8 Things to Consider when Building Your Brand

• September 6, 2018

Creating a brand around your business is essential in differentiating yourself from your competitors.

 If necessity or convenience is not the drive of your business, chances are you need a brand to convince buyers to choose your business over others. Without a strong brand, a business lacks a unique identity. Adidas is just another shoemaker and Macy’s is just another department store without their brand attached. A powerful brand authentically represents a business and its products.

Here are 8 things to consider when building a brand:

  1. Your Beliefs - Why did you start your business? What do you want to accomplish? What motivates you? What does success look like for you and your customers? Answering these questions is a great starting point for building a strong, long-lasting brand.

  2. Your People - Customers analyze all aspects of a company from marketing materials and social media to customer service with the store. Having all employees and staff on board with the company’s beliefs can make the difference in a customers loyalty to your brand. This is important to consider during onboarding, training, and development of staff

  3. Your Product - With customers having access to so many options at the click of a link, offering something your competitors can’t is vital. After discovering who your customers will be, write a value proposition to ensure the value your product or service offers each customer.

  4. Your Story - Sharing stories from founders, employees, and customers can create a connection between and you and potential buyers. These stories need to emphasize who you are and why you do what you do.

  5. Your Personality - Just like people, your brand’s personality is how it is perceived by the world. Whether your brand embodies excitement, sophistication, sincerity, competence, or ruggedness, pick a dominant trait that is true to your brand’s identity. Then proceed to expand upon that trait. For example, an excited brand may be colorful and playful. Start to extend your brand personality into it’s style.

  6. Your Voice - To express your brand’s personality you must build a voice. How would your brand sound if it were to talk and what would it say? While you’re voice will change between customers and social media platforms, the core of your voice shouldn’t. From your product tags and descriptions to your automated interactions with customers, your voice should stay consistent and familiar with customers

  7. Your Look - The visualization of your brand should encompass your personality, beliefs, voice, and all other aspects within the logo, typography, colors, and more. Visual perceptions can be the deciding factor between your brand and a competitor. Color is a major factor since it can alter moods, improve comprehension, and provoke an immediate response. Once again, it is important that the visual representation of your brand is accurate.

  8. Your Channels - After creating your brands identity, you can now create all sorts of material to engage consumers. From the online world of a website and social media to offline material of business cards and packaging, you have the tools to stay consistent and reach the audience you want.

 Branding is a very important aspect of a company. Creating a strong and accurate brand can be differentiator between you and your competition. Without it, you can get lost in the shuffle when consumers are looking for a product or service you provide. From training your employees to deciding which channels would be most effective, stay true to your beliefs and consistent from start to finish.

Tips for Growing Your Presence on Social Media

By • October 1, 2018
It’s no secret that social media has taken over marketing in the past few years. It continues to allow businesses to rapidly grow their audience and gives them the opportunity to relate directly to their customers. If your business is not on social media you’re already behind. Start building your presence and audience by following these tips: Choose Your Platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are the top five social media platforms today, but which of these sites should you invest your time into? Prioritizing these networks depends on your industry, target market, and your buyer’s persona. Researching where your buyer’s are most present, whether through a survey or through data, is how you learn which platforms should be prioritized over others. Promote Your Pages: After setting up your social media profiles, you should promote your accounts everywhere. On your website, on receipts, within your store, in your emails. Everywhere. Constantly remind customers where you can be found online. Cross promotion is also a great way to keep your followers informed of other platforms you offer content. Share Valuable Content: You want to use social media to share content that’s valuable and engaging to your audience, not just boost your brand. Make sure you are WORTH following by posting a variety of content that your viewers want or need to see. Keep them interested by switching up the content. From text, to pictures, to video there is an array of ways to attract and engage your audience. Interact With Your Audience: Interacting with your followers is vital in growing and maintaining relationships on social media. Asking questions, replying to comments, and participating in discussions can make your brand worth following. Thanking users that compliment you and assisting those with problems creates a presence customers appreciate and enjoy hearing from. Social media is no longer an optional marketing channel, but not only is it necessary, it is worth it. Being able to grow and maintain relationships with your customers like never before is one of many reasons to invest in social media. Following these tips could take your business to the next level.

4 Reasons You Should Be Business Blogging

By • October 1, 2018
 Creating a blog for your business can increase your online presence immensely. Just like social media, email marketing, and traditional marketing tactics, blogging is a channel you do not want to ignore. These 4 reasons should easily convince you to get started on your business blog today! 1. Establishes authority When posting blog posts, you want to answer the questions your audience and potential customers are looking for. Consistently answering these questions will quickly establish authority to your viewers and to search engines. Customers are more likely to trust you and buy from you if they are confident you are a trusted source. They also come into the sales process already educated which speeds the process up for those on your sales team. 2. Drives traffic to your website Driving traffic to your website can be tricky. Not only do you want traffic but you want the RIGHT traffic. Every time you post a new blog post, you are updating your website with new content and a new index page. With every indexed page comes more opportunities to show up on search engine results. Blogging also creates new content to be shared on social media which continues to spread the word of your business and drives the right traffic to your site. 3. Converts traffic into leads New traffic coming to your website gives you the opportunity to capture new leads. You can easily include a lead generating call-to-action to capture new visitors as they browse your content. Whether you offer a free ebook or a weekly newsletter, blogs are the perfect way to convert visitors to new leads. 4. Drives long term results Blog posts never stop. They are not a piece of content, such as an email, that are viewed by many within the first few days then cease to generate more views. Blogs can continue to generate traffic and leads for weeks, months, and years to come when executed properly. Not every blog post will be forever relevant. Some posts will consist of more trendy, fading topics, but those that are evergreen will constantly be there to generate new views and leads overtime.  Blogging is a marketing tactic that should not be ignored. It creates more visibility and helps support business growth. Though starting a blog can be scary and intimidating, the outcome could transform your business. These are are only a few results you can generate from starting a business blog today.

5 Types of Content for Social Media

By • September 6, 2018
It is no secret that social media has become a major part of marketing. Many brands are now required to have a presence on social media to continue to be successful. The businesses that are highly successful online know the kind of content that is needed to reach their audience. While content continues to evolve, these 5 techniques prove to provide results over and over again. Infographics - Users comprehend up to 25% better when pictures and text are combined into an infographic. This eye catching and informative piece of content has the power to engage consumers immediately, when created correctly. Constructing an infographic that is attractive, and related to your company and/or products can result in numerous shares and bring more attention to your brand. LiveStreams - When compared to videos posted to social media, live content is watched 3x longer. As one of social media’s newest forms of content, live streaming has quickly proven to provide results. Since this avenue of content is unscripted, viewers are able to enjoy a more intimate experience with you and your brand. This experience gives you time to interact with your viewers, answer questions, and most importantly, make connections. User Generated Content - UGC is the best way to increase engagement and generate new leads, especially on Instagram. Sharing user-made content shows your users you care about them and their opinion of your product. GoPro, Starbucks, and even Instagram have seen major success in posting UGC. Testimonials - Providing customer testimonials on social media, allows potential buyers to feel safe in their decision to purchase from your brand. Whether a testimonial is provided through text or video, they can lead to big results in capturing new clientele. Blog Posts - Social media is a great outlet to share blog posts. Even older, but popular, blogs can be re-shared on social media to attract more attention. While this can obviously draw viewers to your blog, it can always be a great opportunity to start conversations with your audience. Creating content for social media is a great way to keep your customers engaged while attracting newcomers to your brand. These 5 techniques are a great way to start posting but they are definitely not the only opportunities when it comes to content for social media. Whether you start with infographics or blog posts, remember to stay on brand and to create something your audience wants.