What Does Marketing Mean?

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:

1. Who are you?
2. Who is your audience?
3. What problem do you solve?
4. 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?

1. Who are you talking to? – target audience
2. What are you saying and how are you saying it? – content
3. How is it received? – marketing channels
4. 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:

1. Demographics
2. Their value in money
3. Their preferred method of contact – phone, email, social?
4. 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:

1. Web and mobile content
2. Video and audio
3. White papers, ebooks
4. Webinars and podcasts
5. Infographics and presentations
6. 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 efforts

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, one of the top branding agencies in nj, is dedicated to building brand awareness across all channels and helping you become leaders in your industry. Call us today for a free consultation.