Having a brand image is vital for success in today’s marketplace and once you have it, brand promotion should be the next item on your to do list.
Now that you’ve gone through the process of either defining, refreshing your brand, or even completely rebranding, what else can you do to get your new image out there and noticed?
We’ve picked just five ways (for now, at least) to help get you started on promoting your brand and getting the attention of the market.
1. Be different
Don’t be the same as your competition – be different!
Take a long hard look at what your main competitors are doing – and then don’t do that!
Being different is a great way to get noticed, but with one important caveat – don’t be different just for the sake of it; be different because you are.
When working on your brand development, or a more recent refresh, you would have spent some time deciding on your USP (unique selling point), ie. what it is that you do, that no-one else does.
You must have a USP otherwise what are you in business for? If all you are doing is exactly the same as everyone else, then why should your customers come to you, instead of anyone else?
What this means is that you already know your strongest brand booster – it’s your USP. What you need to do is focus on that and create ways to capitalise on it.
If you try and be different just for the sake of being different, you just come across as quirky (at best) or plain odd, and you’ll drive people away.
Think back to ‘New Coke’ in 1985 – a change to be different for no reason than Coke wanted to be different. It is still remembered to this day as one of the biggest marketing failures of all time and did the company a lot of damage.
2. Create some amazing visual assets
If high-quality content is key – then high-quality visual content is king.
It’s a simple fact that most people navigate the world visually, and the online world is almost exclusively image driven. This has always been true, but with consumers’ lives becoming ever busier and with seemingly less time, the reliance – and demand for – visual communications (photographs, graphics and especially video) is at an all-time high.
Almost without exception, the first time a new consumer will come across your brand it will be online. And most likely the second time, and the third, and…well – you get the picture. And so will they, if you promote your brand right.
Create some amazing photos and videos and promote them on whichever social media platforms are most appropriate to your target market. Then keep promoting them.
3. Get your visual assets seen
Visual assets are not much use if no one sees them. So as we said above, get them out there and use them.
Aside from social media, you have your website, blogs (your own and others), retailers, publishers, news agencies and many more.
Push your brand into the public eye with a planned, thorough promotion campaign. Launch a new advertising drive – and tell the press about it. Create a new offer, or a competition or announce your next new product.
Whatever it takes to get mentioned and keep getting mentioned.
Have all your media ready and organised and available in every format that it might be needed in. Press requests for comment, photographs and news always come at short notice, so have anything someone may need ready.
Even better, have a downloadable press pack available on your website, with your company logo, brand images and company statements always available. Journalists love a company who have everything all ready and available before they ask for it.
And include your company history in the press pack too. Speaking of which…
4. Tell a story
Everyone loves a great story – so have one.
Every culture is brought up on stories in one form or another – there is something fascinating about hearing a good tale. And this includes the story of your company. Perhaps how it was founded, how its vision (purpose) came about, or even something that severely influenced the direction of the business, that turned it from failure to success.
The KFC origin story, whether true or anecdotal, is still an inspiring one of turning failure into success. Sticking with fast food for a moment, the McDonald’s story is another.
Make sure everyone knows a good story that stands behind your brand – and market it.
5. Keep your content fresh
Make sure that your content – especially your visuals – are relevant, up to date and fresh.
In today’s market, most brands need to keep producing content to keep getting noticed and reusing the same tired visuals time and time again no longer works.
What gets noticed is the new, the vibrant and the different.
So create a large collection of content – written and visual, so that you always have something fresh to put out.
It may just be a new image on Instagram, a two-minute tweet or a quick update on your website, but plan and create a constant supply of fresh material.
For visual media, the easiest way to do this is to create a large stock in one go. Have a photoshoot, of product, marketing, staff (if appropriate) and create video at the same time.
This stock of images and footage can then be cut and edited into a variety of formats and styles and resources.
This approach not only saves time, but is also incredibly cost-effective, as you are limiting the time needed for professional creation of resources that will then last you for a long time to come.
Your customers and their needs are always changing, but we have seen this happen faster in 2020 than at any previous time.
Splento has produced a free report on brand engagement, explaining what you can do to re-engage your customers in this post-pandemic world.
It’s completely free and is downloadable by clicking below:
If you need help or even just a few suggestions about how visual assets can boost your brand promotion, take a quick look now at 5 great examples of companies that have done just that after a brand refresh – and learn how you can get a quick audit of your own brand gallery and marketing assets.
Alternatively, contact Splento direct for advice and help with creating your own brand style guide.
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