Let’s not get it twisted. Your brand doesn’t stop at having a dope logo. In fact, a logo is not a brand. It’s much more than that. It’s how your business is able to connect with the emotions of your audience and build a relationship with them in such a way that when your target audience see your logo, read your articles, buy your products or hire your services those same emotions are aroused.
Now that’s a sustainable business brand. But how do you get to the point where your brand enjoys such a connection with your target audience?
This article’s got you covered on that one. Here are five tips to build a sustainable business brand.
1. Know your target audience like the palm of your hand
A successful brand is one that’s able to effectively connect with their target audience. But how do you connect with someone on a deeper level if you don’t even know them? That’s where defining your target audience comes in.
If you’re not clear on who your target audience is then it’s time to ask yourself some serious questions:
- Who is your target audience (their age, gender, income level, occupation, etc)?
- What are their likes and dislikes?
- Where do they hang out (online or offline)?
- What drives them the most (what gets them emotionally charged)?
- What problems are they facing and how does that make them feel?
To get answers to these questions you’ve got to reach out to them, listen to them and take loads of notes. Your target audience is always speaking. They express their thoughts and feelings online (in groups, on social media and the comment section of relevant blog posts) and offline (in the way they react to situations, in the choices they make and the places they go to).
2. Develop an effective mode of approach
Now that you have a clear picture of who your target audience is, what kind of brand do you want to be to them?
To achieve this, you have to direct your target audience to understand your brand and see your brand in that light. Knowing your target audience makes it a lot easier to develop an effective mode of approach to achieve this.
This is where you come up with attributes of your brand like:
- What message do you want to pass across to your audience?
- In what tone of voice?
- The personality of your brand, and
- What you stand for as a brand.
With this in mind, you can start developing your brand strategy. Your brand strategy should lay out the ideal ways to reach your target audience based on who they are and their unique preference in such a way that they’re receptive to your brand.
3. Create brand awareness
When you have developed a plan of how you’re going to reach out to your target audience, the next step is to take action and take your brand to as many people as you can. There are many ways to create that brand awareness, so your options are endless.
Create the type of content your audience will love and resonate with, distribute that content and engage with your audience. Each time you do make sure that you maintain your brand message, voice personality, and values. That’s the core essence of who your business is as a brand. And whatever you do, make sure that you’re consistent all through. Remember: Consistency is key.
4. Measure, Adjust and Try Again
As you start putting things in motion and more people are becoming aware of your brand, you have to measure how well your brand strategy is working. That’s where measuring your progress comes in.
Periodically check your progress and assess if your mode of approach is producing your desired result. If it’s not, then make some adjustments and try again. No one gets it perfectly the first time (or the second or third time) so it’s important to keep modifying your approach until you get the results you want.
Don’t be afraid to ask feedback from your audience on how you can improve. That not only gets you closer to your end result, it also shows your audience that you genuinely care about them and that’s a huge plus.
5. Get yourself a lawyer
I’m sure you didn’t expect this one to be part of the list. There’s a lot the law and lawyers have to do with having a sustainable business brand.
It takes time to build a brand and for your business and all its components (the color, the trademark and yes, the logo too) your audience knows you for. It would be heartbreaking to see all that taken away in one day by someone who didn’t put in as much effort as you have.
With everything said and done, you’d need a lawyer to help you protect your brand. The last thing you want is for someone to copy your logo, trademark, product or style and claim it as theirs when clearly you were there first. Your lawyer will help you with all the fine details relating to the intellectual property of your brand.
Conclusion
There you have it! To take your business brand from good to great, you’ve got to go back to the essence of your business – your target audience. At the end of the day, if your brand is not the kind that they can relate and work with, then your brand wouldn’t even survive.
So keep your audience in mind in your strategies, your content and your marketing campaigns. But never forget to always take time to re-evaluate your progress and make the required changes along the way.
The truth is that the secret behind a sustainable brand is to keep learning how to give your audience the best.