7 Important Points for Ultimate Branding
Before we talk about the different techniques of branding, let us first get acquainted with the word “Branding”. Branding basically means building your reputation and increasing visibility in your industry.
Recent research shows when looking for a service provider, buyers mostly (about 71% of the time) turn to colleagues and friends. With good branding, you can build better visibility, which will increase your chances to be recommended. Before you plan a line of action, figure out who your target customers are and decide how you want your product & company to be perceived.
Here, we lay down some strong branding tools and techniques
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Building a community for your product:
With marketing strategies going more and more web-based, companies these days prefer to spend less on advertising and are more inclined on developing and building their own communities. These online communities present multiple opportunities for
- Enhanced business value
- Achievement of goals
- Reaching new customers
- Increasing internal efficiencies
- Real-time market research
- Higher customer retention
- Increased channel presence, web sales and references
There are a number of options available online where you can build your online communities. However, it is always more fruitful to focus your time and energy on one or two options and not try to juggle with all at one go. Use these marketing tools to build your business communities.
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Publishing a useful industry newsletter
Newsletters are a more traditional way of relationship marketing to attract and retain customers. You can place a “free newsletter sign-ups” form on your website, which will capture potential customers’ emails, so you can engage through subscription emails. Here, you can find top email marketing tool for your business.
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Developing a strong content-based blog
One of the most effective ways to create brand awareness is to start a blog for your business. It drives traffic to your website, attracts customers and creates long-term visibility. Well- framed, frequently updated, strong and helpful content lure your customers to spend some time on your website. Customers are engaged with your brand through the comments and create more brand awareness by sharing your posts on their social media profiles. Remember, the Web is the new kingdom and content is the king here. The content in your blog is like a trail of breadcrumbs to your potential customers, leading them right to your services.
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Highlight the Experts in Your Firm
In order to keep a finger on the pulse of your customers and prospects, you need to draw their attention and gain their trust. One of the best ways to have your customers admire your brand and look up to it, is to have a high-profile industry leader at your firm and put him in the spotlight. Place your most experienced and qualified staff, bring them into the public/media attention through conferences, speeches, contents and media interaction for publicity.
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Initiate an awards program.
One of the best and perhaps the most unused way of brand development is focusing on various industry awards program. Awards are beneficial to any business, both as the givers and the achievers. When your business wins an industry award, it enhances your reputation, generates sales growth, and boosts brand recognition. When your company gives out an award, the recipient feels recognized and develops greater bonding with your brand. When customers or partners receive Brand Name Incentive Awards from a company, they are more likely to develop a stronger sense of bonding and gratitude towards the company.
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Reviving Existing brands
It is a common scenario in the market that previously popular brands disappear from the market and are no longer seen now. The decline of these brands could either be slow due to stagnancy, sudden due to some catastrophic event or due to technology becoming obsolete or the arrival of newer brands with better marketing strategy. When you decide to revive an existing brand, you need to re-design the marketing and branding strategy to reverse the declining process. You can change the packaging or offer something totally different to your customers. Starbucks gave a push to their sales when they introduced the world to their new, stylish and customized coffee. Now, they plan to do the same with tea. Again, think of the bottled water industry. With vitamin and enhanced water, the companies have revived their brands by making bottled water more of a fashion statement.
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Organize conferences, events, and seminars
In order to create brand awareness, only attending conferences and seminars will not suffice. Instead, go for organizing conferences and seminars. This will help you get lead generation, create awareness about your company and product, showcase your dedication and expertise in your field and build trust of your customers. Such events help you get noticed, connect with your target market and get feedback on your product. However, when organizing such events, you need to carefully build up a strong and measured strategy to reap the maximum benefits.
To conclude, you may be a startup or an old player in the industry, you may be a small business house or a large corporate, a strong brand image is a must in today’s cutthroat business environment. It is only through ultimate branding that you can stand out among competitors and capture customers’ attention. Brand development needs a multidisciplinary and combined approach of various media outlets with a co-ordinated effort of social, search and other elements.
Niti holds a Master degree in Marketing and bachelor in computer application. She works as a content & marketing executive at SoftwareSuggest. She likes travelling to hill stations and reading novels. Follow her on twitter.