SPECIAL FEATURE: Why startups and entrepreneurs can’t ignore brand building

As part of Bdaily’s latest feature, Entrepreneurship Week, we hear from Ann Haagensen, a senior account manager with Birmingham based full-service marketing agency, Digital Glue.

Ann delved into the complex world of brand building to decipher what startups and entrepreneurs must do in order to grow the prominence of their business. Read on to find out more…

Startups and growing businesses often overlook the importance of brand. They are focused on increasing sales to stay afloat. But ensuring you have a strong brand will give you a competitive advantage and help secure success both short and long term.

Brand is one of those terms that gets bandied around and people feel they know what it means. For most, a brand is considered a logo, design, and other visual elements. But it’s more than that.

“When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, you have a brand. In other words, a brand is not what YOU say it is. It’s what THEY say it is.” (Marty Neumeier, author - The Brand Gap).

When driving growth for your startup, building your brand will turn consumers into loyal customers, who will strengthen your position by keeping returning, just because of the way you make them feel.

So, when entrepreneurs look to claim their spot in a fierce marketplace, it’s crucial to make sure they use all the tools in the arsenal to affect what people believe about their business.

Elements of Building a Brand

While brand is often equated to logo, colours, and design elements in many people’s minds, there are other elements you need to consider:

Vision, mission, and behaviours Tone of voice Messaging.

Every time you communicate, either verbally or visually through your website, your marketing activities, and even your sales team, you make a promise to your customers. Building your brand is creating the experiences that will make people want to come back.

The combination of your promise and the experience your customers have leads to an expectation or a feeling - and that is your brand. If what your promise doesn’t match the experience, you don’t meet your customers’ expectations and this impacts your brand negatively.

When thinking of your promise, it is important to think about why you do what you do. Author Simon Sinek wrote in his book Start with Why: “There are only two ways to influence human behaviour: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it.” Inspiring people creates loyal followers, and people are inspired when they know your why.

Businesses are used to communicating in facts and stats, where in reality people connect with emotions and feelings. Articulating your why and using this as a filter for all your activities will not only help give you clarity, it will also attract people who connect with your why.

Driving Business Success Through Brand

Once you’re clear on your why, and have your brand elements in place, you’re ready to go. So, what can you do to build your brand in people’s minds?

As discussed previously, the two elements that impact brand perception are promise and experience. First make sure that your business delivers on what you promise through the experience, while also aligning with your why. When growing your business there are several ways you can impact both the promise and the experience:

The Promise

How do people know what you promise if they aren’t even aware of your brand? Working on increasing your brand awareness will help get your message out. Use tools such as:

• PR: work with relevant media to offer opinions and secure reviews.
• SEO: ensure your website appears on top of search engine results pages for better visibility.
• Advertising: reach a large audience either offline or online. With the right ads you create recognition.
• Social media: Make sure you have a presence on the social media platforms your audience uses.

The Experience

Once people interact with your brand, either with a team member or your website, you need to leave them with a positive experience. As an entrepreneur, you often have control over most elements of your business, but as you scale, make sure that everyone is onboard with the why and your mission.

It’s all about consistency. The look and feel, the communication, and the experience should be the same across all touch points. It will help people arrive at the same gut feeling and as a result you have a brand.

Brand Doesn’t Happen Overnight

Building success through brand activities is a marathon, not a sprint. But, by taking small steps every day, you can ensure the longevity of your business.

The ultimate goal is to grow by creating loyal customers. When people become advocates for your business, you create a ripple effect, and others follow. A constant focus on sales goals will see your revenue increase in spikes around promotions, but that’s short-lived success.

It makes it easy for consumers to jump from business to business and chase the next deal. To establish your growing business and drive better performance, it is crucial that you combine brand activities with sales-driven activities.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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