Finding the right business idea and developing a website where you can sell the product or services is not enough. A venture will not turn into a sustainable one if you are not emphasizing brand awareness.
Businesses should look for opportunities to leverage everything they can to get recognized. A brand awareness strategy by Oberlo is great for brands that have taken care of the basics and can move on to more complicated stuff.
However, if you are going to start from scratch, you will have to follow the basics and build your brand from there. And this guide is a great reference for it.
Step #1 – Identifying Targeted Audience
Before you can build a brand, you will have to find the right targeted audience. If the demographics do not coincide with your products or services, you will have a hard time generating leads and making sales.
A broad demographic stands lower in terms of relevance to the business. On the other hand, a narrow demographic may have smaller numbers, but it is highly relevant and can become your foundation for building the brand.
Step #2 – Researching the Competition
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Competition research is necessary if you want to become an authority in the industry. Clashing head-to-head directly with already established brands is a tough thing. Therefore, you need to focus on finding gaps that are yet to be fulfilled in the market.
Filling these gaps will distinguish you from the rest and give an edge in attracting customers. As for the competition research, here are some places to look at how they are faring:
- Social media profiles.
- SEO rankings.
- Website.
- Forums and platforms, such as Reddit and Quora.
SEMrush is also worth using as it is a great tool to see the competition’s backlinks, traffic, ranking pages, and keywords.
Step #3 – Being Unique in Your Branding
Competition and demographic research allow you to build a brand that solves issues at hand and establish yourself as someone who is different from other companies.
Being unique is another step to help customers differentiate and remember you from the rest. Uniqueness comes from many things, like developed brand assets, products and services, marketing strategy, and the language you use. The bottom line is that you need to remain original and relevant at the same time.
Step #4 – Defining Brand’s Focus
When starting out, do not look to come up with a solution to everyone’s problems. That is too difficult, especially when starting out.
Instead, focus on what you know best and work with your strengths going forward. Once you have established yourself a bit and have extra room to grow, consider shifting resources onto other areas.
Step #5 – Defining Brand’s Personality
A brand is not a person, but that should not prevent it from having a personality. A human touch goes a long way in connecting with the audience and attracting more fans along the way.
Think about what your potential customers are experiencing when they are looking for solutions. Appeal to these feelings and create a voice that speaks to them and understands what they want.
Step #6 – Choosing a Name
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The name of a brand holds significant weight. It is one of the first things that consumers see and a catchy and memorable name is what every brand ought to strive for.
Digital assets like logo, trademark, and the slogan will depend on the name as well. It needs to be distinguishable but easy to remember. Some like to think of something completely new. Others like to combine two words or create an acronym. Take your time to come up with the best brand name you can.
Step #7 – Picking Colors and Fonts
Visuals are important. When you are creating a logo and a website, colors play a prominent role. Satyendra Singh has published research and revealed that 75 percent of people assess brands by colors more often than any other aspect.
Colors define your brand and help emphasize and express the feelings you wish to communicate with the customers.
Step #8 – Utilizing Social Media
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Facebook alone has had about 2.5 billion monthly active users in the last quarter of the year 2019 (Statista, 2020).
It is free to create an account on social media, and it would be a waste not to take everything that these platforms have to offer.
Create content, organize contests and giveaways, cooperate with other brands, integrate influencer marketing and become an active brand on social media to add more visibility to your brand.
Step #9 – Seeking Genuine Feedback
When you are done with the basics, seek genuine feedback. Ideally, it should come from someone who is unbiased, so your friends or family might not be the best option.
Conduct a survey and ask strangers on the internet. Joining relevant niche communities and asking there is another option.
