Building your brand is about maximizing your visibility and credibility to cultivate a strong customer network. What better way to do that than to exemplify how your product or service is not only superior to the competition but suitable to meet a variety of your customers’ needs? If you’re not using the right branding tools, you’re missing out!
1.) An Interactive Social Media Presence
Globally, almost 4 billion people use social media, which means it’s a hyper-saturated marketplace. In other words, it’s not enough just to have a Facebook or Instagram page for your business-you need to differentiate your page from those of the competition. Look for creative, interesting ways to encourage conversations and get people involved. Your customers don’t want to feel like customers; they want to feel like they belong.
After all, social media is all about connections! A study by SproutSocial found 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them. So how do you connect with your customers? The key to establishing real relationships is listening. Make sure your audience knows you’re listening by responding to and acting on customer feedback. Take it a step further by encouraging customers to weigh in on their favorite products or how a part of the customer journey can be improved.
The right social media strategy can be a powerful branding tool with real, measurable results. When customers feel connected to a brand, they’re more likely to both spend more money and buy from that brand over a competitor. Make sure you’re using your social media pages to maximize your brand’s visibility and engineer real connections with your audience.
2.) A Captivating Blog
Social media may be arguably the most powerful branding tool, but a well-polished business blog is an effective, low-cost way to boost your branding as well. In fact, according to HubSpot, businesses who blog regularly have a higher overall ROI. However, an effective blog needs to be updated regularly with insightful, valuable content. Above all else, a blog is a way to exemplify the heartbeat of your business; regularly updated content means your brand is alive and well.
Blogs are an integral part of content marketing that can actually increase your overall conversion rate by up to 6 times. A study by Scribd found 70% of consumers prefer articles to advertisements, which means blogs can actually help drive sales as effectively-if not more-than traditional advertising. What’s more, blogs with high-quality content and the right mix of keywords can boost your overall SEO scores, helping more folks find your business online.
Like any other part of your overall branding strategy, your blog should incorporate a robust multimedia mix, including pictures, video, and infographics. It should also follow a regular schedule; on average, blogging 4 times a week can drive up to three and a half times more traffic. Look for topics that get inspire conversations and get people involved, but also look for creative ways to highlight your brand without being overtly salesy.
3.) Word-of-Mouth Can Be Branding Tools Too!
Even the most persuasive marketing messages aren’t as powerful as a recommendation from a loved one. According to a Nielsen study, 92% of consumers are more likely to act on a suggestion from friends or family than an advertisement. In order to spur your customers to refer you to their friends and family, you have to make them fans. The more passionate your supporters, the more likely they’ll refer your brand to everyone they know.
The most important thing to remember about word-of-mouth marketing is that it can’t be faked. The more pressure you put on your customers to refer you, the less likely they’ll be to actually send their friends and family your way. Just like your social media connections, the relationships you establish have to be genuine in order for them to bear fruit. Believe it or not, the best way to encourage referrals isn’t to incentivize, but simply to do everything well.
Treat your customers like family. Listen to what they have to say and pay attention to their needs, wants, and attitudes. How do they appear when they enter your store vs. when they leave? Is the experience with your brand adding value to their everyday life? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or channel your inner Superman, but it helps to exemplify the positive aspects of your brand on a day-to-day basis.
Are You Using the Right Branding Tools?
According to a study by the Small Business Administration, only about one-third of small businesses survive more than 10 years. Using the right branding tools in a strategic marketing mix can be the difference between the success and failure of your brand. Start working on building a powerful social media and blog presence today and the word-of-mouth referrals will follow!
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