7 Ways to Build Your Brand
July 21, 2021
What does it mean to build your brand, and why is it so important? Your brand is what defines you and differentiates you from the competition.
If you want to gain brand awareness and recognition, and strengthen your brand identity, standing out from the crowd and becoming more memorable is crucial. Here is a quick checklist to help you get more people to remember you.
Let’s start with why it's so important to build your brand:
- Digital visibility: Google likes it when people type in your name or your business name as much as they like keywords.
- Word of mouth: When people remember you, they can easily recommend you, and third party endorsements are so incredibly powerful.
- Breaking through the clutter: Keep the marketing “Rule of 7” in mind. When someone sees or interacts with your brand at least 7 times, they are more likely to become a loyal follower.
Here are 7 ways to be more memorable:
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Let's delve a little further into each tip...
1. Collect emails from your website
Building your email list enables you to send out valuable ongoing content, and as they say "content is king". It's what connects you to your customers. It's how you build trust and establish a community around your brand. But it can be a tough ask to convince someone to add more clutter to their inbox. Make it worth their while to part with their email address.
To cut through, the content you share must be valuable. To keep them engaged, it must be relevant and consistent. Remember, people don't always want to feel like they are being sold to - think 'inspiration' and 'education' instead. Ask yourself, 'how does this benefit my customer'?
2. Leverage social media by doing your best to be active
Active social media profiles are key to maintaining a credible and reputable online presence, and building your brand.
Social media platforms also provide you with the opportunity to boost brand awareness and reach an audience who are unfamiliar with your brand. In particular, targeted ads can help you generate more website traffic and leads.
To make sure you are using your social channels to their full potential, check out our tips for how to get more engagement on social media.
3. Engage with and acknowledge your followers
People LOVE to feel heard.
Interacting with your followers meaningfully gives your brand authenticity and a human persona.
For example, you can ask your followers questions, and show that you value their opinions or feedback.
Even if it's just a simple thank you or emoji 😍🌟💕😉 , it's a way to make your followers feel appreciated and more loyal.
4. Come up with a tool that people want to share or talk about.
For instance, this could be a quiz or online video or even a podcast show.
It doesn't need to be super complex, just something a little interactive and that generates a bit of buzz.
This is also a great way to give your brand personality - share knowledge and educate your community, and highlight the need or problem that you can help your customers solve.
5. Use PR
Write guest posts, give commentary to the media, get on other’s podcasts, and speak at events.
Establishing yourself or your brand as a thought leader is a powerful tool. It's another way to build the trust and credibility that your customers will highly value in your brand.
Plus of course, it's a fantastic way to get your brand or business name out there, and be seen by a potentially new and wider audience.
6. Focus on bringing your personality into what you do.
People talk about those who they resonate with.
This is all about making your brand more human and relatable. It is extremely beneficial to build an emotional connection with your customer. In fact, it has been shown that emotionally connected customers are on average 52% more valuable to a business than those who are just 'highly satisfied' (Source: Harvard Business Review).
Using storytelling in marketing and humour are just a couple of ways you may be able to better connect with your customers. It's also always nice to put a face to a name, so don't be afraid to share video messages with your customers, or some 'behind the scenes' images of the team.
7. Invest in good design.
First impressions really do matter!
According to an academic study, 94% of the time someone’s first impression is based on design, and it only takes 50 milliseconds for that split-second decision to get made.
It may be time to look at re-designing your website, making your logo that little bit more eye-catching, or refreshing your style for a new-look Instagram grid.
There can be a lot to do here, but our article on where to get images for your website is a great, simple place to start.
So what’s next? Find one thing in the list above to start improving on now.
And here’s a little extra tip for those wondering where to begin – is there anything interesting you are working on right now? Something people generally don’t know about you? Something in your industry you want to change? Start there.
