How do your customers perceive your business? How do your customers feel when they see your company's name, regardless of the affiliation? How they think says a lot about your brand. Your brand is more than a logo, design, title, or visual identity. Your brand is so much more. Your brand is the total customer experience. It is the entire identity of your business, your business personality.
Many businesses fail to see the importance of focusing on their brand. Yet, it's such a vital part of the business. With social media being the new driver for business engagement, your business has so much more potential of being seen by everyone. If the brand is not done right, if it's been glazed over with no real focus on it, chances are you are missing out on opportunities for customer conversion and retention. In the end, that spells missed revenue for your business.
What is Branding?
Some would limit branding to the visual identity of your company. That may have been good years ago, but times have changed. That basically means that branding has evolved into so much more than that. Branding is the identity you give to your company that helps consumers to know who you are.
Your branding is not only what makes a memorable impression on consumers, but it allows your customers and clients to know what to expect from your company. Your branding helps to distinguish you apart from your competitors, meaning your customers understand clearly why they choose you over the next guy—every time. You know exactly why you choose Pepsi over Coke and vice versa. You will always choose one over the other, and that in and of itself identifies why that brand is such a better choice.
Developing Your Brand
A good brand doesn't just happen; it takes work. Here are some of the elements that work together to help develop a brand:
What Branding Can Mean For Your Business
Here are six reasons why focusing on your brand is critical for your business:
1. Promotes Recognition
Your branding reflects your entire business, which consists of you, your employees, what you offer, and your content. When you make all of that available to the public, people see it and gain a perception of who you are from it. If your branding is consistent and it's in front of them enough, people will ultimately recognize it. A good thing about being recognized is that people tend to feel more at ease with a brand they recognize than one they don't know when it comes to purchasing products and services.
A business without cohesive or consistent branding will not get noticed as much, nor will it stay on the minds of consumers. However, a company with elements like a distinct logo, attractive colors, and other visual elements will be much more memorable.
Also, the more people recognize your business, the more they view you as a credible business. Branding helps to show the world that you're an established, credible business. You can use this to tell people very early on what they can expect from your business. This is an investment your business is making to improve itself, and potential customers will recognize that you put in the work to create your brand.
2. Builds Trust and Perception
People soon learn what they need to know about a brand to decide if it's one worth trusting. Remember, the entire brand experience encompasses a lot—visual elements like the logo, customer service, etc., tell a person a lot when they do business with you. That is what builds the perception of your brand and what will ultimately let a person know if they can trust you.
Trust from your audience is one of the most important things you can have as a business, but that isn't always easy to gain. That is why every single element, not just the visuals, are so important to your brand. The customer experience is key and will take your brand far. If the customer can depend on you to provide them with a good customer experience every time they come to you, you will have their trust and loyalty as a customer.
You don't just want customers who recognize your brand but only use your business once. You want your customers to keep coming back. With good branding, which includes a good customer experience, they will come back.
A good brand can give your brand a more human side, which your customers can relate to more than a company that's strictly all business. In many ways, you can appeal to people's emotions through branding and make them feel more connected to your company. Branding allows you to build relationships with your audience, which can eventually turn them into loyal customers. You can create a brand that people actually care about and put yourself ahead of businesses that aren't using this to their advantage.
Just like with the reputation of a person, the reputation of a brand precedes it. Once a certain perception of a brand has been established in the market, it won't take long for that perception to spread to people who have yet to engage with the company. Word of mouth will pass the perception on and further reinforce or tarnish the reputation of that brand. If the perception is positive, potential new customers may come into contact with the brand, having an already-positive association in their mind that makes them more likely to make a purchase from this brand than from the competition.
3. Sets You Apart From The Competition
During the pandemic, millions of businesses were created, so the global market was fierce. With so much competition, it's critical to stand apart from the crowd. People and businesses are all over social media, and people have so many more options today. You are no longer competing on a local stage; your organization now competes in the global economy.
Allow your branding to help you stand out. Make sure people hear your story. Your branding can help consumers distinguish your company from the rest.
4. Motivates You and Keeps You Focused
A clear brand strategy not only provides you with the clarity you need to be successful; it also provides your employees that same benefit. Branding identifies for anyone affiliated with your company how to act, win, and meet the organization's goals.
It doesn't take a lot to distract you from the major goals and objectives you seek. Like clearly defined business and budget plans, branding keeps you mindful of what is at stake—reputation, identity, perception, trust, loyalty. Everything rides on it. That, in and of itself, keeps you focused on the task at hand. A clear brand strategy helps you stay focused on your mission and vision as an organization. Your brand can help you be strategic and will guide your marketing efforts saving time and money.
Keeping your employees motivated and focused is just as important as increasing sales and customer retention. One way to keep your employees motivated and invested is to invest in the aspects of branding that keep them motivated. That includes little things like branded apparel and merchandise, but also the look of your entire office space. Motivating your employees by creating a sense of unity through branding could gain you great results all around.
5. Increases Business Value
A strong brand will provide value to a company well beyond its physical assets. That is so true when you think about brands like Coca-Cola, Wrangler, Apple, Ford, or Chick-Fil-A. Are these companies really worth their equipment, their products, their warehouses, or factories?
No, these companies are worth much more than their physical assets; their brand has created a value that far exceeds their physical value.
Branding is important when trying to generate future business, and a strongly established brand can increase a business's value by giving the company more leverage in the industry. This makes it a more appealing investment opportunity because of its firmly established place in the marketplace.
The result of the branding process is the brand, which incorporates the reputation and value that comes with it. A strong reputation means a strong brand which, in turn, translates into value. That value can mean influence, price premium, or mindshare. The brand is a business asset that also holds monetary value in itself and must have a place of its own on a business's balance sheet because it increases the overall worth of the company. Although this is a controversial topic and a difficult task for many companies, giving financial weight to the brand is as important as branding itself.
6. Generates Referrals and Leads
When people find a company they like, they can't wait to tell others about it. They wear, eat, listen to, and are constantly telling others about the brands they love. On the other hand, you can't tell someone about a brand you can't remember. Additionally, a strong brand website strategy, like backlinks, is critical to generating referrals or viral traffic.
A good brand will have no trouble drumming up referral business. Strong branding generally means there is a positive impression of the company amongst consumers, and they are likely to do business with you because of the familiarity and assumed dependability of using a name they can trust. Once a brand has been well-established, word of mouth will be the company's best and most effective advertising technique.
With social media being so prevalent, next to word of mouth is its online presence.
How Branding Influences Your Online Presence
Website Design: If you have an attractive website, people will be interested to know what you're offering. After all, people are more interested in things that are aesthetically pleasing.
Your official business website should harmonize well, and that includes choosing the right photos, font, colors, and designs that go well with each other. Finding a balance between looking fun and casual yet serious and professional can be tough, but once you do, you'll attract the right clientele. That's why having the right company behind you when it comes to website design is important.
Social Media Presence: There are over 3 billion people on social media, and your business should be among them. Social media is where the people are, and to connect with your audience, you have to be where they are. Use social media to help influence your brand to gain your place in the market. Remember, the market is saturated with so many businesses these days that the best way for people to know you even exist is if they find you on social media.
Target Your Audience: Don't just be on any social media platform; make sure to join the platform(s) where your audience spends a good deal of their time. To do this, you may even have to be on multiple platforms.
Social Media Engagement: It's not enough to have a social media account; it's important to ensure you're thoughtfully engaging with your followers. So, make sure you produce content that will prompt engagement, like asking questions you actually want responses to, getting their opinion or feedback on one of your products or services, etc.
Quality Content: Your content should also prove your level of expertise in your industry, so provide them with some value they can appreciate. If it's good and useful to them, they will be sure to let you know in their comments. The more top quality your content is, the more customers you'll gain. You want your content to represent the value of your brand while introducing your business's personality.
You also want to make sure your content is optimized for search engine optimization or SEO. SEO ensures that people who are looking for your services find you. Your site will rank higher in the search engines where it can be found.
Influencer Collaborations: If you're not much of an engaging person, use who are engaging—social media influencers. Social media influencers love to share their opinion, meaning if you're willing to partner with them, they'll happily spread the awesome news about your wonderful business. The majority of trust recommendations are from other people, and if you want to be recommended, influencers can help with that. Reach out to different influencers and create mutually beneficial partnerships where they can suggest your business to their viewers. Fans are loyal to their admiring influencers, and they'll most likely take notice of your brand or service if an influencer they follow religiously speaks highly of your company.
Make sure to stay on top of the best ways to market your online presence as your business continues to evolve.
We'll Help You Market Your Brand.
Dexterous Media Group is a digital marketing agency focused on helping you to market your brand. We understand you have a business to run, which demands a lot more than marketing. So you focus on running your business and let us do the rest.
Our web designs and development services offer:
We are not just small business specialists and marketing experts. Being a media-based marketing company means you won't get a list of honey-dos to provide written content, graphics you don't have, and pictures that don't exist. Instead, we will do all of that for you.
We offer affordable plans that require minimal upfront costs that are scalable. That means, as your business grows, we grow with you. We are more than just a marketing company. We are uniquely focused on contributing to the success of the small business community. Think of us as your in-house marketing department, just a phone call away.
Contact us today or call (949) 302-6908.
