There are so many
factors that go into good branding – and establishing a strong brand for your
business is one of the most important things you can do for it!
1.
Define your brand before you start
Before you go ahead
with any other plans, it’s important to establish who you are, what you offer
and who your target audience are. Note down the key words you want people to
associate with your business and create a model of your idea customer, going
through target age, social demographic gender, the lot.
The best way to go in
the right direction is to know where you’re going. Once you have a clear idea
of your brand identity, you can get started on your actual branding, starting
off with design choices….
2.
Design is everything
Strong, recognisable
brand design is of vital importance and is divided into many categories, the
first and most important one being your logo. The colours and fonts you choose
will be how your business is defined, it will tell your audience who you are
right off the bat.
When it comes to
colours, some of the choices you can make include:
●
Yellows and oranges,
which indicate passion and fire – however, the former is also generally seen as
a happier colour, so it may be best to only use it for more light-hearted
businesses
●
Black can look sleek
and professional, whilst also giving your logo a certain gravity. So going in
the opposite direction to previous advice, black may be great for for example a
legal company, but it wouldn’t be so good for a business that makes cakes!
● Green
can symbolise new ideas and innovation, so it can work great for start ups
trying to give off a new/fresh vibe
It goes without saying that you should also
make sure that whatever combination of colours you choose matches and looks
good together.
Good and well-designed
signage that matches your logo and website can also go a long way towards
helping you to look more professional. Whether it’s school, signs
for universities or business signage, it will always help to boost
your branding and will make you look far more professional overall
3.
And a good website is important too!
We’ll go into it a bit
more later, but a well-designed website that matches the aforementioned themes
of your website can make all the difference in attracting and retaining your
target audience.
In addition to choosing
a colour scheme that matches your overall design, be sure to put the most
important information right where your target market will see it.
But when we talk about
website quality, we’re not just talking about design of course – a professional
standard website also needs to be well laid out, easy to navigate and have all
the information your customers want and need to access. If everything is laid
out clearly, your site will keep potential customers for longer in addition to
showing them that you’re professional and organised
4.
Blog posts
On the subject of
websites, a really great way to boost both their content level and traffic is
to set up a blog and reach out to guest bloggers to contribute content. A
continuous flow of content will be the key to getting noticed online!
Additionally, reaching out to guest bloggers and having them promote your
content could give you a massive boost, as many of them have large online
followings
And now you may be
asking, what’s the best way to reach out to all these bloggers and influencers
who are going to fill your site with content and promote your business on their
platforms
5.
Social media
Reaching out to them
via social media is the best way to get in touch and stay in touch. As you look
to recruiting these bloggers, you should also look at their profiles first, to
check that their themes, aesthetic and audience match up to your business.
You will of course also
be able to promote your content on your own pages too and even without the
added bonus of letting you reach out to bloggers, developing social media
platforms for your company will give you a much larger reach in general.
When creating these
pages, you should always be aware of the audience you’re trying to reach, as
different platforms can have vastly different audiences. For example, if you’re
looking towards a younger crowd, Instagram may be the way to go, whilst
Facebook tends to appeal to older audiences. Make sure you use trending
hashtags on all your posts too
6.
Analyse, analyse, analyse!
Once you’ve set up
these strategies, it’s important to check that they’re actually working. You’ll
be able to see this in several ways, primarily through site traffic, backlinks
(the links to your site that exist across the internet, which you can check
through tools like Moz Backlink checker and SEO review tools) and of course
overall profit.
If you want to compare
yourself to your competition, you can also use the aforementioned backlink
tools to check how they’re doing!
The best thing you can
do with all this data is look at what’s working and stick to it, whilst
changing whatever isn’t working. Much like you should’ve done when setting out
your brand identity, it might be a good idea to lay out a chart with all the
information you’ve gathered, also including points you need to develop on, with
ideas on improvements.
In conclusion, there are a multitude of ways
to set up a successful brand. These include setting out your brand identity
from the start, making sure you have a good and relevant design, setting up an
effective website, creating a blog on said website, creating a strong social media
presence and analysing what’s working and what isn’t. No matter what option you
choose, the most important thing is to remain consistent throughout your
branding. This makes you look professional, creates a sense of continuity for
your customers and makes your business more recognisable overall.
