Jeff Bezos
Hey there, Small Business owners. In today’s post we will talk about what a Brand is, Why it’s Crucial to have a Brand vs a Business in 2021 and 10 Strategies for Building a Brand.
Content
- What is Brand Building?
- Why is Brand Building Important?
- Brand Building Strategies
- Questions to Ask Yourself BEFORE Creating a Brand Building Strategy
- Strategy 1: Niche Down
- Strategy 2: Brand Message
- Strategy 3: Brand Story
- Strategy 4: Who is your Competition
- Strategy 5: Stand Out From The Crowd
- Strategy 6: Create Content for your TA
- Strategy 7: Be Consistent
- Strategy 8: Support a Cause
- Strategy 9: Give, Give, Give
- Strategy 10: Don’t Forget the Tech Side
What is Brand Building?
Just as we shared in one of our previous posts, Brand Building is a process of generating Awareness, Trust and Advocacy about you and your business/product, the perception and emotions that customers and clients have when hearing your name.
The same bottle of water that has a cost of a few cents can be sold for a dollar or even $55. What? A bottle of water for $55?
Yes, you have to deliver more value to charge more, than generic brands, but also be different, unique, appealing to your people, your Target Audience.
Consumers are more informed than ever. They are reading the reviews, can tell the fake ones from the real ones, gather all the information they can before making a purchase and aligning their purchase with their beliefs. For example, do you support a cause?
If you sell vegan products and claim to be donating towards PETA, do not buy yourself a fur coat or crocodile leather shoes because when people that align with your Brand Message see it they will stop trusting you and you will damage, if not destroy your brand.
Why is Brand Building Important?
Brand Building helps with the KLT (know, like and trust) factor for you and your business.
For example, real estate niche. There are so many companies in the area, but why would you choose one over the other? Are they more knowledgable? Do they answer the questions you have without trying to push a sale? Do they have a personality or the only thing they care about is the number of zeros in that check?
I’ve seen quite a few real estate profiles on Instagram and Facebook only to notice, that most of them are making the same marketing mistakes – they sell, sell, sell.
Don’t get me wrong, selling is one of the most important components of any business, but in 2021 it has to be balanced with personality, value, and heart.
Let’s be honest, most people do not care about your product. People care about themselves. Yes, it’s nice to check out a few houses, luxury mansions, but unless you are a Brand and you connect with me on an emotional level, I can quickly go for a better price or a better quality, not caring much about your business.
However, if you are a Brand, and I follow you, I like you, I stand for what you stand for, even if your bottle of water is more expensive than average, I’ll buy from you, take real pictures with it and advertise you without asking to be compensated.
Do you see now how important having a Brand is?
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Creating a Brand Strategy
- Question 1: What Problems Do you Solve?
- Question 2: Who Do You Solve it For?
- Question 3: How Do You Solve It?
You need to answer these questions to develop your Message, your Story and your Strategy.
With the real estate company, do you help people buying their dream house? Maybe helping students find housing? Or helping sell luxury mansions (not just expensive houses but rather crème de la crème in the best area) fast?
The template here is this:
I/We help (your Target Audience) get/do (what is it they really want) without (their biggest pain/fear/obstacle) by using (your system or method).
Is it clear? Is it legit? Remember the trust factor, you don’t want to BS or promise something that’s can’t solve your client’s problem.
After you answered those questions, let’s get into …
Strategies for Building a Brand
Strategy 1: Niche Down
If you are just starting out, it’s going to be very difficult to break into very big industries – Health, Wealth, Relationships.
What can you do?
Instead of going after big keywords and big niches, start very niche, as niche as possible – just make sure there is enough people in that niche. The “enough” number will really depend on your industry. Look at Ubersuggest for the number of monthly searches and how easy it will be to rank on the first page (I just LOVE this tool).
After you found yourself a niche, you need to create a strategy on dominating it.
Then double check the questions that you answered. Do they align with the niche you chose?
For example, if I decide to build a brand in a health niche (it’s huuuuge) – there are so many people that are already authorities, how can I stand out? By niching down – maybe not just health but rather fitness (still big), not simply fitness but pilates? Much better!
Who will be my Target Audience? Women (too broad), in their 30s-50s (hm, still quite broad). How about working moms? Just right!
What would their obstacle be? Time?
Then, my message would sound something like – I help working moms to achieve their dream body without spending hours at the gym.
Are you with me?
Cool, the Strategy 2 is coming up, and as a mompreneur I’m gonna end my working week now, go get my kiddo from school and start the weekend!!!!
Have a fabulous, balanced time!
Chat later;)