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5 Easy Steps to Building a Brand

A brand is an overall customer’s perception of your business. In other words, this is what immediately comes to mind when a prospect or customer hears a business name.

So, why care so much about what customers think of your business?

According to the Global New Product Innovation Survey carried out by Nielsen, 59% of customers prefer to buy new products from brands familiar to them. No wonder, 89% of B2B manufacturing marketers cite increased brand awareness as a goal for marketing, compared to 85% for sales, and 80% for lead generation.

In order to achieve this goal and build a better brand while increasing awareness, there are 5 keys things that you need to do. To help you better understand, we will look at actual case studies on ideas businesses implemented and in turn created a better brand.

1. Set Yourself Apart

This could be seen as a simple value proposition. What are you offering that the next best competition is not? McDonald’s is a big brand, but has become bigger due to its content marketing strategy.

Unlike most fast food vendors, McDonald’s has realized that there is need to offer more than food to its customers. To set itself apart and influence a better client perception, the business has committed to answer over 450 questions in a day, just to enlighten people. After all, 54% of people don’t trust brands, hence the need to cultivate that trust.

A quick look at McDonald’s social feeds shows us the love-hate relationship people have with the brand. For example, someone asks if the business uses fake potatoes or filler instead of meat in their meat patty. By answering these questions, McDonald’s establishes itself as a transparent brand, ready to share the truth with its clientele.

2. Form A Clear Business Voice

The tone and style of your business voice is greatly dependent on the target audience, industry and company mission. Basically, this is about how you communicate with customers and how they respond.

For example, Virgin is known to have a personal, yet humorous voice when speaking to its clients, while at the same time passing important business information. In one of their twitter posts, for example, the company humorously assures its customers of power outlets in every flight.

Sir Richard Branson's views on brand building include authenticity and honest - something which every business should take advantage of.

3. Wisely Exploit Social Media Platforms

The need to build a strong brand presence on social media can never be over-emphasized. This is because, according to Bop Design, 80% of consumers are more likely to evaluate solutions from the brands they follow on social channels. However, you need to understand that the quality and creativity of your posts are what push your brand further.

Hootsuite understood the tenets of building an even stronger brand on social media, and in a very easy way, the company rode the coattails of something immensely successful.

Borrowed from the popular, top-selling series, Game of Thrones, Hootsuite created a viral video titled, A Game of Social Thrones. As a result, the brand was able to influence popular appeal, with the video garnering almost one million views on YouTube alone!

4. Make The Business About The User

You don’t always have to struggle to create fresh content for clients in order to build a brand. Sometimes, making the business about the user leads to more success than the opposite.

GoPro has experimented with this principle and the results have been tremendous. The business makes a camera called the Hero, and customers are turned into heroes by submitting visual content created using the camera, then the business uploads them on various platforms.

This strategy explains why the business has over 2.7 million followers on YouTube and 4.2 million followers on Instagram.

5. Promote/ Gift Your Customers

Why would a company invest in gifting its clientele or sending free promotional material? Well, a study conducted in 2015 revealed that 50% of consumers make a purchase only when an offer or promotion is involved. Better yet, the number of these promotion-driven customers increases to 60% for anyone below age 45.

In short, incentives help to build your brand while achieving your sales or marketing goals. For example, a credit union seeking to get students to apply for student loans distributed over 1000 branded flashlights, to keep the brand fresh.

One way to create great promotional items is to engage a business specially cut-out to do this, such as Gift Selection. Get branded products ranging from banners, USB flash drives, snap bands, folders and golf gifts, among others, and watch your business earn massive ROI from just doing promotional items.

6. Final Word

As you try to build your brand, please remember to determine your target audience, research other brands within your niche, create a catchy brand logo and tagline. Lastly, have a consistent business voice and invest in promotional items. Believe us, people are willing to be a walking billboard when they love a promotional item.

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