The importance of building your brand

The last few years have seen a transition from many people working in an office doing a mundane 9–5 job, to instead, starting their own business. Whether it be in the pursuit of greater flexibility or purpose, many people are getting into the entrepreneurial spirit.

Life is too short to be in a job or an environment you hate, and the Pandemic gave us all time to really take stock of our lives and what we want from them. We don’t need to be tied down to a desk to do our jobs.

Once upon a time, starting a business seemed like a daunting task. People management, pay-roll, VAT and accounting, relying on having an office or a retail shop with ever-growing business rates…

Times have changed and with the emergence and huge growth in the online/digital world, starting your own business is totally achievable and really exciting. Entrepreneurs are growing across the United Kingdom and globally, especially thanks to the internet and booming e-commerce market. There are still challenges with starting your own business, and payoffs are not always immediate (unless you’re extremely lucky!), but there’s plenty of help and advice out there to get you started (just visit our BLOG).

For your business to be successful it needs to be bigger than you and what you’re selling. You need a long-term vision with defined values and a story that makes you a “go-to” for your target audience. Make your brand change people’s lives for the better.

Your brand is one of your most valuable assets; but also one of the hardest things to manage. You can create beautiful brand manuals, mission statements, values and assets, but in reality, your brand lives in the hearts and minds of your customers.

So you might be asking yourself: “this all sounds great, but how do I actually do it?” Well, at Blue Cheese Digital, we’re going to give you some pointers (from our personal experience, and from other small business start-ups we have helped), and point you in the right direction.

Creating your brand identity

For any successful brand you need an identity, so ask yourself these questions:

• What do I want my brand to achieve?
• Research your audience, value proposition, and the competition.
• Decide on a brand personality. (This is how your brand communicates with your customers and your employees.)
• Integrate language you can use to connect, advertise, and embody on your social media.
• Know what to avoid.
• Monitor and maintain your values.

Stand by the answers to the above questions. Don’t just prescribe a look and feel, but try instead to create an entire narrative around your business that tells your customers who you really are, and what you stand for.

Think long-term.

Build a strong “Front-End”

The most successful brands have a great ‘front-end’. What do we mean by that?

Your name, logo-design, fonts, website, tone-of-voice, colour choices, packaging, social media, etc. There are lots of elements to a strong-front end, that we could be explaining for hours.

It’s essential that you have strong branding for your business and you need to ensure everything is consistent across all channels.

MAKE CUSTOMERS REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE.

Here are some examples of strong brand front-ends:

Do you need help with your branding and marketing? Let’s talk!

Knowing me knowing you — who are your target audience?

The key to any successful brand is understanding who you are selling your service/products to. You won’t be for everyone and it’s highly unlikely you’ll sell to everyone; even though in an ideal world we would all like to!

Identifying the needs, expectations, and problems of your target audience not only helps you to understand them better, but it also ensures that you’re creating a product or service that’s going to have a real impact on the marketplace.

Before you start to market your brand you need to think about your audience, the more specific you are the easier it’s going to be, so narrow your audience.

Here is an example:

You have a product for runners. What are range is your product aimed at? What ability of runner are you targeting; novice, club runner, enthusiast, pro-athlete? Is it a male or female product?

The more you narrow your audience the more straightforward it will be to target and market your product/service.

Protecting your brand

Here’s another (super important) consideration at the heart of creating your brand look, feel and tone. In all the creativity don’t forget to consider the legal side of things. Legally protecting your brand across multiple territories is vital to create an ownable identity, especially as the world gets smaller.

Have you thought about copyright protection, trademarking and intellectual property? It is important that if you create a powerful brand identity you protect it, too.

Do you need help building your brand?

Building a brand is the key to success. It creates a loyal customer base and your customers and clients will keep coming back to you; no matter how much your business changes.

Building a brand can be hard though, it requires knowledge and discipline, and you need to ensure that you stick with your brand’s message and values.

If you have a great business idea but need some help with your branding and marketing, drop us a message and we can discuss how we can help you.