It takes 5-7 impressions for your customers to remember your brand.
A brand is a perception customers have of your business. It’s the story your business tells your customers. It’s the story that customers feel they are living when they buy a product from your business.
But how do you figure out your brand identity? What is a startup brand identity?
These are difficult questions to answer but that need answers in order for customers to understand what a business does for them.
If you want your startup to grow to the next level, you need a brand that is going to resonate with your customers, giving them a positive perception of your business.
This article will guide you how to build better brand identity.
1- Figure Out Your Funds
Any startup requires funding. If you want your brand to take off and resonate with your customers, you need to figure out much capital you need to get your business off the ground.
Your startup brand identity requires funding for sure. It requires figuring out how much you need to spend on designing your brand identity and develop marketing materials accordingly..
While there’s no exact number of how much every startup needs, you do need to get an estimate of how much everything will cost to build and market your brand to your core audience and then adjust your funds accordingly.
2- Create a Business Plan
Knowing how much you’re going to spend on your business to develop your brand requires business planning. It requires that you know the procedures, platforms, skills & expertise required to build a brand image.
You need to know where you will get the supplies from to develop your product. You need a financial plan of where the spending is going. In a nutshell, you need a foolproof marketing plan which is a part of a comprehensive business plan.
A business plan also includes short-term and long-term business goals and how you plan to achieve those goals. Ideally, a good business plan contains actionable steps divided into smaller and measurable goals.
If you do not have much know how of startup branding essentials you can find out here about different stages of branding and plan accordingly.
3- Figure Out Your Target Audience
After you have established funding and created a business plan, you need to figure out who your target audience is in your business.
You can’t target everybody because not everybody needs your product. In addition, if you try to target everyone, you will find poor results, especially if you are spending a lot on marketing.
Your target audience should be a specific demographic in a specific location. If your brand startup sells something, in particular, it should be made for someone in particular with a set of problems.
The keys to identifying your core audience are figuring out how your product helps a specific set of people solve a problem.
You should market your product to an audience that helps them solve a problem. For instance, if you sell teaching supplies, your core audience would be teachers. They need your supplies to help them teach a lesson.
The teacher’s life is made easier with your product.
You should always have a core audience because it’s who will resonate with your brand the most. They will understand the story behind your brand and why it’s designed for them.
4- Understand Everything You Can About Marketing
Marketing can help you figure out your brand and your core audience. However, you still need to figure out what kind of marketing campaign that will best reach your audience.
You need to figure out a marketing campaign that best expresses your brand and your story to your customers. For instance, you want to promote your restaurant on Social Media, but not all the Social Media Platforms are equally effective for restaurants. Know the best Social Media platforms for restaurants and create targeted campaigns.
You may also consider content marketing, email marketing, SEO marketing and more to build a brand image through different channels. If you are on a budget, figure out what marketing strategy works the best and optimize it.
The goal is to create a marketing plan that tells your startup’s story and delivers more leads and more profit.
You can also go for print advertising and billboard advertising beyond simply digital advertising. The overall goal of any kind of advertising is to promote your brand and show how you’re different from your competitors.
A marketing plan should help you figure out how to communicate your brand to your customers. It should show your customers that they have a problem that can only be solved with your product.
When you do create a marketing plan, it should be designed around the customer and not the business. Tell a story about the customer.
5- Take Risks
Lastly, your business startup should take risks. Taking calculated risks means not playing it safe. It means trying to reach a customer by being bold and exciting.
If a business wants to take authority, it must try new marketing campaigns which offer promising results, i.e. contest marketing, video testimonials etc. They must figure out how to reach a customer beyond trying an old model.
If your customer is adapting and changing, your product needs to adapt to them. If the customer is no longer needing your product because the culture has changed, your product also needs to change in order to stay in demand.
In order for your brand to stay relevant, you need to find new ways to reach your customers, which means taking new risks.
Ultimately, these strategies can help your startup brand be unique and separate your business from your competitors. It can help you create a story your customers will remember.
The Bottom Line
Your startup brand identity is what your customers remember. It’s what your customers feel whenever they shop at your business. Your startup needs a brand because it separates your product and the story behind the product from your competitors.
Your brand needs to tell a story to your core audience. You need to tell a story that involves your customers. If you can tell a remarkable emotional story around your customer, the more likely your business will succeed.
