Create a branding strategy in 6 steps on a limited budget
In the marketing industry, the term “brand” often comes up: leading brand, non-brand, personal brand, etc. However, its meaning is more confused from a commercial point of view. What this implies, the need to recruit an expert or not, or the cost of branding. branding strategy
As for the cost, the cost of branding is not necessarily high. There are indeed many rather creative solutions to enhance your brand, without spending a lot of money. Even though they often require an investment of time, the ROI will be remarkable. In some cases, they even allow you to save money while growing your business. This article shows you how you can take the following six steps to build brand awareness.
How to develop a strong brand identity for your business?
What is a brand?
A brand. A key component of an organization’s identity refers to a name or type of product produced by a particular brand strategist. The latter has a sign that allows the consumer to distinguish it and associate it with the company.
What is a branding strategy?
Promoting your brand is an essential element in the development of your business. A brand strategy allows you to give a voice and an identity to your company, to associate values with it. And to educate consumers. With a large number of resources, tools. And platforms available today, developing a branding strategy can be less demanding or costly than expected.
How to establish a brand strategy?
There are 6 major steps to creating a branding strategy:
- Control your personas
- Give an identity and a voice to your business
- Unify its presence on social networks
- Keep a blog
- Make customer service a priority
- Take advantage of co-branding
The 6-step branding strategy to grow your business on a limited budget
1 – Control your personas
It’s no coincidence that many companies with better value propositions also use buyer personas, those semi-fictional “characters” whose profile matches that of the people you’re trying to reach. branding strategy
The needs, goals, and behavior of your potential customers determine how you present your product or service. This information helps you understand what types of media your personas consume. What excites them, and where they are located online. They allow you to develop a compelling brand, to reach the right people.
You can identify your personas without spending a dime. Take the time to define your personas. The process isn’t immediate. These questions are meant to get you thinking about how you want your business to be viewed, and by whom.
2 – Give an identity and a voice to your company
Once your buyer personas are identified, your brand can begin to take shape. It involves creating an identity for your brand, which characterizes it, and a voice. Which matches the tone used in your communications.
This step follows a process like that used to determine your personas. Instead, instead of thinking about your target audience, you answer a little more introspective questions about your brand. What does it represent? What do you need people to say about you?
Even if you already have the basics, it can be helpful to boost your brand tone. For example, during its recent rebranding, the Zoological Wildlife Foundation made its voice its priority. This allowed it to increase its overall online presence by 343%, with a 63% growth in its traffic alone. branding strategy
3 – Unify your presence on social networks
The importance of reaching these people where they are already present has already been mentioned. And this also includes their online behavior.
Many of your personas may spend most of their time on the same network. This doesn’t mean you should ignore others, but it does give you an idea of which network to focus on.
Once your presence is established, keep it. You might find, by going to a brand’s Facebook page, that they haven’t posted anything for three months. The impact of this lack of presence is never positive.
You can avoid this by planning your social media posts, just like you would with any other marketing calendar. An editorial calendar for social media can help and get you thinking about things like the seasonality of your posts. It’s important to stay relevant to your audience, sharing the most relevant content depending on the time of year.
4 – Keep a blog
It never hurts to remember the importance of the blog. This is an essential part of the inbound methodology, especially the attraction phase. Which involves turning strangers into visitors by attracting them to your website.
Starting a blog is perhaps the most basic step in inbound marketing. This allows you to reach qualified customers. Such as your personas, by creating informative content that matches the information they are looking for. It is therefore essential to make the content relevant: when you write an article. Make sure that its content is optimized for your audience’s searches.
Your personas are looking for information that you can provide them if you write an article about it. Blogging is the third most trusted source of information after friends and family. In addition, this content will also serve to feed your social networks. As has already been mentioned, is essential when you want to promote your brand at a lower cost.
Blogging is inexpensive, but it does require a real investment of time. Although this involvement is considerable. It is better to spend a few hours a day on your blog rather than offering limited content to attract new visitors.
Much like planning your social media presence. An editorial calendar for your blog can help keep deadlines consistent and content up to date.
5 – Make customer service a priority
The online footwear and clothing company, Zappos, is renowned for its excellent customer service. And has incorporated this level of service into its approach and core values.
This proved to be important for Zappos because putting brand consultant services. And at the heart of its brand has enabled the company to reduce its marketing and advertising expenses. Indeed, word of mouth among existing and potential customers. Which is like free advertising, has worked: the brand has earned its reputation thanks to the remarkable concept it has put in place. By comparison, U.S. businesses lose an estimated $41 billion annually due to poor customer service.
Whatever your audience, the goal is always to create an enjoyable experience that users will want to share. When you make customer satisfaction a priority. They’ll talk to you without you having to ask them because they’ve been won over by their experience.
Therefore, it is important to understand your identity and your voice. When thinking about the stages of branding your brand. Think about the values you want to put forward, such as exceptional customer service. These values shape the brand’s culture, which influences the voice you communicate to your audience.
6 – Take advantage of co-branding
Sure, big companies have a bigger reach, but they don’t have all the advantages.
When you launch your brand, you don’t necessarily have this reach. You can take the necessary steps to increase it, which are described in this article. But it takes a real investment of time.
During the implementation of your strategy. You can put yourself forward by partnering with a brand that has a larger audience.
The choice of this brand should not be made lightly. Make sure your values and goals are aligned: this partnership should make sense in the minds of your audience. Here are some tips for successful co-branding:
Examine your partner’s audience. Find out if she might be interested in your brand, if she can be reached without this partnership. And how much she trusts your partner. You must be able to convince her, too. These days, consumers no longer trust traditional advertisements. Make sure your partner has reached this audience in a way that inspires confidence, not doubt.
You need to bring something more to your partner. Indeed, large companies do not have all the advantages. This partnership can be beneficial for you, your partner, and the customer.
Explore the possibility of partnering with a well-known and respected nonprofit. More and more purchasing decisions are based on the social responsibility of a brand. In fact, 85% of millennials say they are more inclined to recommend a brand with real social responsibility.
Successful branding
Developing a branding strategy can seem like a huge undertaking, especially if you have limited resources. However, this article mentions several inexpensive ways to get started, but also to continue your efforts.
Remember that this process should not be a constraint. Of course, you will need to think strategically and logically to determine the different aspects of your brand. But it is also a creative exercise. Keep this in mind so that you don’t spend your time exclusively on technical details.
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