Building a brand is harder than coming up with a great product idea. But it is the first step in launching any business, but a lot of people find that it’s often the easiest bit.
Next, you need to start marketing the product. The most important part of that is building a strong brand.
If you look at all of the successful companies around you, it’s clear why it’s so important to build a brand and increase brand awareness. All of the most successful companies have a recognizable brand that customers associate with quality and good service.
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Brand Awareness
If you can increase brand awareness and build a brand that customers trust, you’ll find it so much easier to market your products effectively. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done and a lot of businesses struggle with it.
Social media is often the best place to start and if you can build a profile with a good personality that really connects with people. But social media alone isn’t enough.
Therefore, you’ll need to try some of these other branding tricks if you’re going to succeed.
Branding for You
Even here at Inspire to Thrive, I have logos on pens, on my briefcase, and on shirts when attending networking events. People often ask what is Inspire To Thrive when I wear them. It’s a great conversation starter.
If you can increase brand awareness and build a brand that customers trust, you’ll find it so much easier to market your products effectively. #branding Share on XAfter all, if your audience does not grow alongside your brand, you’ll struggle to sell your product and services. As a result, here are some simple ways to begin to promote your brand to a wider audience.Â
Update Your Website
Your website is often key to the success of your business – after all, it’s highly likely that you generate most of your sales through your website. As a result, if you want to promote your brand to a wider audience, you need to ensure that your site is updated constantly.
For example, you should ensure all of your online content utilizes SEO techniques, which will help your brand appear more frequently in online searches.Â
Send Out Brochures
In the modern world, we are often encouraged to focus on online marketing to grow our audience – but that does not mean more traditional methods can be discounted. For example, handing out promotional brochures is a great way to promote your brand to a wider audience.
In fact, studies suggest that brochures are much more beneficial than online advertisements – as they are a physical object that potential customers hold in their hand, meaning it’s something they can look back on later as opposed to forgetting about it as soon as they’ve closed the website.
If you’ve never put together a brochure before, start by using a free brochure template for a clean and professional finish.Â
Start a Blog for Building a Brand Online
If you want to generate more engagement for your website (and, by extension, grow your audience), you should also set up a blog full of content relevant to your brand and the industry you operate within.
There are various benefits of running a blog. For example, they help you prove that you are a trusted source of information – an industry expert that your customers can rely on. Additionally, they also enhance your online visibility.Â
Attend Local Events
Another way you can grow your brand’s reputation is by attending a variety of local events, where you will be able to interact with potential customers face-to-face. For example, you could attend local makers’ markets or fairs and set up a small stall for your brand.
Face-to-face interaction with your customer base is particularly important as we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic, as customers often feel greater loyalty to brands they have interacted with in this way.
This is due to the fact that meeting you in person puts a face behind the brand, making your interactions seem more personal.Â
Promotional Items
Everybody loves something for free! So, if you can put your logo and branding on some great promotional items, that’s a very simple but effective way to spread brand awareness. When you’re choosing promotional items, you should try to pick functional things that people will use a lot so they’re constantly seeing your logo every time they use them.
Lanyards, for example, are a great one because people will literally be walking around advertising your brand for you all day long. If you visit LanyardsFactory.com.au you can get some great custom-made lanyards with your logo printed on them.
Get all of your employees to wear them as much as possible and try handing them out at events and things as well.
Other Items for Building a Brand
There are so many other great promotional items that you can use like pens, notebooks, bottle openers, and diaries, etc. that people will use on a regular basis. They are not that expensive to get made.
You can leave them in all sorts of different places where people will pick them up and help build your brand.
Referral Programs for Building a Brand
Referral programs are a great tool that businesses don’t take advantage of as much as they should. Everybody likes a discount or a special offer and you can use this to encourage people to spread the word about your brand.
If you get existing customers to refer their friends and give them a reward for each one that makes a purchase of some kind, it’s a great way to spread your brand.
For example, you could offer people a 10 percent discount code on their next purchase if a friend buys something from you as well. If you’re offering a subscription service of some kind like computer software, for example, you could offer a few months free for every person that they refer.
It’s a good strategy because the customers benefit at the same time so they’ll be more inclined to do it.
Another idea would be to give gift cards with your logo on them for referrals as a way to say thank you. These gift cards could be used in giveaways.
Marketing Collaborations
Marketing collaborations are a popular way to increase your brand awareness. Most importantly, expose your brand to a market segment that might not normally be aware of your business.
If you can find another company that is similar to yours but not in direct competition with you, both parties will benefit from a collaboration.
For example, if your company sells sunglasses, you could consider partnering with another company that sells summer fashion. You’re not in direct competition with one another but the chances are, both sets of customers will have an interest in the other company’s products. If you do a joint marketing collaboration, you will both increase brand awareness significantly.
Set a Clear Understanding of Collaboration
However, entering into a partnership with another business can be risky. So, it’s important that you consider it carefully before agreeing to anything. If you visit Medium.com, you can find some great tips on how to handle marketing collaborations the right way.
Make sure that the terms of the collaboration are set out clearly and you have a solid contract in place. You also need to be sure that you’re both going to benefit equally. Otherwise, you’ll be investing money in a partnership that doesn’t really do much for your business.
If you can find another company that is similar to yours but not in direct competition with you, both parties will benefit from a collaboration. #marketingtips Share on XCar Wraps To Build Your Brand
Car wraps may seem a bit old-fashioned and you might not think that they’re a very good marketing strategy but they’re actually surprisingly effective. You are exposing your brand to many different people, especially if you’re driving on busy roads.
In terms of the number of people that you reach and the cost, they’re actually one of the most economical forms of marketing out there. They are a step-up from the old fashion bumper stickers.
A lot of business owners use car wraps on company cars to offset the cost. You are paying for a company car but you’re seeing some return on it because you’re using it as a marketing opportunity. These car wraps are increasing brand awareness and boosting sales.
Use Content Marketing When Building a Brand
The best brands are the ones that consumers trust. If people are buying a phone, for example, they’ll go to one of the big companies like Apple or Samsung. They are far less likely to buy a phone from a company they haven’t really heard of. Even if that phone is a lot cheaper and it has the same features.
They know the big companies and they trust their brand, so they also trust the quality of the product. But they don’t know the brand of the smaller companies. So, they assume that the quality of the phone won’t be good. That’s why building a trustworthy brand is so important.
One of the best ways to inspire trust in your brand is through content marketing. If you’re posting regular content on your website that gives people good information about your product and related subjects, you can paint yourself as an industry expert.
Once people see you in that way, they will have a lot more trust in your products.
Your Turn
Which of the above methods are you using to brand your business today? I’d love to know more in the comments below! ⇓
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Hi Lisa I followed your facebook page https://www.facebook.com/InspireToThrive/ I am reading some brand awareness articles and I found this very helpful I’m gonna relay this article to my team in oacdigital to improve our processes in brand awareness.
Hi Naomi, thank you for following my Facebook page. I did your name pop up over there. Thanks for sharing it with your team and have a great day.
🙂 Advertising your brand on radio and television still works in 2021 and is a great way to build your brand outside of social media.
Do have yourself a wonderful week, Lisa!
Hi Renard, I would agree, a mix of traditional and social, new media is great to do. You as well. I tried to leave a comment over at your place but it would not go through?
🤔 Hmm. That is a bit strange, Lisa. You should be able to leave a comment on my blog with ease. The only thing that I have done differently is manually approving comments on your blog. Try a different web browser (Hopefully, that should help).
I will try again Renard, thank you!
Hello Lisa,
Awesome post as always. Building your Brand is very important these days. Customers always look for the brand value and reputation. You have mentioned some helpful tips to build a barnd online. Shared on Twitter as well.
Regards,
Vishwajeet Kumar
Hi Vishwajeet, thank you. How have you been? Yes, branding and your brand’s reputation are key to trust and having purchases made from your business. Thanks for coming by and have a great weekend.
Hey Lisa,
First of all thank you so much for sharing such informative article with us.
These days, everyone wants their brand to become more popular as it becomes so important for the business. In order to increase the brand building, usually I use Facebook and Instagram as the both are very effective when it comes to reach the target people. Along with social media, content marketing is another s big opportunity to impress the target people with your knowledge and aware them towards your brand. I link your points a lot which you have mentioned in your article.
Looking forward to read more post from you.
Regards
Sophie
Hi Sophie, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Yes, you are right, being popular or visible can only help a business gain more customers in the long run. Content marketing is a big opportunity indeed. Thanks for coming by and have a great day and new week ahead Sophie.
Awesome content!! I am big fan of your blogs i`m a serial entrepreneur your information about building brand is much helpful & relevant to my new Start-up. Thanks a lot
Hi Lisa,
Love the idea of using promotional products for branding. In my offline business I hand out promotional pens with my name and number on it. I find that I’m getting more and more texts for appointments since I’ve been using that and it is less intimidating for people to text instead of talk. I also give a person 50% off when they recommend someone. Works like a charm!
These are great ideas to put into action Lisa!
-Donna
I do the exact same thing Donna! I need to order some notepads as well when I teach. I love your recommendation discount. Hmm…you have me thinking about that one Donna 🙂 I just got new shirts and one will be on my FB video today at a few minutes past noon on my Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/InspireToThrive/ I need to get a hat too! I hope we chat soon, wanted to connect with you about August 🙂
I love using promotional items Lisa! Your pens, briefcase and shirts idea? Golden. People love chatting about brand logos offline. Super brand builder because so few bloggers go this route. I attracted more readers than you’d think, wearing my Blogging From Paradise T-shirt all over the globe. Literally, easy money, and paid me serious returns on a $20 investment.
Hi Ryan, Yes, I just got a few new shirts and one is in my upcoming Facebook page video, going live today! I see your tee-shirts all the time Ryan. Love it! I need to do more with notepads to go with my pens when I teach locally. I also want to get a nice baseball hat with a logo! Thanks for coming by on this with your input! Have a great rest of the day there Ryan. It’s almost Friday there now 🙂
Great tips Lisa,
building a brand online is a surefire way to get direct traffic to your site, bypassing even Google and their bloated SERPs that try to keep people on them.
Thank you Nikola. Are you using any today? I just received my new logo shirts and will be wearing it on my Facebook Page video today! https://www.facebook.com/InspireToThrive/ It will go up in about 3.5 hours! Thanks for coming by on this one and have a great day.
Referral programs and content marketing are great ways to build clients for any business. The key is to let the referrer see that maximum benefit is pushed towards them as they continue to bring in more and more business.
A recognizable brand is all that’s needed to build a highly influential brand.
Personally, I suggest businesses should focus on using content marketing to push this brand awareness thing further and further.
It really helps.
Thanks for sharing, Lisa.
Emenike
Hi Emenike, how do you think a brand becomes recognizable? I love using content to push brand awareness. You are welcome and thanks for coming by here 🙂
Hey Lisa, I joined a digital marketing company called CBS ( creat build & Sell) After creating my digital product, I thought it was time to grow my brand, get more leads, and sales. The only strategy I have then about Building a Brand was content marketing. Thanks for sharing a more promising tip.
Hi Matt, that’s the first time I’ve heard of that one. Is it a website builder too? Love to know more about it. Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
These are all good. Lanyards are a great investment because they are usually used in a captive audience and EVERYONE is wearing one. It’s one of the best ways to make an impact. I’m glad that you covered it here.
Thank you Hamilton. It helps when many do wear your logo or brand name around them. Thanks for coming by on this one. Do you have one for your brand Hamilton?
Lisa: I love the image of the paprika powder can. Do you like hot & spicy stuff, e.g., chile pepper?
Hi Martin, I thought it would get a second look 🙂 I do like some of those, yes! Not when I was younger though. Do you use any of these methods to build your new tea brand Martin?
Very useful content as always Lisa. I followed you here from your CommentLuv comment over at Infobunny.
There is no doubt that branding is big, be it personal or site brand or both.
Hi Dexter, thank you! Do you use any of these methods outside of social media for Info Bunny? Thanks for coming by and have a great rest of the week Dexter 🙂