Effective branding does more than connect you with your audience—it strengthens the bonds you create.
Take your business to the next level by establishing your unique and authentic brand. Even small businesses can create wonderful branding on a budget to achieve results.
In this blog, we reveal how to create brilliant branding in just three steps. But beware: once you start on this journey, you’ll never turn back…
Why brands are important?
Before we run through the steps, let’s take stock of why brands are important.
Just imagine if people thought of your business first whenever they needed the product or service you offer. Branding is a powerful strategy that makes your business memorable.
But creating a brand has many other benefits for your business. It makes you likeable and trustworthy, so people choose you over your competition. And it makes you recognisable, so people can easily identify your stores, products or marketing messages.
Creating a brand also helps people to understand you without much effort. A good brand is simple, enabling people to grasp—across just a few messages and images—not just what you offer but what you stand for.
One sign of powerful branding is when brands enter the collective consciousness and emerge as verbs. Just take the act of searching the web. Most of us never say this anymore, but we do say, “I’ll google it!”
If you’re reading this blog, then you probably already get why brands are important and the value your business stands to gain by creating one. So let’s jump into those three steps.
Step 1 – Generate trust
As soon as people trust your brand, they are open and willing to hear what you’ve got to say. They become willing to try your offerings, and will return to you again and again. If you can create credibility, this will be one of your strongest assets.
There’s no one thing you can do to create credibility, but it’s a holistic approach to your business. You need to be credible in your client interactions, your marketing, and even your internal processes.
Small things such as bad grammar and blurry images on your website will turn potential customers away, in search of a brand that has its head screwed on straight.
Even if you offer a brilliant service, bad grammar and blurry images are going to give people a very different impression. It’s small things like this that you can’t afford to dismiss as superficial. They are the test. You must pass it to earn your customer’s trust.
Consider how you can completely infuse your business with credibility, from the way you handle client enquiries to the post-purchase experience.
Not sure if your website’s up to the task? Read How to know when to update your website design.
Step 2 – Keep it consistent
Consistency all starts with your look and feel. With beautiful and professional branding across all your communications, marketing and business dealings, you can become instantly recognisable.
Consider consistency in your visual design, your messaging and tone of voice. For example, you can’t have your opening hours on your Facebook profile contradict those listed on your website.
Beyond your look and feel, strive to be consistent in the experience you deliver to your customers. Take McDonald’s restaurants, for example. They may not offer haute cuisine, but the point is they don’t need to. People know exactly what they’re getting in a McDonald’s—it’s an institution they rely on for a quick meal.
Tip: Need great design on a budget? Try Canva, the amazing tool that even the aesthetically challenged can master.
Step 3 – Be likeable
Great news! Once you’ve got your credibility and consistency in check, you’ll already be hightailing it to likeability.
Potential customers will love you for delivering on your promises and trust you to do the same next time.
But there’s another crucial part of being likeable that you need to tap into—a little thing called authenticity.
When you run your business and marketing authentically, you speak to your audience in a way they can relate to. What this means for your business will depend on who your audience is and the problem that your business solves for them.