The average person encounters a minimum of 4000 brands on a daily basis, according to Forbes. To make matters worse, 4000 is on the low end of the scale, and it’s not uncommon for consumers to face more than double that amount. Focusing on brand strategy is crucial for any company wanting to stay (or become) relevant in the eyes of consumers. Here are five ways to ensure that your brand can face the competition:
Cover your bases, discuss your brand and company values.
Branding isn’t just the initial meeting with your marketing team to create your media kit. Going beyond technicalities (i.e.: logos, slogans, and web design) your brand is also a representation of your values. Before you begin catering your brand to clients, discuss your company’s core values within the context of your team.
This discussion can take many forms, be it a workshop where everyone describes the company in three words or sending out an anonymous survey and discussing the results in a team meeting. Regardless of how, collecting your team and opening a discussion on what your core values are and how to put them into practice, will solidify the meaning and purpose of your brand.
Create guidelines and ensure everyone is using the right tools.
Since it’s important to present your brand image as a unified front, branding guidelines will assist your team for just that purpose. When it comes to branding, a lot of technical details are involved. Make sure your marketing team creates guidelines that clarify things like company fonts, color palette, email signatures, logo/slogan usage, etc.
Branding guidelines are incredibly helpful for new hires, technical and channel partners, as well as a great reference for seasoned employees. Consistency is key when projecting your company image, and taking these steps to ensure everyone is representing your company or partnering companies correctly helps to solidify your brand.
For more on what to include in branding guidelines, here’s an example by Element Three.
Onboard with intention because each employee counts!
Always keep an internal focus when it comes to core values. It’s important to remember that every employee represents the company, so every employee needs to know how. Use the onboarding process to your utmost advantage by incorporating brand values. This ensures that every employee (in every department) can contribute positively to the company image.
Get organized, create a content calendar.
An easy way to communicate your company’s values and share your brand is through your online presence. Having an organized system in place makes all the difference in how effective your social posts/campaigns are.
Create a content calendar for all your active social platforms and draft cohesive posts that communicate your company values. Content calendars are ideal for creating a posting pattern, keeping your posts consistent so your followers know how much activity to expect.
Require approval for every campaign.
Coming up with new content and creating campaigns is crucial for staying relevant in the eyes of consumers. Ensuring that all new content ultimately works to promote the company brand can quickly become complicated when there are multiple team members working on various platforms.
The key to making sure your campaigns are working for and not against your company brand is getting approval. An approval system can make all the difference when it comes to aligning campaigns with company core values.
An invaluable resource for approving content is your own team. Particularly your team members that emulate the company brand. Implementing a content approval system with these team members is an easy way to keep all of your campaigns consistent and relevant.
Your brand is important, and it’s crucial to ensure that your brand strategy accounts for employees and consumers alike. Taking the time to define core values and setting up procedures for how those values will be projected, can make all the difference when it comes to distinguishing your company.