In today’s competitive and unforgiving business world, you are either progressing or failing. Brand elevation is a necessary part of every business and it means continuous improvement. The very process is helping you make a competitive differentiation and create a strategy which will allow you to focus on your priorities – your company and customers.
Essentially, brand is everything your company does and the way how it does it – from the word of mouth you are producing to the feelings your product evokes in customers. Elevating your brand, thus, means making strategic choices about using those values to shape positive customer experience and create engagement and connection. Here are some ways to do it.
1. Put Your Customers First
All branding efforts should begin and end with the customer. So no matter are you just trying to build your brand from the scratch, elevate it or rebrand, you will have to evaluate the opinions and feelings of the customers. Your end goal should be to create satisfactory customer experience which will draw them to your product or service for a long time. Instead of offering simple product or a service, try to provide them with a lifestyle.
2. Humanize Your Brand
When you have first started with branding, someone probably told you that your brand should have a personality, but the truth is so much more. That persona should also embody human experience, use emotions and honest storytelling techniques. So evoking true and honest emotions is much better than simply pushing your products down customers’ throats.
3. Encourage Customers to Promote Your Brand
All the time and money invested in marketing cannot be nearly as efficient and long lasting as good word of mouth. By encouraging customers to spread awareness about your product, you are basically creating your company a free marketing department. You can do that by offering discounts in exchange for customers’ referrals. Also, if some of your customers is influential in the industry, you can ask for a review of your product/service.
4. Create a Strong Online Presence
Online presence is not a simple brochure of your firm placed in the digital environment. It should be a virtual version of your company open for 24 hours, with informative and welcoming website, Facebook page, Twitter account and other social media’s accounts. Out of 3.419 billion internet users, 2.307 billion are active social media users, so do not forget to put appropriate focus to that field.
Keep your tone approachable, encourage feedback and use emotions to connect with users.
5. Be Mobile Friendly
More than 3.500 billion people are searching the web via their mobile devices, and that number is expected to grow by another 4% annually.
Furthermore, since April 2015, Google has started prioritizing mobile-optimized sites in search results for smartphones.
That can only mean one – optimize your website as soon as possible. Another essential part of being mobile friendly is having your own app. So, if you have not yet done it, build an app which will serve as a tool for promoting, showcasing and even selling your products and services.
6. Offer Valuable Content
Offering your users a valuable and informative content will make you stand out from the competition and become their go-to place when they are in search for some answers. Your content must be so exceptional that it provokes a response or a critique from the reader.
Point it to the audience for which you are certain it will react (you will get that knowledge by doing market research). Because your customers are exposed to billion of information on a daily basis, you have to make sure it will reach to your target audience. Do that by promoting it through social media, Google adds, etc.
No product and service is so good that it will be its own commercial and some just need a little push. Direct your attention towards these tactics and soon enough you will be able to relax and watch your brand grow. Just do not get too relaxed – brand elevation only works when it is a neverending process.
Nate M. Vickery is a business consultant from Sydney, Australia. His fields of expertise are company management and efficient work environment through latest technology trends, as well as internet marketing. He is also an editor in chief at bizzmarkblog.com.
