The Ultimate Guide to Business Branding in 2021

The Ultimate Guide to Business Branding in 2021

It takes five to seven impressions before brand awareness starts to grow. Meanwhile, consistency and repetition are key if you want to develop recognition. Without a distinct brand, you could fail to stand out from the competition. 

In fact, almost 60% of consumers prefer to purchase from familiar brands. Business branding can help you draw in new customers and encourage brand trust to grow. In time, brand trust could become brand loyalty.

A 2% increase in customer retention could reduce costs by as much as 10%! Meanwhile, loyalty is often worth 10 times as much as a single purchase.

With a distinct brand, you can retain customers, boost your business, and get leagues ahead of the competition!

Want to develop a strong branding strategy? Keep reading to discover everything you need! With this guide, you can develop a wow-worthy brand and set your business up for success.

Read on to learn more. 

What is Branding?

First, let’s answer the question that’s likely on your mind: what is branding, exactly?

Your brand is a combination of elements that can set your business apart from others. These elements can include your:

  • Company name
  • Logo
  • Voice
  • Tone
  • Personality
  • Tagline
  • Design

These elements come together to create your brand. When consumers interact with your business, they should consistently see the same brand elements.

Branding involves researching and developing features that will help consumers associate your brand with your offerings. In order to develop strong business branding, you need to understand your customers. Otherwise, you’ll fail to connect with your target audience.  

The Benefits of a Strong Brand

Why is branding so important?

Your brand is one of the most important assets you’ll develop for your organization. Without it, you’ll lack an identity. Consumers might struggle to remember who you are as a result.

Instead, you can use your brand to stand out and draw customers in. You’ll use your brand within your marketing to encourage purchases and engagement. It’s an important component of defining your company culture, too.

Here are a few benefits of having a strong business brand.

Gain Recognition and Loyalty

Consumers aren’t likely to choose your business if they don’t know who you are. Why should they choose you over another business? What value can you offer them?

Your brand will help you stand out. It can give you an identity beyond your product or service. Instead, your brand can work as the heart of your business.

With a strong brand, you can connect with customers. They’ll remember interacting with your business, too. Then, you can generate brand awareness and recognition.

The next time a consumer needs your product or service, they’ll remember your brand.

Over time, brand loyalty can grow. Remember, gaining loyal customers could boost sales. Your ROI could improve as a result. 

Remain Competitive

What sets you apart from the competition? What can you offer that no one else can? You can communicate your unique value through your brand.

Business branding can help small businesses look like big corporations, too. You can position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and gain more credibility. Consumers might feel more inclined to choose you as a result. 

Make a Strong Impression

Almost 50% of consumers are likely to become loyal to a brand during the first purchase. First impressions matter! With a brand strategy, you can make a strong first impression with your customers. 

It only takes 50 milliseconds for consumers to judge the visual appeal of your brand. If you don’t make a strong first impression, consumers might choose someone else. 

You can use your brand elements to have a strong, positive impact on customers; one they won’t forget.

Creating Your Brand

Now that you understand the importance of business branding, let’s discuss how branding works. Here are a few elements you’ll need when crafting your brand. 

Understand Your Audience

First, you’ll need to determine who your customers are and what they care about. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to appeal to your customers. They’ll choose a brand that understands their unique needs and interests instead.

If your brand doesn’t resonate with customers, you won’t build trust or loyalty.

You can learn more about your customers using target market research. Picture your ideal customer. Then, determine their psychographics and demographics, including:

  • Pain points
  • Hobbies
  • Buying behaviors
  • Needs versus wants
  • Age
  • Location
  • Household income
  • Education
  • Gender
  • Language
  • Marital status

Are you targeting a broad audience? Segment your customers into smaller buyer personas. Personas can help you better understand each group you’re targeting.

Pinpoint Your Mission

Why are you creating your business? Understanding the purpose of your business will help you draft your mission statement.

If you can’t communicate the purpose of your business, consumers might struggle to see the value you offer. What need are you fulfilling? How are you making the customer’s life easier?

Outline Your Unique Value

Remember, you need to find a unique value proposition that sets you apart from your competitors. Otherwise, consumers might not find a reason to choose your brand above the rest.

First, complete a competitive analysis. Determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Then, determine how you’ll differentiate yourself in the industry. What benefits can you offer customers? What values do you prioritize? 

Understanding your unique value will give consumers a reason to value your business.

Determine Your Personality

When developing your business branding, imagine a real person. What does that person sound like? How would a conversation with them go?

Voice, tone, and personality are all important brand elements you’ll need to consider. Otherwise, your brand might come off as robotic. Consumers might struggle to connect with your brand as a result.

Instead, take a look at your customers. How do they speak and act? What type of person does your ideal customer trust?

Then, craft your brand personality with those elements in mind. 

Remember, you’ll use your business brand on your website, in blog posts, and on social media. Crafting a unique brand personality will help people connect with your audience. They’ll learn to recognize your voice and tone in every post.

In fact, they might even look forward to your posts in the future.

Develop Your Visual Assets

Once you understand what your brand sounds like, you can start dressing it up. Make sure the visual components of your brand match the personality.

For example, are you targeting business professionals? You’ll likely want your brand to sound and seem professional, too. In that case, you might want to avoid quirky fonts or neon colors.

Instead, use brand colors, fonts, and other design elements that suit the personality you created.

Then, you can start infusing your brand within your content.

Branding Tips

Once you start developing the components of your brand, it’s time to put it to work. Here are some branding strategy tips that can help your business grow!

Keep It Consistent

Make sure your brand remains consistent across all marketing channels. Presenting a consistent brand can increase revenue by up to 23%. Otherwise, you could risk confusing customers.

They might explore your website, switch pages, and think they ended up on a different site. Consumers might visit your website and fail to associate you with your store or social media account. Either way, you could struggle to build brand awareness and recognition. 

In order to keep your brand consistent, create a brand guidelines document for your team. Every member of your team can remain on the same page. You can avoid using different brand fonts, colors, or even different versions of your logo.

Once you develop your business branding, update it across all marketing channels, including your:

  • Website
  • Social media accounts
  • Print materials (letterhead, business cards, flyers, billboards, etc.)
  • Pay-per-click advertising
  • Email marketing
  • Content creation

If you’re switching before an old and new brand, make sure to replace everything at once. Remember, you don’t want to risk confusing customers.

Start Strategizing

How will you communicate your brand through your other digital marketing strategies?

Use your brand across your lead generation strategies.

For example, you can create a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign with eye-catching visual ads. As people see your ads online, brand awareness and recognition can grow. Then, you can direct people to your website to learn more about your business.

Consider sending out an email to your subscribers to let them know you have a new brand, too. Invite them to share their thoughts. Don’t forget to link them to your updated website.

In addition to boosting brand awareness, you can also gather more website traffic and conversions!

Start creating high-quality, informative content for your website’s blog as well. Focus on topics your customers care about. What questions are they asking?

What valuable information can you offer them?

Creating high-quality blog posts will help you demonstrate your experience and expertise. Your brand’s credibility could grow as a result. You could even position yourself as a thought leader in the industry. 

As you use these branding tips, make sure to avoid imitating your competitors. Focus on the unique value you can offer. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to differentiate yourself from the pack.

Successful Business Branding: How to Stand Out From the Competition

Don’t fall into the crowd. Instead, use these tips for successful business branding. With a stand-out brand, you can highlight your unique value and draw in new customers.

Then, you can generate brand trust and loyalty before improving your ROI!

Need help developing a strategy for success? We can lend a hand!

Request a proposal from our digital marketing team today to get started.

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