How to brand your business: First steps

There is a lot of conversation today about personal branding on social networks, about successful bloggers, influencers, about those who managed to turn their hobby into a lucrative business. Marketing campaigns are increasingly turning to influencers, and Instagram has become the number one place to create the perfect content of a brand’s visual presentation, whether it’s someone’s lifestyle or a hobby like cooking or traveling.

Social networks have been an integral part of our lives for some time and it is almost impossible to imagine life without them, but do we use them to our advantage?

Branding is one of the fundamental principles of how to build a successful business and business career. Today, branding has gone beyond its established framework and it is perfectly normal for individuals to build their own brands as well. The importance of branding is discussed by various success stories around us, so it’s time to deal with branding and brand building.

“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.” _{? Howard Schultz, Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time}

First of all, it is necessary to define the goal of branding a product, service or individual. The goal may be to increase sales, but also to find a job or engagement. Regardless of what goal is set, it must be measurable so that the individual can follow the development and path of his brand. This is followed by defining the visual identity (logo, name and typography) and all the content that will be attached to that brand. When we talk about content, we mean everything that will be published regarding that brand, from texts, photos, visuals, video content. Finally, follows the distribution plan and the definition of the media through which the brand will communicate.

Tips and tricks

• It is of particular importance to create a trusting relationship with your community, communicate interactively with your followers, answer comments and questions, and position yourself as one that helps and cares. And, your followers will always opt for you because they trust you and your brand.
• Create relevant, authentic content and publish it regularly. It is advisable that the content be informative, useful, fun and it must give some free value to your followers.
• Invest in the visual identity of your brand. When it comes to content, we must not forget about the visual part of the brand presentation and it is very important that we design the visual identity of our brand in collaboration with the graphic designer in accordance with what we want to communicate.

Homework:
Make a list of attributes you love about your brand and the ones you hope to have. You can’t brand if you don’t know what qualities you want your brand to have. When you have the qualities, think about the colours you wish to be associated with your brand.
Answer these thee questions about your costumers

1. Who are your costumers
2. Where are your costumers?
3. What do they want?