What Does Branding Mean?
Back in the day, branding was marking livestock with a red hot iron. Today, its much more than just a mark. Merriam-Webster defines branding as “The promoting of a product or service by identifying it with a particular brand.”
Logos and marketing materials are still associated with your brand, but branding really is so much more.
It all beings with these few questions:
Who are you?
Who is your audience?
What problem do you solve?
What differentiates you?
This is about establishing an identity that will facilitate your growth and sustainability as a business – brand building.
It’s a process of defining and refining. So, how do you do it?
Who are you talking to? – target audience
What are you saying and how are you saying it? – content
How is it received? – marketing channels
Outcome? – measurement
Target Audience
To establish your brand you need to identify your Buyer Persona. A buyer persona is a representation of your idea customer based on marketing research and data about your current customers.
Develop a profile of each buyer persona in terms of:
Demographics
Their value in money
Their preferred method of contact – phone, email, social?
Their problems that you can solve
Developing personas will help keep your client types in mind as you work on building you brand.
Content
Your content is much more than just text. Content today is how you build your brand online and through physical marketing channels.
Content consists of:
Web and mobile content
Video and audio
White papers, ebooks
Webinars and podcasts
Infographics and presentations
Print materials
The list goes on.
Map out a content strategy relating to your customers specific needs. This strategy will help establish the level of confidence your brand requires to achieve your goals.
Use content as a tool for building trust in you and your company. Your content should inform, educate and inspire your audience. Create your content to build your brand:
Content builds awareness
Content builds trust
Content creates fans
Content is the fuel for your marketing effort
Remember, people do business with those that they trust.
Marketing Channels
Content needs to be distributed, promoted and shared through marketing channels. Today, we have more channels than we can count. To build your brand, you need to establish a presence in the channels where your target audience spends their time. Consider your presence on social, mobile, web, print and in person. Are you consistent? Are you providing solutions or just promoting your company? Effective branding requires consistency, but will build confidence.
Measurement
How do you measure the success of your branding efforts?
More leads?
More followers?
More subscribers?
You should always map out your goals and desired outcomes so you will know if your efforts are truly working.
Falco Design is dedicated to building brand awareness across all channels and helping you become leaders in your industry. Call us today for a free consultation.
