by Michele Leon

The heart of your marketing strategy revolves on the branding of your business and not the products or services that it provides. This is because your business needs to build up the reputation of being reliable and providing great customer service that goes well beyond what it offers to consumers. If you want your company to have real longevity and a growing customer base, you’ll need to build up the brand of your business so that it pays off in the long run.

The Importance of Branding

Your marketing strategy will be built around the branding of your company. It is your beacon to get the message out to customers who will know and understand what you are doing. It is the type of approach that will help allow you to maintain control of your message. In social media for example, it is basically impossible to keep everyone on-message if you do not have a clear, strong brand. While it takes time to build up your brand, the effort will be well worth it.

Keep in mind that establishing your branding strategy means more than creating a nice logo or a catchy slogan or tag line. It means having customers saying good things about you and translating that to get more customers. This will help you maintain control in your social media efforts and use the communication to see just where you stand. So, if your company is doing well, you’ll see it in what people are saying about you. If there is a problem, you can use social media as a way of doing damage control. In either circumstance, understanding the how to of establishing your brand will go a long way towards promoting the message you want to potential customers.

Longevity

Although there are many different tactics and strategies to staying in business, you will need the triumvirate of relevance, patience, and most importantly persistence. Over time, you branding efforts will evolve as your business moves into different frontiers. The key to your efforts is building up the brand without losing your authenticity. It’s admittedly tough to maintain as you must keep your eye on the overall marketing strategy and where you take your business. By doing it right, your business can enjoy the following benefits;

• Create Authenticity
• Generate Emotion
• Add Value
• Create Dialogue with Customers
• Build a Following

You will need to be very persistent with your branding efforts. The more you can post, Tweet, provide video, write articles, or even hold live events to promote your company, the better you will be received by the public. Once you capture their attention and keep it close to the vest, your business will enjoy considerable long-term benefits that will truly last.

Tips on How to Maintain Your Brand

When establishing your brand, there are a few tips that can help you better focus on your goals. Keep in mind that proper branding takes time.

• Take the Right Amount of Time to Work on Your Brand
• Take the Time to Implement New Ideas
• Tailor Your Approach
• Once You Decide, Go Forward and Do Not Look Back

The final piece of advice is very important because second-guessing your efforts may cause more trouble than you might realize.

How to Fix Your Brand

If you have been in business for a while and are not seeming to get anywhere, it may be your branding. There are signs that this may be true, so you will need to identify the cause first before taking action. After all, if people do not know about your business, then you cannot sell them any goods or services.

• How do customers describe your business?
• Are you hearing things that you do not want to hear?
• Is their response in line with your marketing strategy?

Basically, if the feedback you are receiving is not in line with the goals of your branding efforts, then you will need to rethink your approach. The good news is that the sooner you find out that things are not going the way of your business, the easier it is to make changes. It’s better to take a hit now rather than going months in the wrong direction because it may be too late to do anything about it at that point. So, once you identify that there is an issue with your brand, the next step is making the right decision so that changes will create a positive result.

Also, remember that your brand is flexible which means that every few years you will want to make some tweaks just to keep it fresh without making any serious changes. A few tweaks here and there ensure that customers do not grow tired or complacent about your business.

Be Consistent

Remember that your brand will ebb and flow over the course of the days, months, and years that you put it into place. This means that a slip in interest here or a surge of interest there is all part of the branding effort. Unless you uncover a serious issue that needs attention quickly, your best course of action is to maintain your efforts in supporting the brand. This means engaging in a healthy routine that constantly checks, updates, and augments your marketing strategy when it comes to your efforts in building up the business brand.

• Get Feedback: Know where you stand
• Share Information: If no one seems interested, find out why
• It could be the wording, timing, or clarity of your posts
• Know your Audience: Tailor your message to them
• Speak the Language: Understand and use the right language for your target audience

You will also need to find mentors who understand the industry and help out your business efforts. The more you can take control of what you are doing, the better you can react in terms of taking the right actions to correct the situation.

The more time you spend in understanding how to properly brand your company, the better your overall marketing strategy will be.

Looking for more on business branding? Read our article the 7 Signs It’s Time To Rebrand Your Business.