The Beginner’s Guide to Branding

Unless you live under a rock, you must have heard the term “branding” at least once in your life and know what’s it’s about. But here’s the thing- you may know only little, as the subject is surrounded by a plethora of misconceptions. For instance, small business owners think that branding is something that only the big corporates should care about, or that their business is a domain that doesn’t really need branding.

Truth is that no matter how small your business is, or whichever your industry is, you need branding. This is because without a brand your business doesn’t have an identity, a public face that the people can relate to. In other words, without branding, it’s nearly impossible to find your business amid hundreds of thousands of businesses out there.

Now, you don’t have to let the entire idea of “branding” overwhelming you, as it’s quite easy to manage and apply if you know what you are doing. That said, this blog post can be your ultimate beginner’s guide to company branding.

Let’s get started.

1. The significance of company logo

Although branding covers a lot of things such as customer service, product designs, social media content, and more, it’s the logo that sits at the center of it all. This is because your company logo is basically what that encapsulates everything that there is about your company. It reflects its values, quality, integrity, and many more such things that help a customer recognize your company and relate to it at the same time.

Your company logo also reflects professionalism and commitment, as only those businesses that are competitive and dedicated usually have a good company logo.

2. Understanding your brand

Now that we know why you should have a great company logo, it’s time to lay the foundation. This is only possible if you have a good understanding of your business- what’s it about, and what should the others think of it.
It’s a good idea to take a look at your competitors and their brands. What is it that sets your company apart? The answer to this question will help you identify your unique brand.

The following are additional questions that you should ask yourself to get closer to creating your brand:

• Do you have a modern approach towards running a business, or you like to stick with the tried and tested traditional methods?
• Does your business have a fun and informal vibe, or more of a classy and formal vibe?
• Are your services/products for the masses or select demographics?

3. Creating the perfect logo

It’s natural if you think that you can create your own logo without any help. However, that could be easily a bad idea. This is because if you need your company logo to look professional and has a quality that’s reflective of your business, you need a professional logo maker. Besides, thanks to many SaaS branding products, you don’t have to pay a fortune to get a quality logo done.

For instance, Tailor Brands offers a complete branding suite under a subscription plan of just $9.99. Although you can just get a one-time logo creation service for $2.99 it’s best to go for full service that comes with social media analytics, social media banners, business cards, and more.

Another great benefit of using Tailor Brands is that it’s based on a state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI), which we already know is revolutionizing the businesses across the globe. It does all the manual work for you-you just need to tell it what kind of logo you want. What’s more, it produces the designs in seconds!

4. Get the message out

So, now you have a perfect company logo ready. What now?

Well, obviously just creating a logo won’t create a brand on its own. You have to get the word out there, promote the brand on the basis of the logo. A good and easy way to do this is via social media.

So, you can create a company page on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (in case you haven’t already) and put your logo on the banner and the content you share. With time, your fans will start recognizing your logo, and it will help create a brand. However, be sure to read a guide to improving brand sentiment in social media, as it will stop you from taking a decision that can potentially harm your brand image.

5. Work culture branding

Remember- your brand isn’t affected by your customers only. Your own employees have a huge impact on how your company is being perceived by the public.

If they are proud to be working in your company, then they will share the same feeling outside of their workspace with their friends and family. Similarly, if they themselves don’t feel your brand is the best-in-class or awe-inspiring, they would have a neutral (even negative) mindset of their own, and it will hurt your brand value when they will spread that kind of message in the public.

In other words, external branding is important, but so is internal branding. So, if you want to master internal branding, it’s important to synchronize your brand values and work culture, instill a feeling of mutual support and comradery in your staff, and create a culture that they are proud being a part of.

6. Keeping your customers engaged

Every day hundreds of new startups are launched, and as some of them start to grow, many existing ones slip out of the limelight. So, even if you have successfully established your brand, you can’t afford to rest on your laurels.
You have to keep your audience engaged so that your brand isn’t wiped off from the face of the commercial landscape. That said, the traditional branding and marketing methods won’t do.

Today, branding is all about “advertainment” and not advertisement. Advertainment meaning advertisement coupled with entertainment.

Formal and corporate-agenda advertisement won’t take you much far. You need fun and entertaining promotions to keep your customers engaged and happy. A few good examples of advertainment include fun competitions on social media platforms (with rewards for the winners, if possible), informative yet interesting videos for others to learn from, free ebooks, webinars, etc.

7. Growing your brand

One of the most important qualities of a successful business is that it always continues to grow. So, you want your brand to be there and make an impact, but you also want to get new customers.

This can be achieved in many ways: providing excellent customers services that improve brand loyalty, maintaining full brand visibility and presence wherever possible, running promotional schemes that reward your current customers who turn their friends into new customers, etc.

Branding is extremely important for every business, but it’s also an ongoing process. Unfortunately, many companies start strong but falter down the road. If you want your business to achieve the success it deserves, be sure to keep your branding efforts unaffected by time or the circumstances.