5 Steps to Building a Strong Brand Identity

by ​Raul Harman, Guest Contributor

​Branding. It’s so much more than giving your business a flashy logo and displaying it on the front door. Branding is the process of discovering, defining, and creating the values, stories, and visuals that build a brand and connect it with its demographic on a deep, emotional level. Because acquiring lifelong customers and clients does not begin with a pushy sales ad.

5 steps to build a strong brand identity and establish yourself as the leader in the industry.

No, your brand needs to have an identity, a face and a tone of voice people will resonate with, accept into their lives, and welcome into their reality. With so many competitors in the market, each fighting for their slice of the proverbial cake, branding is the only thing that elevates a company above the crowd and the noise. With that in mind, here are the five steps you want to take to build a strong brand identity and establish yourself as the leader in the industry.

The values that build a brand
A brand can be generic, with generic visuals and a generic tone of voice. Like most others. But a brand can also be unique, engaging, even mesmerising. And the road to achieving this begins with defining your core brand values that will portray your passion to the rest of the world, define your stories, and create a winning personality people will love.

So how do you go about creating these values? Just reach inside. Find out what motivates you to pursue this calling. Is it the desire to end some form of injustice, is it the need to help others in any way, or is it both? Okay, now transform that passion into words, a set of succinctly crafted messages that will define your cause. These will be the staple of your voice, visuals, and personality.

Define your tone of voice
Creating a unique voice in an oversaturated industry is not at all that difficult, but creating the right tone of voice that will reach millions is a whole different story. To find your voice, you’ve got to ask: who is my audience, what are their habits, likes and dislikes, their beliefs and inextricable traits?

Remember, staying true to yourself is important, but it’s also crucial to let the audience influence the creation of your brand. Use your values, along with deep market research to craft a tone of voice that will be informative, friendly, authoritative, and relatable.

Tying it all in with strong visuals
Visuals are crucial to your brand’s identity in a competitive market, as they will play a vital role in separating you from the herd and establishing your brand in the minds and hearts of your demographic. To get a grasp of the importance of visuals and their integration into every channel of communication you use, simply take a look at the thriving Australian market.

In the Land Down Under, priority is given to meticulous visual design and full integration across all platforms, and a professional digital agency in Sydney will not only devote time and effort in crafting a unique visual design, but they will also work towards weaving your brand into every online strategy. This way, the brand can become complete and communicate with audiences in a meaningful way.

Building brand awareness
Marketing and branding are two halves of the same coin. After all, what good is an amazing brand if no one knows it even exists? This is why it’s equally important to raise your brand awareness in the industry through online and offline marketing, working on reaching the hearts and minds of your prospective customers.

To that end, your marketing team needs to create campaigns that truly portray your brand, and disseminate it across social media platforms, other websites, and use SEO to rank it high on that first search page.

Analyse feedback and adjust your strategy
No matter the industry, no matter the niche, market trends are constantly changing, and your brand will either adapt to the ever-fluctuating conditions and new consumer trends, or it will fall into oblivion. Just because you have a winning brand now doesn’t mean that it will stay relevant in the market of tomorrow, so make sure to constantly work towards innovation in order to retain your position in the industry. Gather, analyse, and act upon industry insights in order to tailor your approach and stay on the path to success.

In a world where everything is either a product or a customer, it’s important to set yourself apart from the competition and become truly memorable. Establishing a deep, emotional connection with your demographic can only be achieved through strong branding, so make sure these five steps become the foundation that will build your success.
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