Building a brand from the ground up can be daunting, especially for startups. This is because most new companies challenge the existing competitors, who most likely have already established a name in the industry.
As an entrepreneur, you might find yourself crippled by the idea of spending long hours and squeezing your creativity dry just to come up with an effective brand strategy. And, unless you have a massive capital that you’re willing to spend on trial-and-error, you might find that trying to handle brand strategy on your own may not be the most practical way to go.
Fortunately, there are ways by which you can ensure your brand’s reach without you having to go through all that trouble. With the help of a reputable branding agency, you should be able to overcome these challenges and present your company as an authority in your chosen industry.
So, without further ado, here are the top five most effective ways to market your startup company and establish a name for your brand:
1. Focus on Solving Consumer Problems
One common mistake people make in marketing is focusing on the product rather than banking on the experience. Keep in mind that consumers are not inherently interested in a product. What they want is a solution to their problems.
When you just talk about the features, benefits, and facts about the product, you may be missing out on opportunities to engage potential customers.
Instead, you should tell a story. Doing this with characters showing intense emotions will help your brand marketing strategy.
However, it is vital that you remember to tell an honest story. Don’t make one up.
To achieve this, be sure to involve your target market in the making of such a story by bringing them behind the scenes. Allow them to experience the benefits of the products for themselves and have them attest to how it changed their lives.
2. Grow a Following
Organically growing a brand means you also have to cultivate a following. Try to get the approval of a specific group of people who will do the marketing of your brand for you. These people will be your brand evangelists.
Because they spread knowledge about the product by word of mouth, they have a broader audience reach. Their voices are also considered more credible and compelling than the brand’s own voice since they offer firsthand and consumer-based accounts of a product’s greatness.
This claim is supported by a Nielsen report, which states that more consumers (68 percent) trust other consumers’ reviews and opinions of a product. The report also revealed that only 48 percent trust ads from social media and other platforms.
3. Create a Unique and Likeable Brand Identity
A brand identity does matter, especially when it comes to startups which are only beginning to introduce themselves to the market. When creating one, it is important that you make it unique.
While no brand can be considered truly unique due to the influx of information in the digital world, no one can fully replicate an entire brand identity. This is especially true if you incorporate how fun, outrageous, outspoken, or charming you are.
The combination of these adjectives cannot be mimicked down to the last detail, which still makes your brand one-of-a-kind.
4. Offer Valuable Content
The use of content in brand marketing is a well-established fact, and yet, people remain adamant in not creating one for their brand.
But if you truly want to make a lasting impression with your brand, you absolutely must create valuable content. Not only does this help consumers remember you, but it also ensures that knowledge about your products or services spreads farther with the help of search engines.
Aside from generating traffic, this particular brand strategy will effectively make you an authority in your chosen industry. Plus, specific forms of content – like whiteboard animation clips – offer an efficient way of introducing an innovative product or service while keeping the audience interested.
5. Use the Power of Social Media
Social media marketing is very useful when it comes to introducing a new brand. This is because most people today have access to platforms and keep tabs on what’s going on around the world through them.
In fact, reports revealed that two-thirds of the American population use social media every day, without fail. This represents a growth that made social media five times more powerful in brand marketing today compared to the previous decade.
Among the social media platforms that you can use are Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and many more. Of course, you must only pick the ones that will generate the best results for your brand as trying to master them all will leave make you a master of none.
For instance, if you have a business-to-business brand, you probably should focus on brand marketing on LinkedIn. Professionals and corporate bosses comprise a big percentile of the users of this platform, so you automatically narrow down your reach to focus on your target audience.
Leave an Impression That Lasts
Leaving an impression that lasts is the very essence of brand marketing. If you do it right, you should be able to present your company as a reputable product or service provider as well as an authority in your chosen niche.
AUTHOR BIO
Grace Yacoub is the owner, founder and CEO at Zaman. She recognized the potential to develop brands in Dubai back in 1996. Amongst her first projects were to convert the local powerhouses of Etisalat and NBD into branded entities and engage the nation in the drive for modernity. She has since led projects across finance, family, industry, property, retail and all sectors to convert many of the region’s most important companies into powerful brands.
