In a business landscape so saturated with start-ups trying to make a name for themselves and retail giants dominating the market – creating a memorable brand can prove a challenge.
Strong branding not only helps to build trust with your consumers, but it also helps you steer customers toward products and services that they would otherwise have ignored.
Good branding fosters growth, which is why global brands not only have a reputation to behold but also generate more sales.
In this blog, I’m going to share branding tips that will not accelerate your business growth but also help you cement long-lasting relationships with your customers.
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Create A Brand Story
What do popular soap operas and your branding have in common? It’s storytelling.
Plot, theme, and characters – call them the most classic elements of creative storytelling and can be done regardless of how wealthy your business is or how many people are on the company payroll.
It’s easier for people to identify with a story: about despair and hope, success and failure, hardships, and fruitful ventures – and will empathize with a human brand rather than one that focuses on making sales.
Used in conjunction with marketing, compelling storytelling not only provokes emotion, but it also entices interest and excitement about what your brand has to offer.
That’s the core of branding targeted for growth.
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Present Your Authentic Self
For consumers, today, finding a quality product isn’t nearly as important enough as connecting with an honest, transparent brand. Little do you know that customers want to feel good about the businesses they choose to associate themselves with.
Your business will only grow once these customers trust you. Your customers need to be sure that every interaction with your brand is genuine and authentic.
So then, how does a business build authenticity?
There’s no surefire way of coming across as a sincere brand than by being yourself, of course! Communicating your company’s purpose and the values you stand for will make your message resonate with people and win their hearts.
Another way you can build authenticity is to incorporate people into your brand’s messaging and imagery. Customers love human faces, but more importantly, they trust them.
Pictures of real people on your business website, blogs, and testimonials can cement a connection with your consumers and solidify your relationship.
It helps tell them you’re human too.
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Establish Consistency Across The Board
Irrespective of the niche, your business is functioning in, your brand needs to be consistent in order for consumers to recognize it as a brand rather than a product they can simply ignore.
Customers expect brands to deliver consistently. As such, you should never promise to give more than your brand is capable of fulfilling. So if you offer something – you need to deliver on it.
This is especially true when your brand is just starting out since you can only truly establish a customer’s trust once they understand what your brand offers and believe that you can deliver the same standard time and again.
This boils down to the details, from the consistency of your customer service across multiple channels to how your professional logo design matches up with your brand theme and messaging.
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Promote User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) refers to any product content that people create about your brand. UGC is a good indicator of just how well your brand is able to engage its customer base.
From FAQs and product reviews, UGC not establishes brand loyalty, but it also reinforces the authenticity of your brand. It also encourages prospects to check out your brand, even more so because a friend they trust posts about your business.
Far from realizing it, your business might be sitting on UGC in your tagged and hashtagged posts that you can leverage in your growth marketing.
This is great fodder for customer testimonials since they’re genuine and didn’t require your brand to step in.
Your brand will want to realize the true strength of Twitter in this regard since the social media platform – along with Instagram – is a top contender for UGC.
However, if you’re new to the game, you can encourage customers to create the content of your products by hosting giveaways and contests where customers need to share photos/videos to win.
Like, comment, and share their content – and see your following skyrocket.
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Partner With Industry-Specific Influencers
When done right, influencer relationships can help you build authority in your industry and distinguish yourself in the niche you operate in.
You can identify partner businesses and key influencers in your target market by identifying the characteristics they share with your brand.
Reach out to those influencers – either through a paid advertising role or free products – and see if they would be willing to share about your brand.
That said, your campaigns shouldn’t aim to generate awareness about your brand. Rather, they should aim to set up a close-knit network of influence that will gradually help you build your influence in the industry – and gradually, your customer base.
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Scale And Monetize Your Brand
Media buying is a tricky business, but even more so is buying ad placements that target the right audiences, not just large audiences. To add to that, you need to efficiently utilize your resources to generate maximum return on investment (ROI).
You should only buy ad placements from businesses that are in your niche and align with your brand. Here, you not only leverage a highly targeted audience base, but you can also scale your reach to prospects on different channels.
Consequently, you can also monetize your brand by creating paid membership programs that enable you to foster an online community and engage your customers in a memorable way.
This way, your customers get the opportunity to be a part of something they enjoy, while you use the forum as a gateway to advance your business’ growth.
Final Thoughts
Businesses that aspire for upward growth must develop and define their brand in a way that resonates with users and wins their trust.
With a good bit of planning and patience, your growth marketing initiatives will enable your brand to unlock its potential and flourish. As a business, you need to commit to realize your goals and see it through to success.
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