Branding extends far beyond the brand name and a visually-appealing logo. Your company’s brand identity is more about what people think about your company.
Having a solid brand marketing plan won’t only help you build trust with your target audience, but it will also help you create a loyal customer base. Who doesn’t wants to be chosen over their competitors? I do and I know you too.
But, before we dig deeper into creating a brand marketing plan, let’s understand the difference between brand and branding.
What’s a Brand?
A brand is a name, term, product, or other features that distinguish one company from another. It also includes the overall customer experience with the company.
What is Branding?
Branding is the process of creating a unique name and image for your products in the consumers’ mind, through marketing.
Branding is not a one-time process, you need to keep in touch with your customers all the time.
Creating a Brand Marketing Plan
- Define your unique values, features, and benefits
What set’s you apart from your competitors? No, I’m not talking about your products, I’m talking about how your product improve lives and contribute to their success?
A simple “Why choose us?” could a big difference in your branding. Mention why you’re the best and how you are making a difference in your customers’ lives.
- Build your mission & vision statement
Why did you create this business? What made you jump in this particular field? What problem do you want to solve? Answering these questions will help you establish your mission statement. And, the mission statement you build will define your passion and purpose as an organization.
You can integrate your mission and vision in every part of your company (logo, tagline, and imagery).
- Determine your target audience
As mentioned above, branding leads to an increase in sales and helps you build a loyal customer base. But, who will buy your product? Does everyone in the world need your product? If not, then you need to identify who your target audience is, because if you advertise your brand just to anyone and everyone, it won’t lead to that awareness, recognition, trust, and revenue. Instead, it will cost you more.
- Engage with your target audience on social media
Facebook has more than 2.37 billion monthly active users while Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users. There’s a high chance that your target audience spends time on social media platforms. Therefore, in order to build a brand, you should start engaging with your audience on social media.
Post latest updates, sneak-peak, or behind the scenes of your company on a regular basis. It is also important to reply to your followers’ comments, no matter negative or positive. If positive, say a thank you and if negative, try to know what problem they have with your brand, send them a personal message and solve their problem as soon as possible.
- Connect with your customers on a deeper, emotional level
Customers aren’t always rational. Engaging with your customers is important, but connecting with them on a deeper, emotional level is more important.
Create a community around your brand to connect yourself with your customers (and each other). Heard of Tripoto (a social travel platform)? They created a platform where users can share and discover travel experiences and more. It connects users with each other and then offers travel packages and similar services.
By providing customers with an opportunity to feel like they’re a part of a larger community that spreads across the world, Tripoto is positioning itself as an obvious choice for someone looking for real-time travel experiences and booking a travel package.
- Provide After-sales Service
This is the most important thing when it comes to branding because word-of-mouth marketing still brings in lots of customers. Imagine you ask your friend to suggest some great phones and he says buy Samsung because their customer service is great. What would you do? Would you buy any other brand? That’s what a good after-sales service does.
When you provide a great after-sales service, you not only retain existing customers, but you also attract new customers.
- Reward your loyal Customers
If you already have customers who love your brand, why not reward them? These customers are your unofficial brand ambassador. They write about your brand, they tell their friends about you. Cultivating loyalty from these people early on will help you increase returning customers.
Remember, rewarding is not only monetary or free products. Most of the times a simple thank you will do the trick. Other times, it’s better to do something special for them like writing a personalized letter or a 15% discount on their next purchase.
Final Thoughts
Branding is an intangible feeling your customers have when they hear your company’s name. Start with defining your unique values and features and then do a target audience research to know who to advertise your brand to.
Engage with your social media followers on a regular basis and try to create your own community so you can connect with them on a deeper, emotional level.
Moreover, integrating great after-sales service and rewarding your loyal customers is equally important when creating a brand marketing plan.