5 Easy Steps to Develop Your Brand

When it comes to selling your service or product, you must have a solid brand behind you. Your brand identifies your specific business and differentiates you from the similar competition. It also gives your customers a unique experience and allows them to actively engage with you. Finally, as you ramp up your business, it will draw customers to you and make them passionate about your business.

If you do your branding well, it will make you an influencer and give you a lot of power. Your brand dictates how the public will respond to you and how they perceive your product over others. It has a significant impact on people's perceptions and mindsets.

Create a strong presence, and it will make your business. Do it poorly, and you will not see much success. Here are five steps to build your brand.

Know thyself: Identity

As you begin to think about your brand, the first step is knowing exactly what you want to represent. You need to think about your product and what you want your product to say to the world. It should set you apart from any other similar products. Let your product or service speak for itself.

If that all sounds confusing, no worries. Here are some suggestions on how to get started. Begin by thinking of your brand as a person. Then, pick five adjectives that you feel describe your brand. It is essentially the face of your business, so it is how the market will see you.

When you are coming up with your adjectives, think about what makes up a person: physical features that draw you in, character traits that form beliefs, values that dictate how you live, and purposes that define us and our relationships. Personality determines how you behave and respond to situations in your life. These descriptions will form the face of your brand.

Hit the bullseye: Target your market

Your next step after determining what your brand represents is to determine to who you are trying to sell your product or service. Are you gearing your product toward children or adults? Females or males? Make a list of demographics that include age, location, gender, and income.

Once you have that figured out, you can focus on psychographics. Psychographics refers to psychological attributes like personalities, values, lifestyles, and interests. First, consider looking at statistics for your demographic to see what they typically buy. Having data about what your audience is generally looking for will help you make choices on what you are offering and how you will try to sell it. If you cannot find statistics or want additional information, you can run your own surveys or work with a marketing firm to gather the information.

Define what drives you: Positioning

Positioning refers to the space your brand occupies in the minds of your target audience. This means that your audience knows exactly what you are offering them. Not just generic products like clothes, but everything they are getting when they buy from you. This is called your unique selling proposition (USP).

You must be aware of what is unique about your brand. What do you have that is different from others selling similar products? For example, perhaps you are selling clothes, but the thing that makes you different is that it is all made from recycled materials.

Figure out what your brand is all about, and it will help you connect with your target base and differentiate you from other competitors.

Here is an example of a structure you can use to set up your positioning statement: We offer [PRODUCT/SERVICE] for [TARGET MARKET] to [VALUE PROPOSITION]. So from the above example, you could fill it in as: We offer clothing for young adult women to embrace reusing old materials for something new.

Be ready for battle: Stalk the competition

While you do not want to get overzealous, an important part of starting a business is competition. You have to know who you are up against to be successful. You do not want to be the same as someone else, or you are likely to lose sales to them.

The two types of competition are direct and indirect. A direct competitor is someone who is selling the same product or service as you. You have to ensure that you differentiate your service, so you stick out to customers. An indirect competitor does not have the same service or product as you, but their product or service is an alternative to yours.

Look at your competitors and determine their strengths and weaknesses, along with their styles and strategies. Take that information and then make a plan on how to give your business an advantage over them.

Make heads turn: Name, logo, slogan

When you hear your name spoken, you turn around to respond. Your goal is that people will recognize the name of your business and respond in kind to it. Your business's name is your imprint and your trademark. It represents what your brand stands for and your commitment to your positioning statement. Your name will impact your logo, your marketing, your domain, your everything. Think about it carefully. You can use a name generator to help you get started. There are many free generators you can find via Google.

Next, your logo is something people are going to see all the time. It is the face of your company, and it displays your personality. It needs to be unique, scalable for all sizes, and identifiable. You will want to work with a professional to determine color, font, size, iconography, and the overall look.

Finally, a catchy slogan will take you far. It should be short and sweet, so people can remember it. Typically, they are one line and use about three to six words. You have to put as much meaning into those few short words as you can.

Need help building your brand? Schedule a call with us, and we will gladly lead you on the right track.