Building a Profitable and Recognizable Brand – How To’s
Needless to say how important it is to make your brand stand out if you don’t want it to get lost among the numerous competitors. You definitely need something unique which is associated only with your brand. This will help to draw public attention to your website. Are you just getting started or going to revise your brand?
What will you learn from this article? We will provide you with working tips on how to build a successful brand, define your brand values, add personality to your brand, and implement your brand. In short, after reading this blog post you will know the most important basics of building a profitable and recognizable brand.
We advise you to ask yourself some questions before you get started. Here they go:
- What is your target market?
- Does your brand appeal to a particular audience?
- What are the core values of your brand?
- What is your positioning statement or elevator pitch, in other words?
- What do you want people feel when they interact with your brand?
As you understand, these are just some thoughts for the starter. The list might be much longer.
Figure out what differentiates you from the competitors. Try to find a plus area to sell. Besides, nowadays you must have good related content on your personal social media accounts.
You are right, building a brand whether it is a product, a store, or a digital brand can be a real challenge but it will be a fun one.
While social media continues to be of utmost importance, a strong personal brand never stands on social media alone. A strong personal brand is not just perfect headshots, sleek design assets, press hits, or frequent public appearances.
A strong personal brand is an all-embracing, 360-degree, ongoing expression of your value in relation to your audience.
“A personal brand is the total experience of someone having a relationship with who you are and what you represent as an individual; as a leader” – Glenn Llodis, Forbes contributor.
At present, having a personal brand is not a “nice-to-have” any longer, it’s a must-have if you’re in any type of leadership position. It’s wrong to consider it indulgent self-promotion. It’s sooner a mandatory responsibility to let others benefit in a way that is most natural for you.
Once you pass the point of clear understanding who you are and move to the point of who you are not — the unlimited opportunities that impact your prospective following, fans, employees, culture, community, and your bottom line reveal to you.
The more strategically and intentionally you develop your brand, the larger the audience becomes. An engaged audience is the most valuable asset to anyone’s brand.
It’s impossible to develop a brand overnight. Building a brand is a long path, it’s commitment and investment. How can you get there? There are some foundations.
There are several core pillars to developing personal brand identity, objectives, and strategy.
First of all, you should know your audience. The ongoing expression of your personal brand is not a monologue, it’s sooner a dialogue. When you start building an audience, you should be ready for the longest, most continuous conversation of your career. You need to be prepared to receive feedback, give feedback, and relate.
If you aim to effectively connect with your audience, you have to understand who they are. The acquaintance starts with a basic geographical and demographical analysis, that’s the easy part. Going to become their leader, you have to understand the feelings of your audience, get to their emotional center.
No one likes to be talked at but rather talked to. To accomplish this successfully, you have to deeply understand what really matters to your audience: their deepest fears, their sweetest dreams, things that keep them up at night, and things that motivate them to get up in the morning. You have to speak their language. Understand how they communicate in real life — their language, tonality, slang, and colloquialisms and apply all these in your speech. Learn the core messages of other publications and thought leaders and then complement but differentiate with your own content.
It’s also important to know where your audience spends most of its time online. For example, the audience that uses LinkedIn all day to the network is not likely to create DIY Pinterest boards. Invest in channel research and know exactly where your audience is hanging out and when it is available there to go meet them.
Secondly, you should know your value. Now, when you know who and where your audience is, it’s a good time to understand what you’re going to share with them. Having a personal brand, you can’t afford to simply add to the noise, your job now is to provide value that can help your audience achieve their goals.
It may sound strange, but the first step in knowing your value is to understand that you have value to give. Since all of us are unique, it doesn’t really matter what exactly you do. Any of your experiences, whether they stem from running your own business, building a team, launching an initiative or product, building a community, learning a skill, or accomplishing a goal, are all inherent derivatives. And you can call these activities your own and leverage.
The second step is looking at everything you say, create, and do as value. It may be a blog post, a tweet, an email, or a quote for the press, be in the value/generosity mindset.
It’s critical not to compare yourself to anyone else. You can surely look at others in your industry and view them as gauges of success. The truth and the simple fact is that no one has done what you’ve done, seen what you’ve seen, and knows what you know. This is the biggest commodity you have. Share with purpose and confidence. Don’t be shy to show your emotions and passions. This will encourage your audience to feel, connect, and share.
The more generous you are with your knowledge, passions, and expertise (your value), the deeper loyalty you will be able to build. The generosity ROI in building a personal brand has no limits.
You should know your why. If your personal brand had a “mission,” what would it be? If your personal brand had a “philosophy,” what would it say? Take your notebook and put down some thoughts. There are no wrong answers here, yet, it is crucial to know why you do what you do. If it’s simply to make more money and have more visibility, then you need to keep digging deeper.
People look up to 21st-century leaders. Your job is to teach new skills and new ways of thinking about business and career, but modern people want more than that. They want to feel inspired, motivated, connected, they want to feel seen and heard. They want to feel.
You won’t be able to provide all these without knowing your Why. So, analyze what keeps you up at night and what motivates you to get up in the morning. Pour each ounce of that potion into your personal brand’s expression and touchpoints. Pretty soon, you will create more than just an audience, you’ll create an entire movement.
Now let’s talk about ways of making your brand successful.
Start a blog/website sticking to the topic that you want to be known for. It’s not complex nowadays. Don’t design from scratch. Go to one of the decent marketplaces that sell ready-made website templates, like TemplateMonster, for example. Find the relevant category, like Best Business & Services WordPress Themes, choose the template that fits your technical requirements and corporate style, customize it yourself or order the customization services from TM Service Center and launch your project.
Write something for your blog every day. Combine text and images to make your blog posts more engaging.
Create videos or webinars, whatever is appropriate for your topic. They also attract people.
Promote your blog, videos and webinars on social media platforms. Include the images. People click on posts with images more frequently than just on text.
Share posts from authorities in your field who have lots of followers.
Participate in answering questions on discussion groups. Try to be as helpful as possible.
Find events to speak at (conferences, classes, workshops, etc).
Your product or service should be unique. You want to build a product or a brand that people will want to keep coming back to because they’ve had such a great experience with it. Make it fun!
Tell a story. Don’t worry about being a fantastic writer, sit down with a glass of wine, get nostalgic, and write from the heart. All editing and grammar can come later. When your story is read, the customer will feel more connected to you and your brand which will make them more likely to purchase your service or product.
Your online presence should be outstanding. Your website should be the main platform where all of your information lives. Once you have your website, everything can tie back to that, such as social media or email marketing.
Combine great design with brand consistency. Great brand design is more than just a logo; it goes much deeper than that. A brand is a feeling or a memory. It’s how the customer remembers you through visuals, communication, and experience. That’s why investing in high-quality brand identity is an imperative step for a successful brand/business.
Provide fantastic customer service. Everyone has heard the saying, “the customer is always right”. In reality, this quote is completely false but we live in the 21st century where customer satisfaction is vital. Surprise your customer, offer something for free, always keep them happy.
Use the “WOW” factor. When we say, “wow factor” we mean doing something no one else has done that literally makes the customer shout “WOW!” One example may be sending your client a gift card in the mail for no reason other than the fact that you value them as a client. Offer someone something free, just for fun! Or add something wacky to your store. Make people talk about your brand by “Wowing” them!
Stay confident and follow your passion. You can be your genuine self by following your intuition. Your “gut” will be your most valuable possession that drives your inspiration and passion. Use it and give yourself the confidence to excel in your brand because you believe in it so much.
Hope this was helpful! If you have more questions, the comments section is all yours. Don’t be afraid to contribute to the topic and share your experience as lots of tips on building a profitable and recognizable brand are still waiting to be uttered.
P.S. Here is a free eBook that will help you on your way to prosperity.