By Lindsay Aliseo
Branding your business is, in my opinion, the single most important part of building a business. If you have a brand that people love it is because of the branding efforts put forth purposely to build the brand. So, how does a business owner begin to brand? I will review The 5 Steps to Branding YOU and your business in this article.
- Knowing your Target Market.
- Logo, Fonts, Colors, & Marketing Material Themes
- Attracting your Target Market
- Consistency & Diversifying your Marketing
- Is your Brand Memorable?
Knowing your Target Market
If you are unsure what your target market is, we can take a look here. If you are unable to pinpoint your target market, then you may not have the right business or product. Knowing your target market helps narrow down your marketing efforts and will cost you much less in the end. Let’s nail down your target market!
- Is your product or service geared towards children, teens, adults or seniors?
- Is your product or service gender based?
- Is your product or service location based?
- Do you have a niche product or service?
– Something that is for use in the kitchen
– A product or service for pregnancy
– Carpentry tools
Knowing your audience enables you to create the appropriate marketing materials and attract them with the right marketing placements. It also begins to generate efficiency within your business. Efficiency is my other major component of building a business. Always work smarter not harder! I could write PAGES on organization and efficiency but for now I will stay on topic.
Logo, Fonts, Colors & Marketing Material Themes
Your look should have a direct relationship with your product or service and your market. Simplicity is best here. The more complicated and busy your logo and themes are, the more likely you are to lose those prospective customers. Realistically, you have about 2-3 seconds to grab the attention of and hook a customer. Below I have listed a couple of my rules when creating graphics, logos and advertisements.
- Keep it simple.
- Stick with a theme.
The consistency of a theme will help your market remember you the next time they see you. Try creating a marketing campaign that runs for a certain amount of time, keeping the theme consistent, this will be beneficial to your acquisition numbers. Create a format for your graphics and advertisements. Use no more than three types of graphics with the same color scheme and logo layout for each.
Format 1: Graphic – Title – Logo – Themed Styles, Colors & Fonts
Format 2: Framed – Clear Offer/Message – Logo – Themed Colors and Fonts
Format 3: Cover Photo – Logo – Themed Colors
Attracting your Target Market
You may have heard of Attraction Marketing in the past but didn’t really understand how to use it or maybe you thought it was something made up by all of the self-proclaimed business gurus on social media. I am here to tell you Attraction Marketing is the second most important part of building and branding YOU and your business!
What is Attraction Marketing? Well, it is exactly what it sounds like. You attract customers TO YOU! The concept of attraction marketing is all about what you put out into the world. If you are always posting negative things on your social media pages, constantly arguing with other people in Moms Groups and privately or publicly complaining about other businesses or your customers, I can promise you that you are branding yourself as unapproachable. What you do in your personal life will ALWAYS reflect in your business life. On the other hand, if you are supportive, kind, and uplifting, especially on your personal social media accounts, you will brand yourself as not only approachable but people will start to gravitate to you. They will want more of what you have to offer as a person. If you are consistent with your positive, supportive and uplifting identity, people will remember you as such and when they need something that you have to offer in your business, they will be more inclined to use you. I created a short video that really gets into Facebook posting and Attraction Marketing, that you can watch here Attraction Marketing and Facebook
The next part of attracting your target market is to know the right outlets to use. These days exposure to your target market is often accomplished with the help of social media. If your target market is men and women over the age of 70, living on Long Island, social media may not be the right place for you to advertise, unless you are marketing to the caretakers of these seniors. In this case, your marketing efforts need to be tailored not to the seniors themselves but the ones that may help make decisions for them.
If your target market is made up of women that are pregnant or may be thinking of starting a family in the next 12-15 months, living on Long Island, it would be beneficial to join your local moms group, or groups pertaining to pregnancy and childcare. Most of these groups will not allow you to advertise but will allow you to comment on a post when asked for specific help and more specifically, asking for help that your business provides. Please be careful when utilizing this method for free marketing. You should always offer free advice or information first. If asked, you then provide your business information. No one likes to have a business owner shove their business down their throat, unsolicited.
Want more information on branding your business in Long Island Moms Group with an audience of over 22 thousand people? Watch this Daily Deals Video for more Information
Consistency & Diversifying your Marketing
The Rule of 7 is your starting point for consistency and diversifying. What is The Rule of 7? Simply stated, your prospective customer needs to be exposed to your brand seven times before they will purchase from you. The idea behind The Rule of 7 is that you are building CREDIBILITY with CONSISTENCY over each exposure. You are ATTRACTING your target market by conveying value and trust and creating a MEMORABLE brand. On average, by the seventh time a person has been exposed to your brand they will remember it for when they need your service or product. But, you can without a doubt hook them before that!
How do I make sure my target audience is exposed to my brand seven times?
- Diversifying your marketing efforts.
- Staying consistent with your marketing.
- Making sure your branding is clear and concise.
Long Island Exclusive offers business owners the unique opportunity to brand their business with our Long Island audience of over 200k people in a multitude of ways. Ensuring that your target market will be exposed to your brand steadily and diversely.
Is your Brand Memorable
Securing your brands memorability, depends on successfully completing and staying consistent with these five steps. Whoever created the saying “Consistency is Key” could not have been more on point. You need to make a serious commitment to branding YOU and your business. For some this is an easy feat as they already portray the positive person they are to the world. For others, this may be a challenge at first but once you feel the immensely strong effects of your efforts, you will never turn back and the future will be bright.