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Building Your Brand: The Essential Steps

With everything going on in the world, it may seem hard to know how to build, let alone develop a brand. Tons of questions will cloud your mind and, sometimes, you get confused which direction to take.

  • What should my logo look like?
  • Who is my target market?
  • How should I position my business to the target market?
  • What differentiates my brand from the competition?

These are just some of the questions that will come up when you start devising your brand development plan.

Here at (redacted client name), we understand the skepticism surrounding brand development and marketing. After all, it is challenging to connect the dots between the people you are targeting and the product you are offering. That is why we are providing you an easy-to-follow guide to help you build your brand in this challenging year that is 2020.

#1 - Determine your brand’s purpose.

When you get down to the very heart of it, what is your brand all about? And no, it’s not just about the product or service that you’re selling. It’s who you are as a company and what great thing you intend to accomplish. There should always be at least one lofty goal that drives you forward in every decision you make.

So, ask yourself why you exist as a business. What makes you different from similar enterprises? What problems do you solve for your customers and, most important of all, why should people care?

Once you’ve figured out what gets you up every morning to do what you do, then you can start making plans for your brand development marketing.

#2 - Identify your target customers.

The whole world can’t be your client. Trying to keep up and deal with all the different customer profiles would drive your marketing and sales teams to distraction. Instead, you need to keep a narrow focus on those who would derive the most benefit from what you’re offering.

Get specific and find out details about the lifestyles and behaviors of your primary consumers. Build a buyer persona that lists the characteristics of your target demographics. Determine their ages, locations, genders, incomes, and education levels. Then, discover the motivations and pain points that compel them to take action. For brand development internet marketing that makes use of social media, do your research on the influencers that can sway the purchase decisions of your target clients. Take all this information into account when formulating your marketing strategies.

#3 - Find out about your competition.

When you’re just starting out and you take a look at your more established competitors, you might feel like you could never catch up and lessen the gap between their businesses and yours. But it is actually this gap that would give you an edge when you’re trying to build your brand identity. How? You learn from the mistakes they’ve made.

Study the competition and what worked for them, but pay special attention to what didn’t work. Their failures can provide you with invaluable insights that would be useful for your marketing brand strategies development. Create a spreadsheet that would help you compare the different aspects of each competitor’s brand identity, then note their success rates. Pay special attention to the quality and consistency of their messaging, and how customers respond to their marketing efforts.

#4 - List the qualities that are unique to your brand.

Once you’ve done your research on both your target customers and competitors, it’s time to identify what makes you different in the market. This difference should clearly set you apart from your competition while making you attractive to clients.

Don’t just focus on the apparent features of your products or services. Instead, determine the value that you offer in terms of experience. How will your service or product make things better for your customers? Why should people choose you over another business? Your responses will help determine the best way you can position yourself in your chosen industry.

After you’ve answered those questions, you can begin executing the rest of your brand development strategies marketing plan.

#5 - Create your messaging strategy.

Your messaging should help your audience better understand your brand positioning. This is where it can get a bit tricky because you need to keep in mind that potential customers will not be the only recipients of your messages. Your competitors are also part of this audience, along with potential partners and future employees.

Though the core message should remain the same, different types of audiences would be interested in different parts of it. So, be sure to emphasize the relevant points that would address these various audience needs.

#6 - Create your brand logo, name, and tagline.

People like to say that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But the truth is that an attractive cover increases the likelihood of someone actually buying the book. In the same vein, a well-designed logo can help your brand to attract attention and customers. Pair this visual component with a memorable name and tagline, and you’re on your way to getting a good slice of mindshare.

If you’re a new business owner, you might be tempted to think that you can easily come up with something catchy on your own. But this aspect of building a brand identity most often requires professional creative input, so it would be wise to hire a branding specialist or designer.

#7 - Create a content marketing strategy.

In the digital age, content marketing is shaping up to be more efficient than traditional marketing when it comes to increasing a company’s visibility and reputation. It’s because this type of marketing makes use of educational content in order to attract and nurture leads. It provides value right away, so potential customers become more receptive to a brand’s efforts to make a connection.

When that connection is established, it becomes easier to build the trust needed to develop a relationship with a prospect, turning a potential customer into a loyal one.

#8 - Create a website.

Having your own website is one of the most important brand development tools you can employ. It’s where your audience would go to find out important information about you and what you offer. It would also serve as a repository for the online content that you will use for your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

You might be wondering if you really need a website when there’s social media. You can definitely post content on your accounts, but think about this: Do you really want to exclusively rely on a third-party platform you have no control over?

By all means, establish a social media presence. It’s great for reaching out to and interacting with customers. But having your own website is vital because it helps to establish your legitimacy and brand identity.

#9 - Create a marketing toolkit.

Develop other essential marketing tools for your business. These can include brochures, customer presentations, sales sheets, pitch decks, infographics, videos, etc. The information contained in these materials should highlight both your key offerings and brand identity. Make it easy for your sales teams to use and share these tools when interacting with clients.

#10 - Keep working at it.

The hard part’s over, right? You’ve already got your brand name, logo, tagline, website, and toolkit. You’ve done all your research and you know all about your customers as well as your competitors. Don’t take it easy yet. There’s still more work to be done.

This is where you keep close track of what’s working and what’s not working with your plan. Is your target audience responding favorably to your messaging? Is there no confusion about your brand positioning? Are you seeing successful results from all your efforts in building your brand?

Develop a system that will help you track the implementation of each stage of your plan so you can identify what aspects need to be adjusted in the future. Tracking will help you formulate better strategies that will, in turn, make your brand stronger.