reach the hearts and minds of your target customer.
High-quality visuals and writing, content marketing and a strong presence on appropriate platforms are the best recipe for success. Most importantly, your brand needs to be filled with honesty and meaning in order to stand the test of time and create customer loyalty.
Brand your business with the right ingredients and watch it take off. Good luck!
