Five tips to boost your brand

Credibility and trust are everything when it comes to brand building. Make sure you're hitting the right notes and consider these 5 tips to help make your brand as robust as possible:

1. Define your niche

What’s your reason for being? This is always the first place I start when meeting a new client. Is it written down and can you clearly articulate it? By being clear on your values and what you stand for from the outset, you can make sure that the heart of your brand is consistently represented across your business. Too many times I’ve seen small business jump into marketing tactics before they’ve really solidified their core values and they are sure that the product or service they are offering reflects these. Credibility and trust are everything when it comes to brand building.

Is the heart of your brand consistently represented?

2. Clear messaging

Being clear on your tone of voice, they way you describe your product or service and how you interact with your customers is key to your brand. This can and will most likely develop over time but it’s worthwhile crafting some key phrases and descriptors but also being clear on how strong and forthright you might want to be with your opinions, as a business. Showing you're an expert in your field is imperative, but there are different ways of communicating this, depending on your audience. By building a set of messages and a hierarchy you can make sure these are reflected in your website copy, sales emails, newsletters, social profiles and PR. These key messages may evolve over time, but it’s important to assess all your collateral against this at regular intervals.

3. Know your audience

Have you created a set of key customer profiles? Do you know who you’re connecting with and are you getting in front of them? There’s not much point putting all your effort into your Facebook page, if the majority of your customers are on LinkedIn. What are they reading, where are they getting their information, who do they trust, what do they like, where do they live, how old are they? By researching and creating a set of customer personas you can make sure your marketing tactics target the right people.

Know your audience

4. Connect with content

Content is king - not just written but visual too. Be clear on what is or isn’t the right visual representation of your business. Connect to the emotions of your core customers through content that is useful and relevant to them. Define your brands personality and make sure it shines through from you Insta feed to your email signature.

5. Your reputation and positioning

Trust and authenticity are key to a successful brand, along with customer satisfaction. By showing you have the best customer service with peer reviews/testimonials, the happiest employees with behind the scenes social media content, and expert knowledge in your field with relevant copy, you can demonstrate your value. Consumers are more mindful and more savvy about how they spend their hard earned cash. Authenticity has to show through, not just in the end product that you provide but through the whole story of your evolution. Be honest. When you are confident you have all your ducks in a row, position yourself as the key player in your market. Let you USP shine through and make sure your values are consistently represented throughout your business.

Do you have an authentic reputation?

If you’d like more help on how to pull together a communications plan that helps you deliver brilliant business with clear values, then contact ellie@elliejanecomms.co.uk for a chat.