More Than Your Logo: Making Your Brand Memorable in 5 Simple Steps!

As we mentioned in our microblog last week, appearance and first impressions matter, but brand identity is much more. It includes much broader concepts like your business’s vision, product marketing, your target audience and your organisation’s long-term goals. 

There are hundreds of millions of businesses worldwide (you read that right, I assure you). With more popping up every day (in an already saturated market), it can feel like you don’t stand a chance. 

What you need to do is very simple. 

Make your brand identity ✨unforgettable✨

Here’s a comprehensive guide to getting you started with these five simple steps.

1. Who and what is your target? 

Who do you want your business to talk to? Because you can’t say “everyone” and expect to succeed. Instead, define your target market. 

What does this mean, specifically? 

In a nutshell, you need to consider who would be looking at what your business does and who it serves. 

Because remember, the brand isn’t about YOU – it’s about your customer.

Consider your target market’s age, ethnicity, gender, budget, etc. Then, think about the practical applications of your product/service. Would it be used professionally or for personal purposes? You’ll also need to think of your brand as a person – What do they sound like? Are they formal? Casual? Use slang? 

Once you’ve done your research, you can develop a template with keywords linked to your tone of voice, which will be the foundation for any content you create for your brand. In addition, it will connect you to the audience and help them understand your story. Check out this handy brand archetype wheel for more ideas.

2. Nail your brand’s “look”

Who else is addicted to 

Pinterest and Instagram? ??‍♀️

It’s hard not to scroll or “pin” in your free time – whether it’s fair or not, looks matter to businesses and brands. 

Your brand’s visible identity may not be everything – but it certainly is super-important. Take a look at social media, where you’ll see how critical it is to ensure your brand’s “look” connects with your target audience. 

 

“Your brand is like a person – it’s how your company ‘looks’ to your audience, beyond the logo.” – Rosa Bullock

 

That’s a more manageable task if you have a mood board to inspire you. So, how can you create one to get your brand started?

First, unleash your creative juices by checking out what other businesses are doing out there. For example, what’s the look that’s getting noticed on the Gram these days? Then, take notes of what you observe as you scroll through social media platforms to see what people are liking.

After a little research, you can start picking out your brand’s colours, font, and other visual assets – and, yes, design your logo. Just be sure to keep everything consistent across all your platforms, from Instagram to product packaging. 

3. After basic branding, what’s next? 

You have your brand’s foundation in place with your basic tone of voice and visual assets – what do you do now to make your brand unforgettable?

You build bridges, of course! 

Without a bridge, your customers won’t be able to make their way to you and become true brand enthusiasts.

To build your brand’s bridge, you’ll need to map out your business’s customer experience. You may wonder why it’s important to do this as early in the brand creation process as soon as possible. And the answer is simple – you create a brand from the moment you respond to a customer enquiry to the time you deliver your product or sign off on services rendered.

How do you do this in practical terms?

Create a flowchart, standards of practice and company procedures to communicate to your target market in a way that makes sense to them. That means focusing on social media comments and interactions, having a chatbot on your website, or both! Your customer’s experience is a form of marketing, so it should be smooth, consistent and efficient, but it should also “look” and “sound” like your brand!

Need an example? Check out this analysis of how e-commerce footwear retailer Zappos made their customer journey part of their brand identity.  

4. We’re all busy bees, so use SocialBee ? and save time!

It’s time to share what you’ve created with the world. But regular scheduling for social media, blogs, and other marketing material you’re sharing with your target audience is tough to do all by yourself.

Instead, you can schedule your content in advance. Some cool (and easy to use!) platforms will help you schedule your written content, not just your socials. Platforms such as SocialBee can help automate your blogs. Just plug in your pre-written content and press go. Sit back, relax and eventually drag yourself to write up next month’s batch.

We can hear some people saying, ‘Ugh, another system that I have to learn?’ Trust us – there are good reasons to take the leap and familiarise yourself with scheduling software like SocialBee. The biggest benefit is that it will save you time (and doesn’t everyone need a little help with that?). When you schedule your social media and blog posting in advance, you spend less time logging into your accounts and uploading posts and more time focusing on everything else you need to do to help your business grow.

Don’t forget that scheduling will let you reach your target audience at the right time (and yes, there is a right time to post) and keep your brand consistent across all your platforms.

5. Experiment with your material

You have everything in place, and you’re reaching out to your target market – so what is their response? Are you seeing slow and steady growth across your social media accounts, or has your website’s bounce rate shot up?

Remember that it takes time to find out what works, so don’t worry if you don’t see immediate results. At the same time, don’t be afraid to change things! What your target market needs should be your guide, and those needs may change with time. You’ll boost your brand’s credibility by making changes that serve our current and potential customers rather than keeping everything the same. 

You need to cycle back to your stats and see what’s performing well, whether the timing works for you, find out if your content is helpful to your target audience and so on. 

You can use platforms like Google Search Console and SpiderFrog to help you understand your performance. In addition, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have analytic tools and insights you can use to track your engagement rates. For example, assess the best time to post and the general demographic information of the people who interact with your social media. 

We’ll be honest – it is hard to stand out as a brand in today’s busy and oversaturated market. But it’s not impossible! With a focused strategy, a clear idea of how your brand looks and sounds, a brand-infused customer experience, strong scheduling support, and a willingness to experiment a bit, you’ll step away from the crowd and get noticed by your target audience. Now, the only thing you have to do is get started!

Want some help with your brand? Reach out to our experts at [email protected].