Contrary to popular belief, branding is not only about the logo. Having a logo is just the start of your branding journey.
If you feel stuck after creating your logo for your business, make sure to read further to find out which steps should you take.
What is branding?
Spoiler: It’s not a logo, nor your product’s advertisement. Branding is so much more than that. Simply put, your brand is your consumer’s perception of your company. It’s what people say and feel about your brand—it’s your prized reputation.
And in order to communicate the feeling that you want to impart, you should invest time, resources, and money in order to create a recognizable brand.
Building your own brand
Taking steps to build your own brand means you are generating awareness about your company using campaigns and strategies with the goal of developing a unique, lasting image that stands out in the marketplace.
Now that you have a stellar logo, it’s about time to strategize how will you communicate your brand.
There are three phases of branding: brand strategy, brand identity, and brand marketing.
Brand Strategy
As the term suggests, a brand strategy will help you distinguish what makes you different from your competitors. It is your edge that your ideal customers will love about you.
Ideally, this should be the first step when creating a brand. The logo shouldn’t be executed out of whim and on pure aesthetics. The brand strategy is the blueprint for your succeeding executions, logo included.
An effective brand strategy should include the following: brand discovery, competitor research, target audience, brand voice, brand message & story.
Keep in mind that this is a vital step for building a remarkable brand. Businesses usually skip this stage and jump right into the design aspect, which is something that we do not recommend.
It is imperative to discover the purpose of your brand. Why do you exist in the first place? What problem are you trying to address? What differentiates you from other businesses? And more importantly, why should people give you their attention?
Figure out the answers to build a foundation of your branding. This will be your blueprint to create slogans, stories, value propositions, voice, and more.
Brand Identity
After mapping out the blueprint of your brand, brand identity refers to the way you communicate your message to the public through messaging, visuals, and experience. The elements of brand identity include the following: color scheme, website design, fonts, content, advertising, print, packaging design, logo, and more.
Brand Marketing
Now that you are done with the two steps, take a step to brand marketing. In this stage, you will decide how will you highlight your business’s products and/or services and make them known to your ideal audience.
This can be achieved through the following: website development, SEO & content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising.
Your website is the most important marketing asset you have for growth and brand awareness. This is what your customers will see and visit to learn more about your business. Not only does the user experience have to be great in order to convert, but how you convey your message needs to communicate your brand strategy.
When it comes to SEO and content marketing, it is one of the most effective long-term tactics to increase brand awareness, as well as generate organic traffic to your website. There are a lot of ways to excel in search engine results.
When building a blog, think about what content will resonate with your consumers and how will the content get out to create organic traffic.
Likewise, you are also bound to think about how you will be promoting the content.
Also, did you know that consumers usually utilize social networks to make purchasing decisions? This only means that you have to invest in social media marketing.
Social media marketing practices include curating and publishing content, community building, and paid advertising. A purposeful social media strategy will help your business connect with ideal clients.
These are just some of the tips that you can do after creating a stellar logo. However, if you still don’t have a logo, then this serves as a great starting point. Let these pointers guide you in building a successful brand!