How Brand Strategy Shapes Your Business Success

This is a guest post from Joel House (an SEO Expert from Sydney – see bio at the end). Thanks Joel.

Your personal identity is what makes you unique, just like your brand identity gives the special sauce of your business, setting it apart among many competitors! Your brand identity design shapes the company, which is why you need to proactively build an effective brand strategy to take your business to a whole new level.

But how exactly does that work? Read on to learn more about branding marketing strategies, with advice coming from experts like Joel House SEO Wollongong.

What is a Brand Strategy and What is Its Objective?

Before anything else, what is a brand identity in the first place?

Brand identity is the collection of all elements a company will create so it can portray the right image to their target audience. It’s different from brand image and branding, though these terms are sometimes used interchangeably by some people.

Branding refers to the marketing practice of shaping a distinctive brand name. The brand is a perception of the company to other people’s eyes. In short, this is how people will think of your company based on what you do.

A strong, positive brand identity is what will make you recognizable to customers, associating your brand with the products and/or services you offer, and forges a connection between you and the customers. When it’s done right, it will help you build customer loyalty and drive how people perceive your brand.

Benefits of Building Good Brands

Why should you spend time and resources building a good brand in the first place?

While it’s tough to assign monetary values to brands, you still get a lot of business benefits out of it, such as:

• More awareness and popularity from existing and potential consumers
• Better credibility and reputation, as customers will have a positive perception of your company
• Improved customer satisfaction, which leads to customer loyalty and repeat transactions to help grow your business

Such benefits are tools for marketers to attract mindful consumers who want to purchase from high-valued brands.

Why Do You Need a Branding Strategy?

Having an excellent ongoing branding strategy is just as important as initially building a good brand. Why? Because a solid branding strategy will do the following:

• It will guide your business’ decisions, helping you work out the products and services you should develop, as well as how to present and market them, the tone of voice to use as you communicate, the kind of content to put up, and more!
• Even solo entrepreneurs without permanent staff will have a team, working with freelancers, designers, and other people to help keep your business growing. With a brand identity, the team stays on the same page and you receive work and results that reinforce the message you want your business to convey.
• Every interaction with your brand is a piece of the puzzle, and your strategy makes sure that you create the consistent brand image that sticks to the minds and hearts of your customers and visitors, the image you want to show!

Key Branding Elements for Your Business Success

Now that you’re familiar with the benefits of a good brand and effective branding strategy, the next question is: How can you build your company’s brand?

Look into these branding elements and tips to gain success and grow your reputation for people to have positive perception toward your company:

1. Work from the inside out

The world has a ton of boring things, which is why very few people actually pay attention, not finding value in most things unless they do catch their eyes, minds, and hearts.

To have your company and brand perceived as valuable, you need to stand out, starting with the best customer service and happy employees. When building a good brand, you can’t limit marketing to just one department. All aspects of the business need to show value to customers, as customer experience is the core foundation where you can build the rest of your brand strengthening strategies.

2. Find your purpose

Think of it this way: People don’t invest in what you do, they invest WHY you do it. You may offer high-quality products or services, but when you communicate the bigger vision of what you want to achieve, it attracts those who believe in that vision, making them want to purchase from you more.

Your company’s purpose is the reason why it exists and why people should care, so find that purpose. Start by thinking back to the reason why you began running the business in the first place. This may be your mission statement, so think of the bigger picture, such as wanting to help your clients or create a positive impact on the world.

Make sure that you remain genuine and avoid exaggerated statements, which customers are now becoming wary of.

3. Identify your core values

Your company’s values are the core of the brand, these are what you want and need to stand for. Just like your brand’s purpose, you need to communicate clear values to attract more customers that share similar ones.

The values you stand for will also guide business decisions, helping you and your team create strategic choices and trade-offs. Remember, you can’t be perfect and everything to everyone, so clarify your values so you can make decisions about the way your website looks, how your products are made, and how you treat people among other important aspects of the business.

Beyond this, your branding strategy should be different compared to your competitors!

Share the unique qualities you and your company own, its greatest strengths, and the values you bring to work consistently. Such values should be actionable and meaningful, clearly stating how you run your company and work with clients and customers. Don’t be generic, nor should you be noble for the sake of getting customers only, you should live up to your values.

4. Use a consistent tone of voice (ToV)

Brand consistency is crucial. The more your company’s personality is presented to existing and potential customers, the more likely they will remember you. That is why you need to make sure that you communicate with everyone with the same language, tons, and opinions, which will remove any confusion and allow your target audience to easily associate your company with the content you roll out.

It’s important to have a formal set of Tone of Voice guidelines, which provides a foundation where all future messages and content can be created. This will help align blogs, social media posts, emails, and other forms of messages, so the company speaks in one voice that people will remember.

5. Pinpoint your positioning

Your company positioning refers to standing and advocating for something meaningful and specific to customers, and something different compared to competitors in the market. It should be clear on the advantages of your products and/or services offered, with each benefit giving people a reason to believe in your company and credibility.

Be sure that you place the basic requirements of your offering’s category, along with unique benefits that set your company and products or services apart from the competition. Put in both functional and emotional benefits for your customers – you don’t only care for their physical wellbeing, but also their emotions and peace of mind when they buy from your company.

6. Give your brand meaning

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and similar to this saying, all value will be perceived as a value, so it’s important to give your brand positive value and meaning. To do this, follow these tips:

• Make your brand, products or services, and content a status symbol
• Make your brand symbolic so it stays memorable and wanted
• Connect your brand to emotions, creating an emotional connection to improve your relationship with customers. Present your product empathetically and make sure people relate to it

Wrapping It Up

Branding is an excellent opportunity to establish a foundation for the company’s values, which can shape culture and long-term strategies. It helps build customer loyalty and a better reputation, but it also benefits the company internally, from keeping aligned with employees to ensuring your offerings and goals align with the message you’d like to convey.

Hopefully, all this information and tips on branding strategies helped you learn more about building a company brand. Start now and find ways to start improving your brand – there’s no time like the present!

Do you have questions or want to share tips and experiences in building a company brand? Share them in the comments section below, all your thoughts are much appreciated!

Joel House is an SEO Expert and the founder of Joel House SEO Sydney. He loves helping business owners and grow their business with higher success around the world. Joel House has the reputation and experience that you need to take your business to the next level.

Shawn Kinkade Kansas City Business Coach