Developing your business’s brand is essential to the long term success of your business. Your brand should reflect what your business stands for as well as what it does. Your brand is the image or identity that you want your customers to remember and to recommend to their contacts. The five simple steps detailed below will direct you through defining and executing your brand, with tips to help you find success not only in creating a brand that accurately reflects your business, but also creates a meaningful connection with your customers.
Define your brand:
This is perhaps one of the most important steps of building a brand. Review the product or service you offer, identify its space in the market, and discover the needs of your customers. These factors will help you to develop your brand so that it not only promotes your business but also creates a connection with your customers and differentiates your business in the market. Identify your brand values, mission statement and the key messages that you want your customers to identify with your business.
Grow your community:
With online resources there are many opportunities to engage with your customers and contacts, to create a connection with them. Online channels like Twitter, Instagram, your business blog or even Facebook provide opportunities to share your key messages and values with your customers. The internet allows for two-way communication, so make the most of the opportunity to respond to your clients in a meaningful way that reflects your values.
Build a virtual office:
Once you have fully defined your brand, you need to make sure that every aspect of your business reflects your brand values to your customers. For small businesses and startups, a virtual office can provide a cost efficient solution to supporting the brand you want your customers to know and recognize. For example, if you are running a startup, a virtual office service can provide you with not only dedicated business phone and fax numbers, but also a live receptionist service and corporate voicemail services with call forwarding to multiple lines. This professional and friendly service allows your customers to contact you, interact with your brand at any time and receive prompt and professional attention to their call with consistent brand messaging.
Strive for consistency:
Use your brand effectively by ensuring that your logo and other elements of design are reflected across everything you do. Ensure that your messaging is consistent, but not repetitive. You want your key messages to collaborate to tell the story of your business. Consistency is essential to becoming a brand that is known and trusted, the two cornerstones for returning customers.
Provide great products or services:
You can have the best branding strategy in the world, but if your products and services do not match up with what you are saying, your customers will find a better, and more trustworthy source for their needs. Apple for example is one of the best known brands in the world because they make products that consumers love and they have consistent, attractive, and meaningful branding.
By following these 5 steps, your business should easily be able to develop into a recognisable and quality brand that will help you to retain and bring in new customers.