There is so much competition for businesses today, that it is important to use every tool available to gain an advantage over the competition. There are so many different ways to grow your business and increase your revenue, so what you decide to do will depend on your business and situation.
It is important to remember to increase SEO rankings, network with others, make sure your website is user-friendly, and many more things. One important aspect to consider when building your business is creating a recognizable brand. Your brand is how people recognize your business and separate it out from the competition.
How to create a brand identity
Your brand is not just your logo even though it is a part of it. Your brand should reflect what your values are, how you communicate, your products or services, and how you want to leave people feeling. Branding is essentially what people think about you and your company, and you can influence that with the way you present yourself.
Your brand encompasses a lot of different things. First of all, you do need to include a logo that is the face of your business. It needs to do more than just look appealing, it needs to associate with your brand identity. The public should be able to see it and instantly know what your company is about.
Your brand also needs to help build credibility and trust between your company and the public. Your brand should help make you an authority in the marketplace. Your brand identity should extend beyond your website to include all your advertising campaigns. It doesn’t matter where the advertisement is, whether it is digital marketing, a print ad, or a commercial on YouTube, your brand should be front and center.
Before you design your company brand, you need to determine what your company’s mission is going to be. The purpose of your company is going to drive how you design your brand. You should include your beliefs about your industry, your goals, and how you want to present yourself to others.
The importance of creating a brand
It is important to put time and effort into creating this brand identity because your company lives inside your customers, so if they do not have a positive outlook about your business, then your company will fail. Branding is not only how you attract customers to you, but it is also how you get those customers to become loyal to your company. What customers know about your company and how they feel towards it will greatly influence where they spend their time and money and how they talk about your company to other people.
What is brand awareness?
Once you have developed a brand, it is important to increase your brand awareness. Brand awareness is how much customers or the general public knows about your company, the qualities that set you apart from the competition, and understand what products or services you offer. It helps potential customers differentiate you from the competition and can be crucial when launching a new product or promoting a new service.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is how you reach new and existing audiences on social media platforms. Having a plan is necessary for businesses today since so many people have access to social media. You can just post to pages and share links, but if you really want to be successful, you will need to have a strategy.
There are so many different platforms for social media, that there is no way for you to jump in with all of them and be effective. At first you want to choose a couple that makes the most sense to you. Where is your target audience spending most of their time? Which platforms offer ways to share your company’s information in the best way? Focus on the most important platforms first and then add in more later once you have a strategy in place.
You should always fill out your profiles all the way because it adds to your credibility. Having half finished profiles make it seem like you are not well established or don’t know what you are doing. You should also be sure you claim your business’ name and URLs so people are not getting redirected to the wrong place when they try to find you. The key is consistency so people can find you across all your profiles.
Be sure to look at your analytics across all platforms. You need to understand where your traffic is coming from and more details about your frequent visitors. This will help you create an even more effective strategy to reach more people. Seeing what is working and what is not working will help you continuously improve. You may also want to pay for advertising on these sites because some of them will let you design advertisements to target your demographic.
You should also respond to mentions and messages on social media quickly and professionally. The way you interact with other people should reflect your brand and promote a good discussion.
Increasing brand awareness with social media marketing
You can use these social media marketing strategies to help promote your brand awareness. The ease with which we can communicate with others via technology means brand awareness is more important than ever. This surge of information and ease of communication will either help your business, or it will work against you.
There are many opportunities for people to like posts, leave reviews, interact with customer service, and tell others about their experiences. What they communicate will completely depend on how you present yourself to the public. Being proactive with your branding will enable you to promote positive customer interactions and promotions to retain current customers that will then, in turn, attract new customers.
Sometimes it is prudent to seek professional help or consultation when trying to use social media marketing to grow brand awareness. There are companies that can help you monitor your brand, develop strategies to promote your company, and manage your digital marketing campaigns. These companies, like Pivotal New Media, LLC, can help evaluate what your needs are and make a plan to fill them.
