By Kady Sandel
Entrepreneurs often are overwhelmed by the sheer number of strategies available to grow their businesses through branding. Should you learn Pinterest SEO? Do you need to adjust the colors on your landing page to improve your bounce rate? Is it time to look into billboard advertising?
But it doesn’t have to be so confusing. By becoming aware of a few key branding concepts, business owners can learn to cut through the noise and focus exclusively on initiatives that will help grow their companies.
Here are four reliable and timeless branding tips for busy entrepreneurs:
1. Start with a brand strategy
Think of a brand strategy like your business plan: it’s a document that outlines your company’s branding goals, traits, purpose, and voice that will be conveyed through your branding and marketing efforts. Your brand strategy will also include crucial demographic and psychographic information about your target audience. Most business owners skip the important step of developing a brand strategy, and only later do they realize how much it would have helped their company.
When I was a graphic designer, entrepreneurs would often approach me and say, “I need a logo.” They would search online for generic logos in their industry and ask me to replicate what they found. But how can a designer create a logo that appeals to your target audience if you haven’t defined that target audience? How can a website visually express the key traits of your brand if you haven’t identified those key traits?
It’s best to work alongside an expert when developing the details of your brand strategy, as an outside trained eye can quickly identify gaps and opportunities in your branding that you may not be able to see from close up. Many companies that move forward without a branding strategy may find themselves needing to rebrand in the near future. While a rebrand is a viable option, it can be time-consuming, so it’s in your best interest to establish a brand strategy as early as possible.
2. Delight your target market
Companies with successful brands know this secret: your branding needs to be completely tailored to your target audience. This means that your brand colors should not be based on your favorite colors. You need to choose your business’s colors wisely based on color psychology and how your target customers will respond to them on a subconscious level.
Similarly, if your target market doesn’t listen to podcasts, your business should not expend time and resources into starting a podcast—even if podcasts are the hot marketing tool of the moment.
Many entrepreneurs create an ideal client avatar and stop there, neglecting to include that ideal customer’s desires and pain points in their promotion strategy. To successfully reach your potential customers and turn them into buyers, your business needs to focus on creating content that delights your target audience . . . and then putting that content in places where they will find it.
Inspire your potential customers. Impress them. Speak their language. Leave them excited to learn more, and eventually they will open their wallets to purchase your products or services.
3. Use brand stories to streamline your content strategy
Gone are the days of sitting down in front of the computer every day and wondering what type of content to write for your business. You can use the idea of brand stories to organize your posts and generate new content ideas while staying aligned with your brand.