When you create your brand, you have to think of coming up with a creative logo, an impressive color scheme, and a catchy slogan. All this is imperative, but there is much more to creating a strong brand in a competitive market. Remember, everything you do in your business influences your brand perception in the market. Well, building a robust and reputable brand requires effort and a lot of creativity. We have compiled a few tips and a guide to help you get started.

Determine how people see you

Your business brand is not what you say but rather how everyone else sees it. As an initial process of building a strong brand, you have to know what people think about it. For example, do a Google search on business to check out for any reviews online or ask your close allies how they view your business. You can have business experts conduct an analysis from the general public on your behalf.

Perfect Your Personality

It would be best if you started thinking of your brand as a person with specific traits. With this in mind, ensure that whatever your business does and creates does not contradict your business’s personality. A brand’s personality is the commitment to fulfilling promises and business values, mission, and vision. Yes, your brand personality also needs to be reflected in your brand design, image, and colors. How you treat your customers should also reflect the personality of your brand. If you feel that something you are doing does not support your brand, you need to change it to keep your business personality alive.
Invest in your online platforms

There are several online platforms these days, including Facebook, Twitter, blogs, website, and many more that give you a place to engage your audience directly. You only need to take time and identify which one works well with you and which one can help you reach your target audience. Through these platforms, you can market your goods and services hence building on your brand. You can also empower your customers as well as express the purpose and mission of your business. Remember to be as authentic as possible in your online content and interactions.

Have consistency yet remain flexible

Most of the strongest brands are consistent in everything they do and have gained their customers’ loyalty due to consistency. However, even with consistency, you need to be flexible enough to take in new ideas to grow your business. Be flexible enough to change the business tactics that no longer work for you. Ensure that you review if the actions that you are taking to scale up your brand are working. Conduct brand audits from the perspective of your suppliers, customers, and employees to ensure that your brand’s impression is how you view it. Ensure that your brand thrives and showcase your strengths as you work on your weaknesses.

Get ready to build your brand awareness.

Even as you work within the business to build your brand, you need to think outside the box on how to build your brand’s awareness. Creating brand awareness among your potential customers can make it strong. For example, you can use a technique known as entertainment marketing where you use pop culture to grow your brand. You can use movies, music, celebrity endorsements, characters, product placements, and other approaches. The bottom line is that you have to go the extra mile and think outside the typical marketing techniques to grow your brand among your target consumers.

Maintain value

For your brand to be strong, you have to do something that puts you ahead of your competitors. Have a unique product proposition regarding the value of your product or how you handle your customers. Also, ensure that your products and services are on par with what you are marketing to your potential customers. Do not create a false impression of your product. Do not overcharge your customers! Let the product price go hand in hand with the quality of your product or service.

Associate your brand with strong brands

According to Sham Hyder, the Founder, and CEO of Marketing Zen, connecting to another brand could either weaken or strengthen your brand. Thus, to enhance your brand, you have to associate with strong brands, and vice versa is true. For example, you can associate with strong brands through authority blogging. You can create nice business blogs and post on high authority sites. The sites have high traffic, and therefore posting blogs there will create brand awareness for your potential customers.

Wrap up

Building a strong brand takes a lot of effort and commitment. Ensure that your product and service are a clear reflection of the personality of your brand. Moreover, be consistent, market your brand, maintain the value of your product, and associate with strong brands to enhance your brand’s growth.

Every brand has a unique story, which is something that the audience wants to know before becoming customers and loyalists.

Being able to narrate it well enough is the key to engaging them and winning their trust. The design of your business website serves as the best storytelling platform because this is where most of the potential buyers are bound to come.

However, storytelling through web design takes a lot of creativity, strategy, and clever thinking.

Right from choosing the colors, visual elements, content, and navigation, you need to nail everything to create an impactful storyline. Here are some measures you can implement to do it effectively.

Focus on their problems rather than your company

Although you will be tempted to talk about your offerings, it is far more important to focus on customers’ problems when you weave a story for your brand. Their pain points will have them hooked to your story, which subtly draws them to explore more and know you better.

Take them towards a solution and they will buy it. Moreover, the problem-solution approach shows your interest in customers’ well-being and wins their trust and loyalty without much work.

Accentuate your USP and core values

Before you start designing your website, you need to identify the USP and core values you want to highlight. They should reflect everywhere, specifically the home page where the user lands and gets the first impression. The “About Us” page is another part of the site that needs to accentuate these elements. Everything else has to detail around the USP and core values because you would want them to be the heroes throughout the user journey.

Be consistent with the brand narrative

Your web presence is just one element of your brand because it appears at a lot of other places- print ads, billboards, media ads, product packaging, and more. It is vital to be consistent with the narrative everywhere. Amazingly, you can create your own website for free and share your story just as it is everywhere. No one knows your brand better than you, so go ahead and say it all on your website. Make sure that you follow the same visuals as well, right from your logo to colors and font styles. Similarly, pay attention to the tone of voice and content.

Create navigation for the story

When it comes to storytelling through web design, creating navigation is extremely important. Give the visitor a route to the next piece of information as they would want the narrative to unfold naturally and subtly.

It doesn’t make sense to paste all the information on one page, rather let them explore the site to pick their interest and make them stay. The placement of call-to-action buttons can act as navigational cues. Consider creating a roadmap that makes the journey easy for them and drives them effortlessly towards engagement.

Finally, keep the design simple and human-centered so that the audience connect with it emotionally. The modern website users are savvy and only exemplary designs can impress them, so make genuine efforts to engage them with authentic storytelling.

Here’s a quick question: what does your company stand for?

If you’re anything like most small business owners, you didn’t see that question coming. Not only that, but you probably also don’t have an answer. After all, you’re in business to make a profit, right?

Well, that’s true, but it’s important that your small business also stands for something. Company core values can make a big difference in the performance of your business. And these values shouldn’t just be on paper. Everyone in the organization should know, embrace, and practice them.

Continue reading to learn about the importance of instilling core values across your organization.

Creates a Company Identity in the Marketplace

In the modern marketplace, only companies with a clear identity have a good chance of standing out from the competition.

There are a number of factors that come together to help form a unique identity for your brand, and one of those is your company’s core values. If you think about some of your favorite brands, you’ll certainly realize that they stand out because of more than just the products they offer.

For example, think about Nike.

The company’s shoes and apparel come to mind first. But it’s also impossible not to think of the company’s dedication to helping athletes, and pretty much everyone else, do what they love without fear. Their “just do it” campaign no doubt ushers consumers into one of the company’s core values.

As a business owner, your company’s core values will help shape its identity. If you’re big on environmental conservation and your company has sustainable practices, your consumers will think of the planet every time they interact with your brand.

Attract Customers

In one survey, 62 percent of customers said they consider a company’s ethical values and authenticity before making a purchase.

If your company stands for something that resonates with your target market, you’ll be in a better position to attract customers easily. If your target audience is highly environmentally conscious, for instance, they’ll be more likely to buy from you if one of your company’s core values is environmental conservation.

And like Nike’s campaign, you can also let your customers know about your core values through strategic brand messaging.

Attract the Best Talent

If you thought it’s just customers who care about your company’s core values, you couldn’t be more wrong. Turns out your current and prospective employees care about your organization’s core values as well.

Don’t buy that?

A 2019 survey established that a whopping 77 percent of professionals consider a company’s mission and workplace culture before applying for a job.

Your company’s mission spells out your core values. It’s these values that define your workplace culture.

If your company doesn’t have any recognizable values, it’s clear you’re missing out on the best talent. Even your current employers can jump ship when they realize that your company doesn’t stand for anything.

 

Company Core Values Will Drive You to Success

As a small business owner, it’s understandable that your primary goal is to turn a profit. However, consumer behavior is changing. The modern consumer cares more about company core values than your product. So do your employees.

You now know how instilling company values can boost your business.

Keep reading our blog for more branding tips and insights.

 

How many times have you sent an email to your colleagues without the email attached?

Have you ever responded casually to an email only to realize later that the CEO was on the email

Business emails seem like they should be so simple to write. But, often they are not.

Professional emails are legal documents. You should not write them the same way you write emails to your family and friends.

If you want to know how to write a business email, here are 7 tips to help your emails look and sound more professional.

1. What Do You Expect From Your Email?

First, know what the purpose of your email is. Are you looking to make a sale, network with a new client, or solve a problem with a new product? Do you want to remind a colleague of an upcoming deadline or thank your team for their hard work?

Let the recipient know what you expect from them and include everything they need to accomplish it.

For example, if you need someone to analyze the cost projections for a quarter, make sure there is a link to the projections or they are attached. Explain what they need to review and how the analysis will be used. Clearly state the deadline for them to complete the task and get back to you.

2. Know Your Audience

Make sure the tone and style of your email are appropriate for your recipient.

If you’re writing to an executive in your company or a prospective client, your email should be more formal and polished.

If you’re writing to a colleague or someone you have an established working relationship with, you can be friendlier and less formal.

When you’re following up on a meeting, you may want to include detailed notes to recap everything that was said and make sure everyone knows their action items.

On the other hand, if you’re asking your colleague for a report, you can usually just ask the question without going into all the reasons why you need it.

3.“Brevity is the Soul of Wit”

This popular quote from William Shakespeare is one of the best professional email writing tips you will ever receive.

Most people receive too many emails in a day. Knowing how to draft a professional email that gets right to the point will be greatly appreciated by your recipient.

Keep your emails brief, concise, and focused. Limit the topics within an email to one or two subjects at most. Use direct, simple sentences. Don’t include filler words or information that doesn’t relate to the topic.

4. Know How to Write A Business Email in the Proper Format

There are many different types of business email writing tips and templates you can use and follow. But almost all of them will include the following items: Subject, Greeting, Body, and Signature.

Subject Line

Keep your subject line brief so your recipient can read it all on any device. Even the best email app for mac or pc has a limited number of characters it shows in the subject line.

Write a subject that clearly describes what the message is about. Use regular capitalization – don’t write your subject all in capital letters.

Greeting

Use a brief friendly greeting that addresses the recipient by name when you know it.

If you’re addressing someone you know well, you can use an informal greeting like “Hi” or “Hello” followed by their first name.

More formal greetings will use last names and titles. For instance, “Dear Mr. Jones” or “Greetings Dr. Johnson”.

When you don’t know the name of the recipient, traditional greetings such as “To Whom It May Concern” are also acceptable.

All words in a greeting should start with a capital letter. Every greeting ends with a comma.

Body

State your reason and the main point of the email right away. Include any supporting information the recipient needs to know.

A block style with single-space paragraphs is usually the easiest and cleanest format. Include line breaks between the greeting, body, closing, and signature.

Try not to use bold, italics, or color fonts unless it’s necessary for emphasis. Use easy to read fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial.

Closing and Signature

In a formal email or with a new contact, keep things more formal with closings such as “Kind regards”, “Thank you” or “Sincerely”.

Follow-up emails, internal communications, and people you are more familiar with can use more casual conclusions such as “Thanks” and “Best”.

Your email signature should include your name, title or position, and contact information. You may also include a company logo, name, address, and website link.

5. Proofread your email

The last step of how to write a professional email includes proofreading. It’s very easy to be in a rush, type an email quickly, and hit send, but you should avoid that as much as possible.

Always take an extra moment to review what you wrote. Check for spelling and grammar errors. Confirm that your facts are correct and that you have included all the necessary links or attachments.

Read the full email back to yourself, aloud if you can. Always consider your email from the other person’s point of view. How will they read it? You may realize that the tone isn’t as professional as you need it to be. Or, you may realize you’re being too formal in a situation that needs to be more casual and friendly.

6. Remember to Follow-up

It is appropriate and expected for you to follow-up on your email.

If you haven’t received a response in a couple of days, you should reach out again with a friendly follow-up to see if they need more information or had any questions.

7. Email Etiquette

You want to make sure everyone who needs the information receives it. Be cautious of overusing the CC field. If someone doesn’t need the information, don’t include him or her.

Consider the timing of your email. When possible, avoid sending an email after-hours or when you know someone is on vacation.

Know How to Draft a Business Email

Business emails have a specific style and structure to create effective and efficient communication. Knowing how to write a business email properly will greatly impact the impression your writing gives others.

Explore our website to learn more about business communication and branding.