You may already have a distinctive logo and an ad campaign you love, but how do you build a brand? Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to burn a hole in your pocket to get your name out there. We can’t promise the journey will be easy, but making a basic head start into carefully constructing a narrative of dependability around your brand is not beyond your reach. Consistency is key, but you also need to have the right weapons in your arsenal. Here’s a handy checklist of all the actions that will help transform your brand into a household name.
- Use digital platforms with audience targeting to get your name out
First things first: you shouldn’t attempt to include everyone as your target market. Identify and define your demographic and then find the digital spaces inhabited by your chosen target audience. Many digital platforms have evolved to serve the needs of marketers by providing sophisticated marketing tools that allow for target audience selection, creation of personalised marketing campaigns, and fuss-free ad purchase mechanics.[1] With these user-friendly tools, you can quickly greet your audience with your content.
- Aim for a long-term relationship with your audience
Once you’ve set up basecamp in all digital spaces occupied by your target audience, it’s time to start a dialogue with them. You want to let your clients to know you are in it for the long haul by consistently displaying your commitment to fulfilling their needs. Give your audience a reason to identify with and be loyal to your brand. There’s no shortcut to building a database of devoted customers overnight, so here’s what you need to do to attract and retain them on a regular basis: be proactive in your engagement, prioritize regular patrons, be sincere while addressing mistakes and go out of your way to ensure a seamless brand experience for your clients.
- Listen to your audience
Knowing what your audience wants doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Exploit social media by establishing two-way conversations with your customers-discover what makes them tick, find out more about their deepest desires, humbly accept any feedback they give you and use this mountain of information to fine-tune your brand offerings. There are a plethora of free social media listening tools that will allow you to tune into the conversation and gain access to your consumers’ social media consumptions patterns and habits, such as Hootsuite and Google Alerts. If you ignore or shut out your clients, they will not think twice before taking their business to another brand that they feel cares about them.
- Be innovative and flexible
Keeping your brand fresh is the key to keeping customers hooked. People can be fickle, and given how saturated the digital market is, it’s imperative that your brand is able to slice through all that clutter. Whether it’s your social media efforts, the tone of voice used or your product offerings, all of it must make your consumers sit up and say, “ah ha!”. The world we occupy is complex and ever-changing, which is why you must keep abreast of any and all developments that occur in your industry. Find your niche and keep innovating in that particular aspect instead of attempting too many things. For instance, brands such as Zara and Gillette are known for their innovative production processes and profit models, respectively.
- Find ways to personalise your brand for the customer
You don’t need a complex algorithm to provide a personalized brand experience. Since you’ve gotten to know your audience via regular interactions, why not put that knowledge to work? Everyone loves to be pampered and your consumers are no exception – even though you may not have the world’s largest budget to spend on personalisation, knowing key details about your target audience (for instance their birthdays, anniversaries, the time they are most likely to log onto social media platforms) go a long way in little acts of personalisation such as special vouchers, coupons and discounts.
You may have a small brand and budget, but that should not deter you from bringing your A-game to your brand-building efforts. Watch your brand soar to greater heights with effective targeting and a steady stream of marketing and social media actions.
[1] http://adage.com/article/merkle/winning-brands-master-digital-audience-platforms/292315/
