A successful business is one that plans for every eventuality, follows a clear growth plan, and always keeps its customers at the forefront of its mind. However, a successful enterprise is also one that takes its branding seriously.
All too often, entrepreneurs miss their chance to launch with a solid brand, only to wonder why their business isn’t getting the recognition – or sales – that it deserves. Branding has the potential to make or break a business, so it’s vital that you continually focus on developing and maintaining your brand. To discover why branding is so important, take a look at the potential it can offer.
IMAGE: UNSPLASH
1. Ensure Instant Recognition
When your branding is on point, customers and targets will recognize your content anywhere. From billboards and large format prints to online logos and PPC ads, your brand should cut through the delivery method and be instantly recognizable to your customer base and target audience.
Statistics show that people are more likely to engage with a brand they recognize, no matter where the recognition comes from. This means promoting your business online and offline will facilitate the same level of recognition, providing you have a cohesive, cross-channel branding strategy. As your branding becomes imprinted in the minds of users, it becomes familiar to them and, therefore, increases the chance of them engaging with you, purchasing from you and recommending you to others.
2. Showcase Your Core Principles
Your branding gives you the opportunity to tell your target audience who you are and what you’re about. Through imagery, colors, graphics, and typography, your branding conveys key messages to your targets and tell them everything they need to know about your business. If it’s done right, branding will be impactful, persuasive, and reassuring.
How you choose to brand your business should relate directly to your target market. Litho printing on organic substrates could be the perfect choice for flyers and stationery for an eco-conscious clothing brand, for example, while crisp, digital artwork on thick, embossed paper might be ideal for a high-ranking law firm. When you encompass your key principles in your branding, you can convey a vast amount of information to your target audience in a matter of seconds, so don’t miss out on the chance to impress.
3. Set Yourself Apart from Competitors
Every marketplace is crowded, and you’ll have to beat the competition if you want to be successful in the long-term. If you own patents or proprietary designs, you may be able to protect your particular products or services but there’s no doubt other firms will attempt something similar. For more generic products, it’s often their branding that sets them apart from others and secures a sale.
If you want to ensure your target audience chooses your company over any others, you must have a strong brand. What’s more, you’ll need to showcase your brand at every opportunity. Everything, from your floor layout and wall art to your favicon and social media profile picture, tells people about your brand, so make sure they’re getting the right mix of information.
4. Build Trust
When people recognize a brand, it provokes a response. Whether it’s conscious or subconscious, an individual will associate your brand with particular thoughts, opinions and feelings. Providing your branding correctly reflects your business and your ethos, it should, of course, create positive associations amongst your target market.
After engaging with you, either via making a purchase, contacting your team, or visiting your website, your core principles will reassure targets that you’re reliable, credible and trustworthy. As such, your branding builds trust between your target audience and your business. In a short space of time, customers will come to know that your brand is something they can rely on; that your logo, company colors or bespoke typography signifies a particular product quality or level of service.
As well as facilitating repeat sales and attracting new customers or clients, this level of trust helps to enhance your reputation further. When people trust your brand, they will have no hesitation in recommending you to others. With the vast majority of people placing a significant amount of weight on personal recommendations and online reviews, using your branding to build trust and create brand ambassadors will facilitate growth and lead to commercial success.
Make Your Branding Work For You
Ideally, your branding should be locked down and in place well before your business launches. However, it’s never too late to develop a brand people can trust. With the right design, print methods, and execution, you can ensure that your branding promotes your business, differentiates your company, engages your target audience, and reinforces your firm’s USPs.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
COMMENTS