Branding Your Business Part 3

Brand identity is the message the consumer receives from you. It’s how you present your business or merchandise to the consumer. Once you’ve decided how you want customers to perceive your business it’s time to start working the building blocks of your brand identity. These include such things as your logo, tagline, style, and colors. These all work together to create appeal for your brand and increase customer recognition. Your brand should be a consistent across all aspects of your business.

Let’s go over a few simple strategies that will help you establish a solid brand identity:

Logo and creatives

Developing a logo is the first aspect of developing your brand’s visual message. When designing your logo, you will need to create a specific look and feel for your brand. The look and feel needs to be consistent throughout all platforms you use to promote your brand. That includes every aspect of business; your website, your social media pages and even your business cards, should feature the same creative elements.

Don’t just settle on a color because you think it is pretty. Certain colors tend to evoke very specific emotions. Yellow is often associated with happiness, while red is often associated with anger or romance.

Always keep your target market in mind while selecting your creative elements. The occupation, age and even social status of the group you aim to target will influence how they view your logo, colors etc. Be sure to test your logo by means of a focus group or other method before you launch it.

Some logos, as creative as they may be, can be misinterpreted or even confused with the logo of a similar brand. Whatever you decide, ensure that your creative elements are so memorable that even if a client sees only half of the picture, they can still imagine exactly what is coming next.

Social Media Presence

What would be the point if you spend all this time building your brand and no even knows your business exists? Social media allows you to reach the right people, with the right message. Social media is also one of the most affordable options to reach your target audience. So why not make full use of it?

There are so many social media platforms just waiting to help build your brand. In fact, many successful brands invest heavily in creating a strong social presence. When your business is small it’s even more important to connect with consumers on a more personal level.

Many small business owners shy away from social media because they think it’s expensive and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. Just like any other type of marketing you have to keep your audience in mind. Take the time to post content that will appeal to them on a regular basis and engage with them as much as possible.

One piece of advice is to not use the shotgun approach to social media. Pick one or two platforms and learn how they work. Learn the nuances of how to elicit responses from your customers on those platforms. Once you have one or two platforms working for you, you can add others slowly to increase your presence. Trying to use and learn all the social media platforms probably means you won’t have time to spend honing your skills and message to your customers. This can lead to frustration and the mistaken notion that social media just doesn’t work for your business.

– Optimize Your Website

Your website should be loaded with useful content, easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing. The importance of having a well-designed site that loads fast on multiple devices cannot be overstated. A website is one of the few points of contact that you have full control over so make sure you use it to your advantage.

If your business needs a web site feel free to contact me. This blog is designed and maintained by me and I offer reasonable rates.

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