Brand Yourself! Blow Their Mind!

Your brand is what you stand for and it’s bigger than just selling a product or service. In fact, 83% of millennials want brands to align with their values, while 65% say they have boycotted a brand that took an opposing stance on a social or political issue.

When we think of some of today’s leading brands, the ones that come to mind are the ones that are transparent, have a strong social stance, and are giving back in one way or another. Brands like GoFundMe, Savage X Fenty and Thinx, just to name a few.

If your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room, how can you make sure that they’re only talking positively? In short, how can you build an irresistible brand that’s here to stay? Here are some tips that will help.

Use the Power of Brand Guidelines to Your advantage

Brand guidelines allow your business to remain consistent in how you portray your brand, at all times. Who is your brand? From customer service to blog posts, product packaging and EDMs, how does your brand show up? How does it behave in different circumstances?

Brand guidelines help you achieve consistency in the way you look and feel; but they also help you shape the "feeling" you want your customers to have when they interact with your brand.

Think about how you want them to feel every time they connect with you, and make sure that comes through in your guidelines.

Be Authentic, Be Human

Your Customers, Fans, and Members like nothing ore than a brand that tells it how it "T-I-is". It's all about joining a conversation authentically: knowing when to provide your viewpoint and when to stay silent.

Owning your mistakes is just as important. If you get it wrong, show your audience that you're operating with full transparency- that'll allow you to really build ownership of your brand.

Your business was created by humans for humans, so keep this at the forefront of all your decisions.

Live and Breathe Your Values

Simply writing your brand values down on a piece of paper or publishing them on your website isn't enough. Your brand values should be in your DNA and should drive everything you do. Take a step back and assess how you're living up to those values, across every single brand touchpoint. This is how you are going to live and breathe them every single day.

Build Rapport With Your Customers

An irresistible brand always reflects its customer. Whether it’s the tone of voice, imagery or color palette, your brand needs to resonate with your target audience. Social media is the perfect playground to find out what your customers relate to, aspire to, or have a general bias towards; and the perfect place to build that rapport. It allows your brand to test, poll, get instant feedback, and get instant engagement that can steer you in the right direction. Plus, bringing your customers on the journey of discovering and shaping your brand identity can have them invested for the long term.

Be Part of the Right Conversations

For small businesses, staying on top of trends and participating in the right conversations can be the difference between being known for the right or wrong reasons. If there is a sensitive topic, don’t get caught out feeling like you have to say something unless you’ve got actions in place to back up what you’re saying. Ask the question: does what I’m saying add value or am I just saying something for the sake of it? Sometimes staying silent is just as powerful.

Here, listening is key. Listen to your audience and to the trends out there to help you understand where your brand stands, and therefore allow you to connect in a more meaningful way.

Be Strategic on Social Media. Less is More

As brands, we have a lot we want to say and a lot of content to share with the world; but putting all of that out there can often be overwhelming for your audience. Brands should be tactical with their posts and think about the one takeaway they’d like someone to gain from a piece of content. This helps achieve cut-through in the clutter that is social media, and ensure that your message comes across loud and clear.

Make Your Content Native to Each Social Platform

The average social media user has eight different social platforms. When it comes to social media, one size doesn’t fit all. In fact, audiences digest content differently on every single platform. From TikTok and Instagram to LinkedIn and Pinterest, your brand’s social identity is complex and should vary across platforms, ensuring your authenticity. While consistency is key, be creative in how you adapt your key messages to each channel. For insights into your audience, native tools that are already embedded into social platforms – such as Facebook or Instagram Insights – can work wonders in analyzing your content performance and honing in on what resonates with your audience.

Audit Brands You Love

Becoming a customer is often the best way to understand what your customers want. Sign up to, follow and order from brands you love. Keep a spreadsheet of your interactions and findings. What is it you love about them? How often are they posting? What do they post about? Learning from others can often be the most powerful growth tool out there.

Your Best Growth Tool? Ask Your Customers

When trying to find out information about your target audience, qualitative research is key. We’re talking about focus groups, polls, comments, and surveys. Find your community touchpoint and get to know them. Try the ‘give to get’ method where you offer education, resources or support in exchange for that information, and find out what they do and don’t like about your brand. These insights are invaluable, so once again, listening is key.

A strong brand is the backbone of a successful business in today’s digital world – it’s worth a thousand words. It’s how you can relate to your target audience, show them who you are, and help to differentiate you from competitors. It’s what you need to make a powerful first impression, and we all know first impressions stick.

xoxo,

ThatTechyChick