When it comes to the world’s biggest, best and boldest brands, there are more than a few common denominators. And by striving to embody these key qualities, you can transform your business into an industry-leading brand.
The following five tips will help you create a strategy for your brand’s industry success:
1. Presence
To be noticed, a brand needs to actively seek out exposure opportunities. Without staying on the radar of your audience, you have no chance of cementing your brand in their minds – so the key is to be noticed as often as possible, and for the right reasons.
Social media is now a part of any holistic online marketing campaign – but a steady influx of self-serving sales messages won’t cut it with today’s customer. Instead, make a commitment to sharing useful content, engaging in a genuine way with your followers and injecting some brand personality into every post. An active presence is the priority, but success rests on what you use this visibility to achieve.
Social networking hours provide an ideal platform for businesses to release their brand into the wild, engaging with other professionals in their industry via Twitter and perhaps even connecting with potential clients. Do your research and identify any and all networking hours relevant to your business and attend whenever you’re able. By ensuring your tweets are vibrant and frequent, you can maximise the potential of these online business events and make yourself heard amid the industry noise.
2. Personality
Clients engage with businesses they can relate to. A brand with no charisma or confidence is one with little to no chance of success – so make sure your personality radiates in every encounter.
Networking gives business owners a chance to generate vital brand exposure in the most authentic way possible – through good old-fashioned face-to-face engagement. Communicating on a direct and human level means you’re able to convey the personality of your brand. When seeking out networking opportunities, take off your sales hat and have a real conversation. Opportunities to expose new audiences to your brand without a sales agenda are few and far between, seize the opportunity and let your unique perspective shine through.
Marketing messages are designed to drive sales of your product or service, but that doesn’t mean your bottom line should take precedence over projecting brand personality. The most sophisticated marketing campaigns are the ones that really convey a sense of the brand ethos and don’t prioritise aggressive sales spiel over a personal touch.
3. Knowledge
Buying decisions are largely based on the trust clients have in a brand. One effective way to instil a sense of trust in your audience is to establish yourself as an industry expert.
Blog content can be used to generate lucrative traffic through organic search, but its benefits are by no means limited to SEO. Producing regular, relevant blog content creates an opportunity to share your industry knowledge, demonstrating your brand’s authority on a given topic. So ditch the stream of internal updates and opt for something unique, informed and actionable.
Webinars are another fantastic channel for driving engagement with your brand and, again, provide an ideal opportunity to impart some wisdom from your time in the industry. Pick a topic, plan your presentation and create a strategy for generating registrations.
4. Image
Beautiful branding may only be skin deep, but getting your image right is a recommended first step to building a brand that inspires audiences to engage.
Brand design involves a great deal more than the aesthetic aspects alone – but there’s no doubt that first impressions are largely visual. Give a tired visual identity an overhaul to breathe new life into your brand and ensure your image is perfectly aligned with your approach and your ethos.
Display materials give companies an opportunity to present their brand image in the highest possible quality and make an immediate impact at industry events. Bespoke banner stands and pop-up displays in particular are an effective and affordable way to project brand power. Invest in these to give your brand image the professional treatment it deserves.
5. Leadership
Clients don’t invest in a brand with no sense of purpose or direction, and one thing all household names have in common is a commitment to blazing a trail.
Thought leadership is a status all businesses aspire to, with forward-thinking companies reaping the benefits of their avant-garde approach. If there are taboo industry topics your competitors won’t touch or a sector-wide conundrum that needs a solution, be the brand to take the first step forward and broach these issues. Potential clients will respect your decision to stand apart.
Internal communications is an aspect of business no director should overlook. By taking an inventive approach to your employee training, you can build a brand reputation that’s founded on offering far more than a salary alone. From educating your team on overarching business objectives to immersing them in your company ethos, instilling a sense of brand loyalty in your workforce will propel performance across the board.
