Branding Strategies You Probably Overlooked & Why You Should Implement Them

Nowadays, the online market is over saturated, to say the least. Online consumers are overrun by various offers on every media channel. There’s too much noise that it makes it difficult for consumers to pick one business over the other, especially since everything looks pretty much the same to them. However, developing a personal brand is a good way to stand out in the crowd and capture the attention of the target audience.

Brands are unique and can establish a more personal relationship with their customers. Nevertheless, simply developing a personal brand isn’t enough to truly inspire engagement and loyalty in customers these days. The main reason is that many brands blindly follow the same strategies and have difficulties differentiating themselves from one another.

Or, simply put, failing to find their unique “x-factor” that will effectively attract their audience. That being said, a brand is more than just a logo or a color palette used to customize the company’s website. What’s more, sacrificing the quality of your product just to lower the price isn’t an effective brand strategy that will help attract customers or help outrun your competition. Here are a few branding strategies you overlooked and why you should start implementing them.

Video content

Visual content is the best marketing strategy a brand can use, with video being the most popular aspect of visual content. It’s no secret that online audiences prefer watching a video rather than reading text. That’s why video content can prove to be much more effective at delivering brand messages about products, services or personalized offers to customers than articles. As a matter of fact, 96% of online consumers stated that product videos are very helpful in their decision-making process.

Moreover, brands can improve their conversion rate by 80% simply by adding video to their landing page. That’s not all that video content can do for a brand. By adding video to an email newsletter, a brand can improve click-through rate (CTR) by 200-300%. Optimizing video content for mobile is also crucial, especially since 53% of mobile users prefer brands that offer video on their mobile sites and apps. A successful branding strategy is meeting customer’ expectations and demands, and that’s where video content can be of great aid.

Storytelling

Businesses develop personal brands, in order to gain competitive advantage and convince their audience that they’re the right brand for them. However, gaining that advantage is more difficult than ever, especially since competition is quite strong. That’s why brands implement creativity and innovation into their strategies to win over customers. In order to achieve that, you need to have at least some kind of grasp of storytelling 101. Basically, you need to use your brand identity in a creative way to tailor your messages, as well as your brand’s story to the audience.

That way, a brand is able to showcase their company mission and their goals in a way that’s appealing to their customers. Moreover, it shows that a brand is much more than just a business behind a logo. Most importantly, it shows the reasons behind the brand’s agenda and how they want to solve problems and serve their customers the best way possible. Simply put, this strategy portrays a brand more human-like, which helps customers develop more personal relationships with that brand.

Social listening

It’s in every brand’s interest to know what their target audience thinks and talks about them, as well as how they are perceived. That information is crucial in developing and growing a brand further. The main reason is that brands are designed in way that’s most appealing to their consumers. For instance, the tone of voice used in communication that will encourage engagement, colors on the brand’s website that trigger specific emotions and much more. Everything a brand does must positively reflect on their audience, in order to inspire loyalty.

Social listening is a good way to find out what your customers think about your brand. Nowadays, it’s difficult to control the flow of information, which means that people will openly and publicly state their opinions on social media and other channels. One dissatisfied customer may easily ruin your entire reputation if you don’t respond accordingly. Moreover, competitors may deliberately try to give out bad reviews in order to undermine you. With social listening, you’re able to track brand mentions across various channels and monitor conversations concerning your brand. That way, you can always zero in on those conversations and respond when a situation requires you to do so.

Hosting and sponsoring an event

Sponsoring or hosting an event is a great way to improve your brand’s visibility and gain favorable reputation. Building an image of success and a business that can meet customers’ expectations is always a good thing. Brand sponsoring means providing funding, services or products to endorse events, trade shows, nonprofit organizations, charities and more, in order to gain more exposure and attract new customers. Event hosting and sponsorship are quite popular these days.

So much in fact, that it’s estimated that sponsor spending will reach $24.2 billion in the U.S. and $65.6 billion worldwide in 2018. The main benefit of hosting or sponsoring an event is placing your brand in front of a large audience. The bigger and more meaningful the event is, the more publicity you’ll be able to gain. What’s more, you’ll able to effectively market your brand to a niche audience and attract more qualified leads. Furthermore, if the event is philanthropic in nature, such as fundraisers or charities, you’ll gain community’s goodwill and positive sentiment from your target audience.

Businesses oftentimes believe that developing a brand is simply adding a fancy logo. Moreover, they believe that if they pronounce themselves a brand it will be enough to cut through the crowded market. In reality, developing a personal brand requires much more dedication and effort. That’s why newly found brands overlook branding strategies that can elevate their business and truly help them stand out in the crowd. The key is to try out different strategies until you find what’s best for your brand.

Author Bio:

Jolene Rutheford is a marketing specialist- turned blogger, currently writing quality content for Technivorz. She is interested in and passionate about media and social media, digital marketing, psychology and much more.  Jolene loves coffee, jazz, dystopian and fantasy movies.

 

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