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3 Ways to Strengthen Your Brand

Keyboard with "What's your Brand" key for PROSAR Inbound blog article.

Brand is not merely a cool logo. Branding is about creating an appropriate image for, and experience with, your organization; and positively positioning your organization in your audience’s mind.

Effective branding grabs your target audience’s interest and helps them to realize that you are of value to them, and then nurtures an ongoing relationship.

Without an actual brand and content strategy and ongoing stewardship, even well-crafted promotions can fall flat and even alienate your audience.

Here are three criteria to follow when defining your brand and promoting what makes you distinct.

 

Corporate Messaging

From your tagline to your corporate mission to the content on your website — what you say and how you say it is critical. What is the tone of your organization? Authoritative and instructional, understanding and guiding, carefree and irreverent… the goal is not simply to inform or impress, you should communicate with the intention of making relationships.

Consider your audience (which may include several distinct market segments) and try to engage with them in your writing and messaging. Even with different people creating content, each with their own voice, they can still infuse a corporate tone and positioning through their material. A branding strategy should explicitly outline the messaging objectives, desired corporate tone aa well as slogans and catch phrases.

For your audience to trust your organization, they need to identify or connect with you. Engage them with targeted content that is genuine and relevant to your company. Storytelling is a very effective means of communicating your message and brand, but that doesn’t mean telling tales. What you say and how you say it can provoke tremendous impact and stir emotion within readers; and they can usually tell when it is honest and legitimate.

 

Consider the User Experience

Whether your customer is on your website, on the phone or on-site, what do you want them to think of your organization? In addition to the branded identity and corporate messaging, does the environment reflect the essence of your organization? Do interactions with your company support your positioning?

The best logo and tagline will have little lasting effect if staff, service, store décor, website design, promotional email wording, etc., are not all aligned to reinforce the brand.

Considering what your brand represents as an experience supports your “story” and helps your audience engage with your organization. This leads to stronger relationships and greater loyalty.

 

Consistency

The purpose of branding is to go beyond simply creating awareness, and recognition. The goal is to nurture a trusting and loyal relationship. It’s a comprehensive undertaking that requires consistent use of your branded identity, in all formats.

It all stems from your mission, vision, value statement unique selling proposition, any guiding principles for your organization. A thorough understanding of what drives your organization and what it has to offer is the essence of your brand.

Content generation provides many digital options (web pages, blogs, emails, social posts, ebooks and brochures, whitepapers, etc.) and is an influential means of attracting and reaching out to your audience. Consistency in template designs as well as voice/tone help build a strong foundation for your brand (keep that style guide close at hand!).

An editorial calendar maps out what content will be written, by whom, how it will be published, and when. It allows a strategic approach (ensuring consistency in both frequency and focus) and overview to ensure you are creating content that is of value to your audience as well as supporting your brand.

A brand strategy requires ongoing monitoring and attention. It’s part policing and part promoting. Don’t be overzealous or near-sighted in your regulation. In these fluid times, acknowledge that things change and your brand strategy and implementation will need to evolve to stay current and relevant.

For further info on how branding fits into your marketing and sales process, read Understanding the Branding – Marketing – Advertising – Sales Relationship.

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I Have a Website, Why Do I Need Branding?

PROSAR blog image - the word brand shown on a sticker sheet.

This is a question asked by many small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners looking to grow their businesses. It’s a question we expect and we’re happy to discuss. Branding is an essential part of a marketing strategy, which is where it all should begin.

 

Branding Defined

What is my brand? is often the next question. Fair enough, many SME leaders are a little fuzzy on the specifics. Branding used to be defined as a name, symbol or design that identifies a product or a company and distinguishes it from others. However, branding has always been more than a logo or a catchy name. It transcends an impressive business card, updated website, and even a popular Facebook page. Branding is an expression of the value your organization delivers and the experience of dealing with you. It is the essence of your organization personified.

If that hasn’t completely clarified branding for you, the main take-away is that branding is the over-riding influence on everything your organization does. It should guide every touchpoint: it is the look ‘n’ feel of your ads and marketing collateral, the words and tone used in all communications, the way your staff deal with people in-person, over the phone and online, the atmosphere and feeling in your videos…

Branding incorporates science and art to convey the experiential — like a corporate deity it is omnipresent. So, it’s understandable that the concept is a little fuzzy for many, however it is important to take the time to clarify and structure your brand. Effective branding allows you to communicate that value in a unique way, integrated within everything you do.

 

What About My Mission Statement?

If branding is about expressing who you are and the value you provide, what about my mission statement… that we worked so hard on writing? Valid question, and good for you for having a mission statement.

Mission statements are important internal documents to guide decision-making and externally to inform the public as to your collective belief system and corporate raison d’être. Unfortunately, they often tend to be filled with unclear corporate-speak and declarations on how great a company is; neither of which is much good internally or externally. Focusing on simply communicating why your organization exists can help in writing a succinct and clear mission statement.

Both your mission statement and your brand are borne out of what you do and why you do it. Your mission statement is the down-to-earth description of what you do, and your brand is the face and implementation. It probably goes without saying that your branding strategy should reflect your mission statement, and your mission statement should reflect your branding. As such there are a subtle, yet pervasive, means of underlining your reason for being in business. (Check out How A Mission Statement Improves Your SEO)

 

How Does my Brand Affect my Website?

How does this relate to my website? One of the great things about having an effective brand is that it delivers a standard of messaging consistency. So, brand directs all collateral and communication, including your website. Brand covers visual and communicative tone that your entire organization can get behind. (In fact, effective brands are worn with pride by its employees, it has a rallying effect that keeps everyone singing the same song.)

Many companies approach a website as a technical project, when it is actually a communications and marketing project that involves technical ability. Equally important to the programming are the design and writing. A website, in all of its modern digital glory, provides several means to convey the essence of your organization: visual, aural and interaction strengthen your message. As such, it is an opportunity to fully introduce your organization, engage and nurture relationships.

There is an implied promise behind a brand that what you do as an organization will be consistent in quality, service delivery and in-keeping with your corporate ethics and beliefs. Today’s reality is that most people who interact with you will visit your website. It is therefore critical that your website effectively convey your brand and support a trusting relationship.