18 ways to build a strong brand

The idea for 18 Ways To Build a Strong Brand came from an infographic which was created by Monitor Creative. We loved the infographic so we decided to expand on each tip to help increase understanding. The original infographic is attached below. Enjoy!

Be instantly recognisable

Being recognisable as a company is awfully important as you want someone to be able to look at your marketing materials and straight away pick up that it’s you. Whether that be through colours, fonts or design style, you want to be recognised straight away so people know that your company exists. This will potentially end up with your brand gaining more clients or customers.

Choose your colours wisely

Colours DO matter, you should keep them to a minimum but making sure that they create the correct impact. For instance, red implies power, yellow implies optimism and black implies sophistication. Choose a colour scheme that works but make sure that the colours correspond to what you are trying to get across to your audience.

Develop brand rules… and use them!

Making a style guide is a simple way of using and sticking to brand rules. Make sure that you have a simple style guide document including your logos (of different styles and colours), colour scheme and the brand’s font. Creating a style guide ensures consistency within your brand.

Establish a strong visual style

Your brand’s design style makes an impact on your audience which can be both positive and negative. Of course, you don’t want it to make a negative impact! So establishing a well-designed strong visual style, will make sure your potential and current audience/customers will be able to pick you out from a crowded market place.

Make sure your logo is front and centre… but don’t overdo it!

Making sure your logo is front and centre puts eyes on it and increases brand awareness. Potential/current clients know straight away that it’s your brand.

Use every opportunity to let your brand shine

As mentioned in points 1 – 5, branding is very important so branding every piece of content you put out will further instil your brand in your audience's sub-consciousness.

Develop a bespoke tone of voice

Being original is always the best way to be unique. Try not to imitate other brands with the way that they do things or how to communicate/speak. Be yourself as this helps you stand out from the crowd.

Create a mood board of your brand’s keywords

Use this as your starting point when developing content. When writing content, the mood board of keywords can prompt you and remind you to incorporate them, whether its blogs or general social media content, it helps you stay consistent.

Create an inspiring and memorable strapline

If your brand has a strapline that makes your audience remember you, you’re doing it right! A short and snappy strapline that sums up your brand is all that you need to put yourself out there and be remembered. It can also say a lot about you as it should convey the absolute essence of your brand. For example, ours is “Solutions through web development”.

Promote your brand’s back story

Brand storytelling should be the foundation of a growth strategy which can set you apart from the competition. Storytelling is more effective and people can relate better. Overall people just like stories! It helps to keep the audience, whether current or potential clients, engaged and interested.

Get involved in conversations on social media

Everybody knows that social media is a great way to make people aware of your brand. It is a great medium to talk to clients and promote your product or service, listening to their interests as well as their complaints, but don’t just talk to your customers, engage in conversation with them.

Keep an eye on your competitors… but never copy them

Keeping an eye on the competition is completely normal as you want to keep up to date with what current trends are or specifically what your competitor’s trends are at the time. Of course, never imitate them and stay original! You only want to be looking at your competition to know what they are doing, so you can have a better angle on how to surpass them.

Train every one of your employees to buy into the brand 100%

If your employees aren’t your brand’s number 1 fan then they haven’t bought into it properly! They will be able to promote and provide excellent customer service to your potential clients or customers to the best of their ability.

Take things offline

Get involved in events and public relations that align with your brand. Meeting people face to face gives them the chance to get to know your brand better as being online doesn’t reveal every single bit of information about you. Going to events makes more brands or companies aware of you.

If you’re going to collaborate with high-profile individuals, choose ones that embrace your brand values

When finding influencers or high-profile individuals, always work with people who want the same outcome or have the same core values as you, because then your brand aligns.

Don’t try and appeal to everyone

It’s impossible to please everyone so as long as you are pleasing your target audience that is all that matters.

Use as many relevant marketing channels as possible

Not everyone is on every single social media or marketing platform. So, getting your brand on all different types of relevant marketing channels gives you a chance to be seen by a whole variety of people and not just a restricted number.

Constantly evolve your brand… remember a successful brand never stands still

Evolving your brand helps you to stay relevant and up to date. Be constantly active online, updating your audience on what is going on and be consistent!