These 7 Steps Will Improve Your Company’s Brand

I hope you’re paying attention, because these 7 Steps Will Improve Your Company’s Brand. Branding is one of the most important processes you can undertake when it comes to creating a successful business. It can help instantly separate you from your competitors.

The stronger your brand, the more your business will be memorable and recognizable. This will lead to consumers choosing you instead of “them” when they’re in want of the service you provide. Read below to find 7 Steps Which Will Improve Your Company’s Brand.

See: Branding: What it is and why it’s important

Branding isn’t just about making a cool logo and hoping for the best. To be done correctly, it must consist of comprehensive planning, cohesive brand guidelines, and wide-scale execution. You need to provide your consumers with an appealing and consistent offering of who you are as a company. 

Everything that customers see from your company should have continuity. Whether it’s the color and design of your packaging, the tone of your social media posts, or appearance of customer service emails, customers should be getting the same cohesive feeling from you, in order to inhabit a specific place in their mind.  

Brands Aren’t Just For Show

When you create a brand methodically, it isn’t just for show. Building that brand awareness takes time, but there are real fiscal benefits to establishing such a presence. After all, consistent presentation of a brand increases revenues by 33%. To aid in that, using a signature color along can increase brand recognition by 80%. By taking branding seriously and committing to it at every step, you can expect to stand out from the crowd.

And this makes you more money.

You may love the idea of creating a strong brand for your business, but you might be at a loss for how to develop a brand. And that’s okay.

These 7 steps below will help you build upon and improve your company’s brand:

1. Take Stock of Your Environment

The first step of how to build and improve your company’s brand is to gather as much information as possible. Examine your data from Google Analytics to Facebook Ads Manager to find out more about your audience and your competitors. You may already (I hope!) have some idea of how you would like to go about branding your business. And that’s great. But! You need to make sure these ideas are data-informed.

To ensure that your business branding efforts are successful, you need to do extensive research on who your target market is. What product or service are you providing? What kind of people are seeking these products or services? Once you have answered these questions, you can gain a better understanding of what these consumers want. Perhaps current incumbents in the industry aren’t meeting a certain customer need, and you can position your brand as the business that will satisfy this need.

Additionally, it is important that you carefully take stock of what your competitors are doing. Take note of what they are doing that works and what doesn’t. Learning from your competitors’ mistakes will make you more successful in your branding efforts. It also saves you countless time and effort (leapfrogging, anyone?) Also, by analyzing your competition, you will find ways in which you can stand out and carve out your own piece of the market.

2. Narrow Your Focus

As nice as it would be, it is impossible to appeal to everyone with your brand. That is why it is important to focus on a particular base of consumers and cater to their needs. When you get specific like this, the consumers in your target market will appreciate a brand looking out for their needs.

And they will reward you for it, in the form of more business.

When consumers feel that you are helping them, they will become advocates for your brand. When this happens, you’re adding that valuable word-of-mouth aspect to your overall marketing strategy.

Another benefit of narrowing the focus of your business’ target audience is that it makes the process of designing your image and offerings much simpler. When you have a clear idea of who you are serving and what they expect, you can more easily craft a strong brand identity that appeals to them. This sort of connection between brand and consumer is crucial, because 77% of consumers buy from companies that share the same values they do. Narrowing the focus of your targeting efforts will do wonders for building brand loyalty.

3. Nail The Name

When working out how to build a brand, choosing a name is one of the most important steps. The name of your business is critical to a successful branding effort. The name will be seen or heard the most out of anything revolving around your business, so obviously it is critical that you get a name that reflects who you are while also being appealing to consumers. 

Ideally your name will set you apart from other great brands in the same industry. A good name that stands out from the rest will ensure you have a leg up on your competitors. When selecting a name, you should also consider keeping it relatively broad. This will help if in the future you hope to expand your services, then you won’t be restricted by a name that lends itself to a specific product category.

4. Consider A Slogan

A slogan can be a great tool to solidify your place in the mind of consumers. Ideally, a slogan is a short and catchy phrase that will remind people who you are and what you do. I quite like this article on catchy slogans we’ve all come to know and… maybe love. We’ve all had slogans or jingles stuck in our heads at one point or another. Some of them stick around longer than others (here’s how to solve that, by the way). The benefit of these catchy slogans is that when somebody does require something that your business can provide, you come to their mind quickly. A powerful slogan should align with your mission statement and serve as a foundation from which to start building your small business into a multinational empire.

5. Determine Your Aesthetic

How your brand looks is going to be a significant factor when it comes to attracting consumers. If you have unappealing visual elements such as color or font, then potential customers will have no problem finding another business that catches their eye. Again – improve your company’s brand and you will have an easier time showing prospective partners why they should choose you over the folks down the road.

When choosing a color scheme (sometimes called a color palette – more on that here) for your brand, it is important that you choose colors that don’t clash with what your business does. It’s also important because it helps you to stand out. The same can be said about the font used for your messaging. Once you select a color or font, it is best to not deviate from these within and across marketing channels because doing so could confuse consumers, weakening the strength of your brand.

6. Lock in a Logo

Much like the name of your business, your logo is so crucial to improving your company’s brand because it is going to be seen the most by consumers. For this reason, you want to make sure that you have an appealing and distinctive company logo that identifies YOU. You want to have a logo that you feel comfortable going on everything from your products, to your employee uniforms, to your letterheads. The goal of branding is making your business memorable and recognizable, and a strong logo goes a long way towards achieving that goal. This doesn’t always have to be set in stone. Coca Cola has had relative consistency through the decades. Apple took a significant turn from their Isaac Newton inspired placard to the memorable icon we see today.

Logos, much like websites, can grow and change as your company develops to new heights. Just check out this article which covers 50 different brands and shows the different between where their logos started vs. where they are today.

7. Implement Everywhere! 

If you have followed all the prior steps, then you are on the verge of launching a successful brand. All that is left to do is implement all the elements that you have established about your brand to every channel that you have through your newly established brand guidelines. Anywhere that your customers interact with your brand should follow the same preset parameters.

Why is this consistency crucial to your brand’s success? As previously mentioned, a consistent brand offering will boost your revenues by 33%. So there are legitimate financial reasons why you should want to provide your customers with a seamless experience with your brand. A consistent brand personality provides your business with a professionalism that your customers will appreciate.

These steps on how to build a brand are sure to set you on the path towards success. But if you feel that you would struggle with any, if not all, of these branding strategy steps, then you should read another one of our blog posts which explores how to find a branding agency.

Noble House Media has exceptional client retention and prides itself on data-informed performance marketing. We work with several amazing brands such as NortheastCo, Milton & Goose, Leafy, Target and The Melting Pot. Call (203) 903-1225 to see how our team can help you.