Creating a brand identity is a critical part of running a small business. It helps you to establish your uniqueness, builds rapport with consumers, and enables you to be consistent in your marketing efforts. In this article, we explore 5 great strategies that will get your brand identity solid as a rock, but first, we need to define precisely what a brand identity is.
What Is Brand Identity And Why Is It Important?
Your brand identity is you! It’s all of the elements that make up who you are as a business, your ethos, your mantra, your style, and your tone. Imagine that your business was a person, your brand identity is a combination of your personality, your looks, and your style.
In business terms, brand identity is the elements that make up both the visual and the personality-based sides of the brand. These are the elements that make it distinct and unique from other businesses. These typically include aspects such as logos, brand colors, typeface, and the words the business speaks (copy and messaging).
Correctly identifying, creating, and portraying your brand identity gives customers the opportunity to understand what the brand might be like to work with, what the brand stands for, and what it might be like to use the products or services it offers. A strong brand identity also allows a brand to stand apart from the competition, builds trust and loyalty with customers, and establishes the brand as a great company to work for.
Brand identity is an essential part of any marketing strategy as it forms and molds every piece of communication put into the public space. It’s the brand’s voice, the brand’s face, and the brand’s actions.
5 Small Business Branding Strategies to Make Your Brand Stand Out
These 5 branding strategies will help you to plan, create and then develop your brand’s identity. Combine these efforts with your marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness.
Research your Target Customers
Seeing as your target customers are going to be the ones who are, hopefully, engaging with your brand, it makes sense that you research them in detail when creating your brand identity. Getting an understanding of who your customers are, their values, and their motivations allows you to create an identity that both appeals to them and resonates with them too.
A brand identity that resonates with a family with young children is unlikely to have the same effect on Gen-Z consumers. A brand with an identity that doesn’t align with the audience it is speaking to comes across as cringeworthy and serves the opposite purpose that it is trying to achieve.
Not only does researching your target customers help you to create the brand identity, but it also helps you to tailor your marketing efforts towards that audience. This leads to more effective and engaging campaigns.
Define Your Core Business Values, Purpose, and Mission
As a brand, your core business values, purpose, and mission help share the overall tone, style, and personality that your brand has, in the same way, that a person’s values shape them.
The values you adhere to are the principles that dictate your company’s culture, how it takes decisions, how it interacts with customers, and how it treats employees. These should directly influence your products and services while allowing those who align with the same values to engage with you.
The business’s purpose and mission should be more than making a profit. Yes, that might be at the core of your hopes, but a purpose that is able to inspire and motivate a company and its employees will resonate far wider with consumers.
Outline Your Brand Personality
Creating a strong brand personality gives you the opportunity to be unique. It becomes the consistent voice and character of your company that consumers can grow to trust and believe in. This personality is part of your whole company ethos, it should be found in your workplaces, in your marketing efforts, and in your products and services.
The best personalities build emotional connections with consumers, to the point where consumers are almost able to personify and humanize a brand into an acquaintance or friend. Outlining your brand personality helps you find the right customers, who will eventually become a loyal and reliable following.
Create a Unique Visual Identity
In the same way as a brand personality, creating a unique visual identity helps a brand stand out against its competitors in a potentially crowded market. The visual side of a brand’s identity is, arguably, the most important part as it allows consumers to immediately identify your products and services in just a glance.
It typically comprises your logo, brand colors, typography, and graphics. In order to create a strong visual identity it is important to use these items consistently and regularly across everything the brand puts into the public space. That includes websites, marketing materials, social posts, packaging, and anything that is public-facing, but also internal communication too.
Grow Your Social Media Presence
Your social media presence allows you, first and foremost, to connect with your consumers on a direct and personal level. Social media is an opportunity to reach, connect with and engage your target consumers, as well as build rapport with your already loyal followers. It’s important that you’re active where your audience likes to hang out, that might mean you’ll have to manage multiple social media accounts, but the payoff is worth it.
Your social media strategy should include posts that keep you at the front of your consumer’s minds. Regularly posting content and actively engaging with your followers shows that your brand is run by genuine people. It also gives consumers a place to submit their inquiries and concerns, and if the brand is responsive, it’s a great look.
Key Takeaways
Creating and building a brand identity isn’t the work of a day. It takes time and often grows organically. These strategies will help you to stand out against competitors, build rapport with consumers, and create a workplace that the best talent wants to work in.
- Your brand identity work should inform your marketing efforts.
- Consistency is key when establishing a brand identity.
Publer can take a lot of the work out of consistent social media posting when building your brand’s identity, see how it can help your social media management for free.
Ervin Kalemi
