Brand Building - Increase Your Relevance and Your Visibility to Potential Consumers

What is Brand Building?

The first thing we need to do is define what exactly brand building is. Brand building is a deliberate and strategic approach to making your business more visible and reputable to potential customers.

It is important to keep in mind that brand building is not the same thing as brand awareness. Brand awareness is a facet of brand building – in other words brand awareness is just one piece of the bigger branding puzzle.

Your branding allows consumers to understand and relate to your business, which is a fundamental component of converting leads into clients. People rarely spend their money on things that they do not understand.

Developing a strong brand is a business owner's best tool in terms of customer conversion so let’s take a deeper look at some strategies you can use to build your brand into a marketing powerhouse.

Develop a Core Business Plan - A Good Starting Point

One of the best places to start when it comes to brand building is developing a core business plan.

A core business plan is defined by Investopedia as “a document that defines in detail a company’s objectives and how it will achieve them.”

In other words, a core business plan is a roadmap that helps you organize and achieve your business’s goals, one of which of course, is brand building.

Writing out a core business plan helps define what your company’s values and purpose are – two essential pieces of information when it comes to brand building.

Business plans are also a key tool if you were to pitch your business to potential investors as they offer a concise look at how your company intends to accomplish its goals.

Many business owners and entrepreneurs will have already created a clearly defined business plan. 

However, for those who have not, taking the time to do so will set you on the path towards building a more effective brand and therefore, a more successful business.

Further reading: Actionable Design Tips to Boost Your Conversion Rates ‍

Brand Identity and Values

Identifying your brand’s identity and core values is an essential piece of creating a brand that resonates and connects with consumers.

Whether they are aware of it or not, people gravitate towards companies and products that are aligned with what they stand for as an individual.

Thus, clearly defining what is most important to you and your company is imperative if you are going to bring in new customers. 

Successful businesses almost always have a clearly defined set of values.

Take Apple Inc. for example, one of the most recognizable brands across the globe. Their core values are clearly laid out on their website for all potential customers to see and consist of the following:

• A healthy respect for wellbeing
• Putting the personal in personalization
• Keeping it green. And clean
• Growing roles into careers
• Off to a running start
• Inspiring minds by augmenting reality
• Looking ahead for Apple, looking out for all
• Bridging cultures with inspiration as a Volunteer Champion
• Helping people grow in their own direction
• Making products and careers even more accessible
• Rethinking a supply chain to reimagine recycling
• Connecting products with code. Connection people with privacy

This example should provide a pretty clear picture of what brand values look like.

Of course, every brand will have its own unique set of values that will determine that brand's unique identity.

Creating clearly defined and easily accessible brand values is one of the central components of building your brand.

Your brand values help to establish a “why” for your business – the reason your product or service exists and therefore, the reason consumers should pay for that product or service.

Higher Purpose

Beyond your company’s core values, you should also establish a higher purpose that your business, and therefore your branding, aspires towards. 

In the world of business, a higher purpose is not related to the economic side of things, but rather the personal side.

A higher purpose gives you and your team or employees a shared sense of meaning which reinforces the idea that everyone in your company is on the same page and working towards a common cause.

Working towards a clearly defined higher purpose gives everyone involved with your business the sense that their work is making a real difference.

This will also lead to better employee synergy and satisfaction which only helps to further your brand building as now you have started to develop a company culture that will inform how people perceive your brand.

Tactical Branding Strategies

Now that you have clearly outlined your company’s core values and higher purpose, let’s take a look at some marketing strategies that you can use to build up your brand.

Check out this video for info on brand building strategies:

Unique Selling Proposition

The first brand building strategy that every business should be using is creating and advertising your unique selling proposition.

Your unique selling proposition is your answer to a question that every potential customer will have: what sets your product or service apart from the competition?

When developing your brand’s identity, you want to make sure that you emphasize the one thing that makes your product or service superior to the rest of the pack.

Placing an emphasis on your unique selling proposition will help consumers remember your brand over others that you are competing with.

If possible, your brand’s name and iconography should invoke your unique selling proposition so that consumers easily connect your brand with your product or service.

A good example of this would be how most aspects of the coffee company Death Wish Coffee’s branding emphasizes the company's unique selling proposition of higher caffeine levels than other coffee brands.

Target Niche Markets

Another brand building strategy that you should take advantage of is targeting niche markets.

A niche market is made of a small population of consumers with a specific need.

Using our coffee example from the unique selling proposition section above; the niche market that Death Wish Coffee is targeting would be coffee drinkers who specifically want an exorbitant amount of caffeine in their coffee.

After the niche market is identified, you can tailor your branding and advertising efforts to specifically cater to the population of the niche market.

Beyond that, understanding the people who make up the population of your niche market will inform how you develop your brand as those are the consumers you are primarily looking to connect with.

What are Influential Factors that Attract Customers?

It’s generally agreed upon that there are four main factors that influence and attract customers to certain brands over others.

Those four factors are:

• Personal
• Cultural
• Social
• Psychological

When targeting a niche market, you will want to keep these factors in mind. 

It is also important to consider more granular aspects of each of these factors. 

Examples of this that could influence your niche market’s population include their level of education, age, gender, and disposable income amongst a wide variety of others. 

If you can understand some of the personal, cultural, social, or psychological factors that influence the purchasing habits of your targeted niche market’s population, you will have a much better chance of attracting them to your brand.

Customize Your Marketing

It may seem simple, but one of the best ways to build your brand is to customize your marketing.

You need to make sure that your company’s name and logo(s) are distinct from those of your competition and, as we mentioned above, your brand customization should lean towards your unique selling proposition. 

You also want to keep your niche market in mind when customizing your marketing. Your brand name, logo, and advertising should all be targeted towards attracting the population of your niche market first and foremost.

The trick here, of course, is to avoid alienating other customers while catering towards a niche market with your customization.

Further reading: What is Graphic Design, and Why It’s Important for Every Business 

Attracting Like-Minded Consumers

One last core tenant of building your brand is attracting like-minded consumers.

Like-minded consumers are people who have similar interests, opinions, attitudes, and ideas.

When you are building your brand, you want to think about which of these factors your brading appeals to. 

For example, developing a green/eco-friendly brand will attract those who are like-minded in that the health of the environment is central to their ideas and interests.

Think about the interests, opinions, ideas, and attitudes of the consumers you want to attract and then specifically cater your brand developments towards those factors.

If your target niche market’s population all have a similar attitude towards products made domestically for instance, your branding should be reflective of that attitude.

FAQs

How Do I Build Brand Awareness Quickly?

As we discussed early in this article, brand awareness is a facet of brand building. 

Some of the best ways to increase brand awareness are all related to social media so first and foremost you want to make sure your brand is on all of the relevant social media platforms for your targeted niche market.

Some social media strategies for boosting brand awareness are engaging with the community, hosting a giveaway, and creating content that is meant to be shared with others after being consumed.

You should also look at the algorithm trends for each social media platform to help to create posts that will be seen by as many people as possible.

How Do I Impress My Customers?

Some of the easiest and most effective ways to impress both new and returning customers are:

• Answer questions/emails quickly
• Follow up with customers
• Provide loyalty perks
• Make sure your website works properly
• Form partnerships with other relevant businesses