Branding is a crucial element of growth for any business — small, medium, large, retail, B2B, etc. An effective branding strategy can give your business an unexpected success. It tells your audience what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from your competitors'. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be, and who people perceive you to be.
Branding helps you to convey your brand story, product, or service benefit, a unique selling point to target customers. Thus creates an irresistible impression.
Branding helps you to leverage audience, company revenue — simply by putting a correct strategy into action. However, it's important to understand that Branding is a long-term action and you cannot achieve it within a short span of time. And there are certain things that you should know about branding, even though you're not a professional marketer or designer.
In the business-to-business space, branding can feel “soft.” But the truth is, the digital world has made us all more consumer-like, regardless of the business we are in. We have expectations that have been set by digital experiences, and we anticipate those expectations will be met whether it’s on the retail side of the B2B side of the equation.
To meet the new trends and demand for Branding, here is the list of 10 things, which you should know!
#1 Logo Design
#2 Brand Guidelines
#3 Color Palette
#4 Content
#5 Tone
#6 Website
#7 Personality
#8 Campaign
#9 Invest Smartly
#10 Strategy
#1 Logo Design
Logos play an important role in branding. For a startup, an effective logo is a brand calling card. With it, you can win consumer hearts and minds and can easily connect your target customers with your business. Logos are similar to iceberg.
There are infinite guidelines to design heart winning, amazing logos. But in the end, clearly positioned, simple, distinct yet easy recognizable logos wins the game.
#2 Branding Guidelines
Branding is a long term action. You should be consistent with your branding. With Branding Guidelines, you can easily maintain this consistency.
Branding needs to be very consistent and treated with careful intention in order to uphold properly. Brand guidelines are like your owner’s manual on how to use your brand. They are a set of rules and restrictions that will be referenced by anyone that works on your brand, whether internal employees or outsourced contractors from another agency.
#3 Color Palette
Color is such an integral part of branding that dramatically communicates the whole look and feel for your brand. Psychology has discovered that people perceive colors in certain ways and respond subconsciously. The implications of colors affecting people’s emotions are so widespread that understanding those connections could increase the effectiveness of your company’s branding methods.
#4 Content
"Content is king!"
In this digitized world, without content, you cannot deliver any message to anyone. So it's an important yet irresistible element of branding. You should plan your content strategically to support your brand.
Whatever type of content you use as copywriting, photography, advertisement, videography — all of your content must deliver the core message of your brand. It should be persuasive enough to grab their attention, value-added enough to reward their time of reading.
#5 Tone
Tone defines the way your brand speaks to your audience.
It’s not so much what you say as to how you say it that makes it so impactful. Establishing a tone for your brand and staying consistent with it throughout every piece of communication will help your audience understand your mission and empathize with it. Is it serious and somber like the Truth campaigns or is it light-hearted and fun like Dairy Queen?
#6 Website
How will you feel when you don't find an official website for your brand? Weird, right!
This is what your target audience feels for your brand if they don't find any proper website. However, it is important to note that websites should be professional and user friendly. Your website should show relevant to your business.
Studies show that companies with well-built websites that focus on user interface and user experience design generate way more customer traffic and increased conversion — thus, reap benefits of accelerated revenue.
However, to find the best match, it is recommended to hire a professional web designer.
#7 Personality
Consumers are more likely to purchase products/services from a brand whose personality is similar to their own — so it is important to be strategic in all your communication.
Developing your brand personality will help your business to express its key values to attract the right audience.
#8 Campaign
Campaigns are great for spreading a positive message among the target audience. You can make it personalized as per your target audience. The motto of branding campaigns is to promote a positive message over an extended time so that whenever it comes time for people to make a decision or a purchase, they will remember you're positive message and consider going with your brand. Associating your brand with a higher mission can attract loyal customers.
#9 Invest Smartly
Align your branding budget with measurable sales goals. Branding, sales goals, and budget are interconnected. You have to clear sales goals first, to determine the proper budget for branding. Invest smartly in branding.
Branding brings sales. Sales build revenue. You track and reach your goals. Your brand should be able to accomplish your business goal, enhance your business plan, and withstand the passing of time.
#10 List is infinite, customized it at per your requirement
You can find the infinite list for effective branding. But it is up to you to find your best match. Don't experiment with 1000+ suggestions that everyone tells you, rather observe your target audience and your goals to pick up the best methods of branding for you.
Conclusion:
Branding is not easy. Even though you aren't an entrepreneur, you should know the basics of branding. And for this, here I had compiled the basic things of Branding that you should know.
Well, if you want to design effective branding, do connect with our experts of DesignLab.
What you'll add, to this list?
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