How To Make Your Brand Stand Out
When you’re running a business, whether large or small, one of the things that can be make or break to your success is getting your branding and voice right.
If you’re competing in a market that’s very competitive, it’s important that you know how to make your brand stand out and what you can do in order to get the most from your advertising, customers and business in general.
Here are 8 tips for helping your brand stand out in the busy crowd.
8 Tips To Help Your Brand Stand Out
1. Appeal To The Emotions
People like things when they feel they can connect and relate to somebody or something. Rather than trying to be so professional that you become out of touch with your audience and target market, you should ensure that you create a good balance and therefore appeal to a wider range of people and in the best way possible.
This means showing the human side of your brand. If you’re a one-person show then that might mean showing your personality. If you employ others, you can still add emotion and personality to what you do.
FREE Checklist: Branding For Small Businesses & Bloggers2. Tell An Interesting Story
One of the ways you can appeal to people’s emotions and make them more interested and engaged in your business is to tell an interesting story. This could be something to which people can easily relate, or you might want to tell a story that really pulls at the heartstrings and makes your brand and voice memorable. Although people might not remember you as the most powerful and wealthy company in the world, they’ll be able to have a way to remember you, and that can often be much more important.
3. Remember That Your Market Needs An Experience
When people buy things or start to engage with things, whether it’s a charitable campaign or a corporate venture, they are all looking for an experience. Without the offer of an experience, people are reluctant to put in their own time and effort in order to become engaged with something.
4. Think About The Strengths of Your Business
As well as focusing on the weaknesses that you need to improve in order to make your business stronger overall, you should consider where your strengths lie within the business. For example, you might not sell the cheapest version of your product compared to competitors, but maybe you offer the best support to your customers. Or maybe you really excel in breaking things down into simple, easy-to-understand terms. Whatever your strengths are, play up to them and use them in your branding.
5. Audience Knowledge
Take the time to understand exactly who your audience is, what they need, desire, fear and want. Keep delivering solutions to your ideal audience and don’t get stuck in the past. Seriously consider injecting your specific and unique, one-of-a-kind personality into your brand. This helps reach your audience on a deeper level than businesses which are stodgy, dry, formal and have little personality.
6. Product Differentiation
A strong brand can instantly be separated as unique from its competition. Know where to compete, whether it’s on price, service, or some other criteria. Be clear on exactly what advantages your business offers over other businesses and communicate these elements in your marketing messages.
7. Message Consistency
An important element to really make your branding standing out so that your audience remembers who you are and what you’re about is through consistency. They need to be exposed to your brand many times across multiple channels. It also means that your brand needs to provide them with the same basic message and experience. If your brand is different on social media than it is in your email messages, the end result is confusion. Confusion drives people away. That’s not your end goal. Consistency builds brands.
8. Show Your Passion
The joy and focus that passion brings to the table when it comes to your product and service will sustain your business during both lean times and times of plenty. Your passion will also enable you and your team to provide top-notch customer care and continued spectacular product and service development.
It takes time, commitment and effort to build a strong brand. It takes the willingness to stick to the messages for the long term and not forget what your true point of being is. To serve your target audience, solve their problems and deliver solutions that stand the test of time. Don’t forget these important points as you move forward building your own business.
Free Checklist: How To Make Your Brand Stand Out
It’s easy to forget how important something as intangible as “branding” is to a business’s success or failure. Branding is important for small businesses as well as large companies. Think about the brands you have come to know and love and how they have adapted over the years. See how a strong brand changes with the times, but keeps its core values intact.
If you have a limited budget, smart branding is perhaps the most inexpensive business tool you can create. To learn more about how to make your brand stand out, download my Free Checklist, How Brands Can Stand Out and give your business a global reach, diehard, lifetime fans and a positively memorable experience related to what you have to offer.