Anyone can start a business. It’s why there are more than 30 million of them scattered throughout the country.
But creating a brand? That’s a much different story. The brand creation process can be long and tedious for those who don’t know exactly what they’re doing.
If you’re struggling with branding at the moment, you should look to change that immediately. Otherwise, your business might not last as long as you would like it to.
We’ve put together a list of the dos and don’ts for those businesses that are interested in creating a brand that will last. Read through them below and use them to build a successful brand that will stick around for the long haul.
Do: Figure Out Who Your Customers Will Be
Who are the people that you would like to appeal to with your business? It’s going to be very important for you to answer this question from the start.
You should give some thought to who is going to be most likely to invest in the products and/or services that your business sells. They’ll be the people that you’ll want to keep in mind while creating a brand.
You should try to get as specific as you possibly can when you’re identifying your customer base. You might want to go as far as to put together a profile of what you think your average customer will look, think, and act like. It’ll enable you to tailor all your brand marketing in the direction of people who fit into this category.
Don’t: Get Too Caught Up Trying to Appeal to Everyone
In a perfect world, your business would appeal to everyone in this country. You would have well over 330 million people following your every move and buying all your products and/or services.
But of course, this is not going to be the case. Even the biggest corporations in the entire country won’t capture the attention of every American.
With this in mind, you should try not to cast too wide of a net when you’re creating a brand. You’ll be so much better off focusing on one segment of the population versus trying to appeal to all Americans at once.
Do: Set Up a Website for Your Business
Believe it or not, almost one-third of American businesses operate without websites. It seems like it would be almost impossible for businesses to do that in this day and age, but clearly, many of them are still attempting to do it.
You don’t want to try to run a business like this. While you might be able to survive without a website, you probably won’t be able to thrive without one.
Pretty much as soon as you start creating a brand, you should set up a website for it. You should also design a business logo that you can use on it and work on developing a brand image that you can use across all the various pages on your site.
Don’t: Forget to Establish a Social Media Presence
In 2022, it isn’t enough for your business to only have a website that you can use for promotional purposes. You also need to work on strengthening your digital footprint by establishing a social media presence.
Each individual business should take a slightly different approach to how it uses social media. But generally speaking, your brand should have profiles set up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and more.
You should also vow to stay as active as possible on social media. You’ll be surprised to see how many great connections you can form with your customers when you have a presence on social media sites.
More and more companies are starting to see the value in social media branding. But there are still some that are afraid to throw their hats into the social media ring, and it’s hurting them in a huge way.
Do: Develop a Very Specific Voice for Your Brand
Whether you’re putting up posts on your website or communicating with your customers on social media, you’ll need to do it in a very specific voice. This voice is going to play a huge part in creating a brand.
Some brands will go with a very silly and/or sarcastic voice. A voice like this might help you with brand marketing since some of your posts will inevitably get picked up by the media or, at the very least, get noticed by your customers more than they would otherwise.
Other brands will go with a very serious and straightforward voice. A voice like this is going to work wonders for companies that want customers to take them more seriously.
But whatever the case, having a voice for your brand and using it will both be of the utmost importance. You’ll set your business apart from the pack when you have a voice that you rely on.
Don’t: Try to Copy the Same Voice Your Competitors Use
At some point, when you’re working on creating a brand, you will want to identify and evaluate your competitors. You’re going to benefit from knowing who your competition is since it’ll allow you to do your best to keep up with them.
But one thing that you’re not going to want to do is aim to copy your competitors. This will be especially true when it comes to creating a voice for your brand.
If you utilize the same voice as your competitors or if you use a voice that is even somewhat similar to theirs, it isn’t going to bode well for your business. It might give other people the impression that you’re not all that different from the other companies in your space.
That isn’t to say that you should simply choose the opposite voice of your competitors and run with that. But it does mean that you should work on crafting a voice for your brand that’s going to make it stand out in the crowd.
Do: Work With Companies That Can Benefit Your Business
The vast majority of business owners don’t know all the ins and outs of creating a brand. It’s why so many of them fail when branding their businesses.
But just because you don’t know much about creating a brand doesn’t mean you can’t still do it. You’re just going to have to call on the professionals to help you out while you’re branding your business.
Avenue 25 is an excellent example of a company that you can count on for all your brand creation needs. They’ll be able to assist you with everything from branding to brand marketing to custom web design.
You shouldn’t be shy about asking for help when you need it while creating a brand. You can give yourself a leg up on your competition by knowing which companies you can depend on for branding.
Don’t: Expect to See Immediate Results Overnight
The biggest mistake that many business owners make is thinking that creating a brand is something that can be done overnight. They think they’re going to be able to just flip a switch and suddenly have a brand on their hands.
But this is, unfortunately, not how it works. Even if you hire the best branding company in the world to help you, they’re going to preach patience and tell you that you’ll have to wait a little while to see results.
The last thing that you want to do is begin branding your company, fail to see any results right away, and then switch up your whole approach to branding. It’s going to lead to confusion among consumers and prevent you from creating the brand that you want to.
Instead of being impatient, you should identify what you want your brand to be and then be consistent in trying to create your ideal brand. Taking this approach should yield positive results over the long run and make you feel better about the branding efforts that you’re making.
Start Creating a Brand by Using These Dos and Don’ts to Your Advantage
Now that you know more about creating a brand from scratch, you should start trying to do it. Utilize the do’s and don’ts found here to get your brand off to a strong start.
Within just a year or two, you should be able to take a step back and see a full-fledged brand right in front of you. You’ll be so proud of the brand you were able to create from the ground up.
Get more useful branding tips and tricks by browsing through more of our blog articles.
