According to Nielson, over 59% of customers prefer to purchase from brands that are familiar to them. Whatever your business may be, whether you’re a large company or a solo entrepreneur, you’re competing in a large market with everyone trying to grab customer attention. That’s why it’s so important to find a way to stand out from the crowd by creating a trustworthy brand. Building your brand from scratch can seem a little intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve broken down the first three steps you need to take to build your brand.
Find your Brand’s Purpose
Every brand has a purpose and should know its why. Before you create a brand for yourself, it’s essential to understand why you’re creating it. What do you want your brand to achieve? What is your brand’s personality? What makes you different from the rest? Why should people care about your brand?
Discovering the answers to these questions will help you create your brand’s foundation through voice, slogans, taglines, value propositions, and stories.
Find Your Target Market
Before creating a logo or website, it’s important that you know who it is that you’re trying to reach. Your target market is your ideal customer, the person who will identify with and use your brand. You’ll want to know specific details about your ideal customer, such as their gender, how old they are, what they do for work, and their education level. What do they like to do in their free time? What are their struggles or challenges in life?
By having your ideal customer in mind and understanding the type of person they are, you can make essential design decisions like your messaging, logos, fonts, and colors to ensure your brand is attractive and exciting to your target market. If you can’t capture your ideal customer’s attention, your brand will not do well.
Create Marketing and Business Goals
Now that you understand your brand and know your target audience, it’s time to set goals for your company. You should create both short-term and long-term goals. What do you want to achieve in a month or a year from now? Are you trying to increase your customer loyalty program or grow the number of customers on your e-mail chain?
It’s important to set realistic goals for your brand with action steps on how to get there. For example, if you want to sign up 500 clients to your newsletter, you might start by creating an e-mail form on your website, using social media to encourage users to sign up, or offering a freebie for customers that subscribe.
You’re Only Getting Started
These three steps will help your company begin its branding journey. After you have these three things knocked out, you can move on to creating your products, website and launching your brand. However, having the foundation of creating and understanding your brand will set the tone for the rest of your business. If you’re new to the branding world, consider contacting a professional to help you reach your branding goals.
*This blog was written by The Write Touch LLC partner Anna Thorner.
