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13 Top Tips To Help Your Brand Grow
(This is a contributed post)
Growing your brand is a labour of love that takes time and dedication to achieve. Whether you’re a start-up or an established, it takes consistent effort to ensure that your brand continues to grow substantially. Following the tips below can help you strategize ways to boost your brand identity and grow your consumer base meaningfully.
- Prioritize quality over quantity
Whenever you make promises to your customers, make sure you deliver on them. This is especially significant when you’re dealing with first-time visitors to your business. First impressions last and with so much competition out there, it can only take one mistake to send a customer running into the arms of your competitors. So, emphasize consistency in your business and motivate your staff to work to a certain standard in order to ensure that your customers always get your best work. Even in the current crisis of COVID-19, be sure to equip your staff with everything they need to continue to work efficiently, even if they are working remotely.
- Scope out your competition
Take the time to research your competitors. You can start by creating a spreadsheet to compare their features such as their message, quality of products and services, and the reviews made about them by their (and your potential) consumers. Know what your competitors excel in and what they are failing at and learn from their successes and failures. Most importantly, devise how you can stand out from them. Avoid being obvious about copying their strategies. What makes your product or service unique? Why should a consumer pick you and not them? Show the customer what there is to gain by making you their first choice.
- Aim to grow and retain your consumer base
Getting new customers is one thing. Retaining them is a whole different story. With new customers, you are taking the opportunity to put your best foot forward and shine. When you succeed at meeting customer expectations or even exceeding them, what comes next? What, besides quality products and services, will help you turn a new customer into an advocate for your brand? One important factor that you always have to consider in order to answer this is customer service. Research has found that 93% of customers are more likely to repeat purchases with companies that have great customer service. Find how best you can retain customers and promote brand loyalty by visiting The Point of Loyalty.
- Capitalize on social media
Sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat help you to display the personality of your brand. With 79% of Australians using social media, chances are your consumer base is somewhere in that crowd. Influencer marketing is an effective way to promote your brand and has been shown to produce 11 times more ROI (or Return of Investment) than traditional marketing strategies. Even without using social media influencers, the smallest of brands have a great opportunity to connect with a wide audience without having to pay much of anything at all. You can also boost your social media presence by hosting contests for your consumers and posting blogs and promotions on your page. Be creative with the content you post to keep your audience engaged and interested in your brand. Also, make sure the content you post is valuable in order to establish your brand as an authority on industry knowledge.
- Know your target audience
It is impossible to please everyone and to try to do so will waste your time and money. The more specific you are concerning your target audience, the greater your competitive advantage. Understand the lifestyle and behaviour of your target audience and devise market strategies that target their specific wants and needs. This way, your consumer fully understands the kind of messaging you put out because they can relate to it on a more personal level.
- Invest in digital marketing strategies
Apart from marketing on social media, you want to make sure that your business has an established presence elsewhere on the web. Do this by investing in Search Engine Optimization(SEO) to make sure that your consumers can find you easily. To improve your SEO ranking, publish relevant content and update your content regularly to display your expertise, authority and trustworthiness (or E-A-T). Also, focus on your website user experience and develop a responsive web design. There’s nothing more off-putting than a website that is a headache to navigate. Make sure the layout of your website makes sense and that your consumers can easily find what they are interested in. A cumbersome website is basically a customer repellent and will lose you valuable points in consumer growth.
- Create an “About” or “Our Story” page on your website
Increase brand awareness by telling the consumer about the essence of your brand. What do you stand for? Why are you different from the rest? Display your best qualities in a creative manner and let the personality of your brand shine. This might be difficult to do on the limited space provided on your Instagram or Facebook bio. So, dedicate this page to inviting the customer in and use it as a focal selling point on your website. Be sure to proudly display any awards your business has won and highlight your credentials, certificates and any notable achievements.
- Work on your visuals
Your brand logo and tagline are what will allow your consumers to recognize you at a glance. Take some time to put some thought into it because this image is going to be your mascot for a long time. Brand logos carry a certain prestige about them when they are associated with a company that is known to provide quality goods and services. Make sure your logo and tagline stand out by being original and avoiding overcomplicated imaging.
- Use infographics on your website
These are colourful and bright ways to display marketing information without boring your consumers. If your industry is one where some comedy is appropriate, this is your chance to exhibit your company’s unique personality and get quirky with your infographics. Create memorable imagery that your customers will enjoy sharing and reap the benefits of a free ad-campaign. Even in a more serious industry, infographics can be useful for condensing large blocks of text into bite-sized and readily digestible forms that are concise and keep your readers up to date at a glance.
- Take advantage of free resources
There are numerous ways to put your business out there for consumers to see. Increase your virtual visibility by not only establishing a social media presence but also by exploring other free media such as podcasting sites, blog sites and even YouTube. Especially in niche industries, it can be easy to establish yourself as a household name by discussing topics and interviewing other experts in your industry. It’s a great way to forge good working relationships with other businesses in your field of work and another excellent way of establishing a following. This also broadens your opportunities to capture the attention of a wider audience and lends some legitimacy to your brand image. When you look legit, you give people a reason to want to try out your product or service.
- Partner with local businesses
Host festivals and seminars with other local businesses to build consumer awareness of your brand. Ensure that your logo is displayed at such events and also show your community that you care by sponsoring local sports teams or charity events. This goes a long way to build trust in your brand. In addition, associating yourself with more established brands who aren’t your direct competitors can boost the image of your own brand.
- Monitor trends
Look for trending topics that are relevant to your brand and provide insight on these topics. However, avoid pandering or misleading your consumers just for the sake of tagging along onto a trend. When blogging about trending topics, be honest on your take and provide useful and interesting information that will attract your regular audience. This helps your brand to establish a following, which means that people are reading and sharing what you are putting out there to other prospective consumers.
- Try establishing a referral program
Encourage users to spread the word about your brand by rewarding them for getting new users to sign up. For example, give out coupons, free samples or discounted goods or services for every new sign up that each customer brings into your business. This can save you tons of cash in advertising because everyone loves a freebie.
There are several unique and creative ways to establish your brand as trustworthy to both existing and potential consumers. Maintaining the quality of your products and services is one important facet for retaining customers. However, to sustain the growth in your consumer base, use creative marketing strategies to help boost your brand visibility and to make sure your brand can be easily recognized and associated with the quality services you provide. Your consumer base is the heart and soul of your business. Invest in expanding it to ensure the continued growth of your company.
