Social media has made it difficult for businesses to stay relevant. With an increasingly saturated market and countless options for customers, making a name for the company and turning it into a brand is undoubtedly one of the most challenging tasks.
As a business owner, you might have looked for ways to stand out. Herein lies the role of branding. Building a brand effectively dictates business growth and is necessary for building a reputation. It is all about development.
Small business owners frequently believe that branding tactics are solely for large organizations. Well, this might be true in the short term, but not in the long run. Whatever the size of your company, you need to build a brand that appeals to people, grabs their attention, and helps you connect with your target market.
This post will cover branding tactics in detail and explore everything you need to stand out from the crowd.
Let's get into it!
What is a Branding Tactic?
A branding tactic is the division of business objectives and aspirations into precise, doable actions. It can be outsourced or carried out by professionals.
For most people, branding tactics include having a logo, website, color scheme, design, and online presence. Well, having these items for your company is simply one aspect of building a brand, though.
The brand tactics capture the company's objectives. They outline your company's unique traits, how it differentiates from the competitors, your unique selling proposition, and the value you provide to customers.
Brand Tactics vs. Brand Strategy
Many people believe that brand strategy and brand tactics are alike. However, they are entirely two different dimensions. We discussed this in another article, but essentially;
Your brand strategy is your core identity: your beliefs, your values, and the unique space you want to occupy in people's minds. It's the long-term plan that asks, "Who are we, and why should anyone care?" This is your foundation; it's steady and doesn't change often.
Your brand tactics are the things you actually do and say to express that personality. It's the social media post you make, the email you send, or the event you sponsor. These are your short-term, adaptable actions that bring the strategy to life in the real world.
What Does Brand Strategy Entail?
Brand strategy is the plan that includes objectives, targets, and ambitions to place a business in the minds of its target market and set it apart from rivals. In essence, it builds a blueprint for establishing the long-term brand values you want for your company.
Let's examine the characteristics of brand strategy:
- A brand strategy is an overall plan outlining the direction your brand should go.
- Most of the time, it lasts for months or years and is difficult to quantify using analytics.
- Generally, company CEOs or other leaders design a brand strategy.
- Last but not least, it relates to business goals and KPIs(Key Performance Indicators).
Let's look at some instances where a brand strategy is vital:
- Introducing a brand-new product or service
- Boosting the value perception
- Enhancing client loyalty
What Does the Brand Tactic Entail?
A brand tactic is an innovative and methodical move made to accomplish a specific goal outlined in the brand's overarching strategy.
Let's examine the characteristics of brand tactics:
- A brand tactic is a short-term project that is easy to test and evaluate.
- It prompts instant results.
- Usually, employees or business professionals implement the tactic.
- It is typically linked to projects, deadlines, and daily repetitive tasks.
Let's look at some examples of brand tactics:
- Posting a piece of useful content to your website
- Launching an advertising campaign on Facebook
- Making cold calls
- Creating brand-new business cards
- Organizing a hiring event
Why are Brand Tactics Important?
Every business, regardless of size, should embrace branding in the 21st century. Today's consumers have an abundance of options at their disposal. It is impossible to build authenticity and value in a business without using effective branding tactics.
So, a holistic blend of branding tactics with a marketing strategy is the need of the hour.
In fact, many successful entrepreneurs often talk about branding tactics. For instance, Jeff Bezos once famously remarked:
"A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn a reputation by trying to do hard things well."
Therefore, regardless of a company's size, telling customers the real story behind it can change everything.
Let's discuss some reasons why you should consider and use branding tactics for your company, along with a marketing strategy.
Establish Household Recognition for Your Company
Your company won't gain public recognition using only marketing techniques. Here, a combination of branding techniques and a marketing plan creates value. Everything from managing social media to advertising falls under marketing for a business. However, branding tactics help people recognize your brand.
Elevate Conscious Decision-Making
When there is fierce competition, decision-making becomes more deliberate. As a business, you will take more time deciding what to do next. It will prevent you from making poor judgments on the road. Your company will put forth its best efforts, and you'll stay on schedule.
Improve Advertising Outcomes
There is no doubt that successful advertising makes your company progress by leaps and bounds. However, branding and advertisement are strongly related. So, without branding tactics, you couldn't reflect your business value system as accurately as possible in an advertising campaign.
Amplify Brand Attraction
Branding tactics help you connect with your target audience by accurately using the right message. In this way, you will gain new customers and also unify your existing customers. As a result, these techniques promote loyalty and enduring relationships. Different tactics work work significantly better for local markets vs. national ones.
Let's consider well-known brands in everything from manufacturing phones to vehicles. They all effectively interact with their audiences, building credibility and increasing brand recognition. In a nutshell, branding techniques highlight the unique characteristics of your company, which improves brand appeal.
How Do Branding Tactics Work?
It is the branding that develops the perception of a company. Therefore, a strategy must go through several stages before establishing the brand.
Below are the steps that will highlight how effective branding tactics work.
- Decide what to brand first. For instance, do you want to concentrate on particular goods or services, or brand the whole business?
- The next step is to do some target market research. Pay close attention to the strategies used by your rivals. Sort through your main rivals' online presence and list the elements you want to emphasize in your branding.
- After that, define your company's objectives, benefits, qualities, product designs, corporate personality, and services. Shape your brand promise value proposition: the key reasons why your brand exists.
- Once you have established all the crucial branding elements, plan your advertising campaign.
- Determine your content plan with the strategist team, as content is crucial for a successful brand strategy; to spread a positive brand perception.
- Changes must never interfere with your branding tactics. Always maintain the integrity and relevance of your business. So, don't stay static, and be ready for any changes that might occur in the industry or your business.
- Branding tactics are an ongoing effort. As changes are inevitable, these tactics vary with time.
Benefits of Branding Tactics
Let's look at some benefits branding tactics provide to your business.
Brand Recognition
Using branding tactics will help people recognize your business. They help you build your brand voice and expand your customer base by establishing yourself as the industry leader. Such strategic branding tactics help your brand stand out amid a sea of competitors.
Customer Loyalty
A brand's success depends on its ability to keep customers coming back for more after they recognize and purchase its products. It will increase client loyalty, which leads to brand loyalty over time. Apple is one of the best examples of retaining loyal customers. They garnered a loyal customer base by forging an emotional bond with their clients through a brand promise: tech products that are easy to use and reliable.
Credibility
Most customers hesitate when trying a new product or service. With guiding principles that clients can identify with, a strong brand may help you stand out as a credible company.
Furthermore, a strong brand will enable you to interact with your clients more frequently and offer them a say in how they see your business. You are accessible to the public, and you can thoroughly investigate the issues raised by your clients.
Brand Equity
One of the primary benefits of branding is its ability to market new products and services. People loyal to a brand will inevitably buy any new products the brand releases.
In 2018, Apple dominated the wireless earphones market with AirPods, outpacing industry giant Samsung. According to a Strategy Analytics analysis, AirPods have a market share of more than 70% worldwide.
10 Best Branding Tactics that Work
Whether people buy your goods or services depends on how you promote yourself. Now, Multiple forms of brand promotion are more important than ever. Remember that effective advertising requires expertise. To reach more customers, you might combine branding tactics with advertising. Besides, this combo aids in your customer acquisition.
Let's look at some branding tactics that marketers might employ.
1. Create Your Brand Story
Every company makes an effort to develop its mythology or genesis tale. All future marketing and branding strategies are built on the brand story as their foundation. You might consider the questions What is my brand and Why is my brand here and more inquiries to develop your distinct brand story. Remember that a brand narrative is a collection of brief, impactful messages that describe your Uniqueness.
2. Develop Your Brand’s Personality
A set of distinctive qualities that sets you apart constitutes a strong brand personality. When your audience comes into contact with your brand, they should right away feel at ease and comfortable speaking with you. This genuineness comes from within, not from marketing.
A helpful formula for developing a brand personality is as follows:
- Consider who you are.
- Consider the clients you assist.
- Consider the staff members who assist them.
- Find out what they stand to gain.
3. Build and Grow a Community
Putting your attention on consumer issues automatically wins you. By doing this, people will compliment you on your exceptional customer service. Focusing on the customer's pain points will increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive feedback.
Moreover, Use Brand advocacy to influence the public's perception of a brand. It involves establishing connections with influential people in your sector.
Also, start a blog to spread the word about your business. An audience-specific blog that addresses the population's interests, needs, and difficulties is also helpful for fostering online communities. So, in this way, you can gradually build your community.
4. Speak to Networking Events
Speaking at industry events about your brand is one of the best branding tactics for new and small businesses. Being present at such events will increase your exposure and allow you to introduce people to your business.
Additionally, it will aid in your networking and boost your confidence.
5. Collect Testimonials
Testimonials work wonders in persuading customers to shop at reputable stores with high ratings. It is the ideal strategy for all businesses to increase consumer trust in their brand.
6. Hire Top Talent
Employ talented people to market your company and assist with brand development. This branding strategy works well for well-established companies because it can be costly for startups. Consequently, brand interest will come from people who relate to the skill.
7. Build Your Video Content
The most popular branding strategy for all types of businesses is video content. These days, people favor clearly defined and professionally done material. Therefore, video material offers a personal touch and visual impact.
8. Establish Brand Loyalty Programs
What causes people to select you over rivals is brand loyalty. People are loyal to brands with whom they have a personal connection. Consider Starbucks as the ideal illustration. Customers like the items and the experience, so they pay a little more to have a better experience since they identify with the branding strategies.
Here are some methods for establishing this link:
- Give clients who join your mailing list discounts or exclusive deals.
- Create a compensation program for your loyal buyers.
9. Create Newsletters
Newsletters are a fantastic tool for all businesses to inform their current customer base about new goods or services, etc. The likelihood of consumers purchasing from familiar brands is higher.
Newsletters are the finest way to remind customers about your brand. It boasts a personal relationship with customers and automatically raises your brand's reputation.
10. Be Consistent
No industry is constant. And, with the rise of tech, change now occurs at a rapid rate. The same applies to your business. Therefore, you should always be ready for potential changes in your industry or business.
Maintain consistency; use brand guidelines. Center your value proposition in your branding and marketing efforts. Use every available branding tactic to strengthen your brand.
Best Practices on Your Brand
Brand comes in many forms, and no tactic or strategy works for all of them. Here's how you can make the most of your branding tactics based on what kind of brand you're trying to make a campaign with.
Corporate Branding
Your corporate brand is your business's overall reputation. Focus on building a consistent brand identity across everything you do. Use the same logo, color palette, and tone of voice on your website, in your emails, and on social media. This consistency makes your business feel reliable and professional. Create a simple one-page guide to keep your whole team aligned on these elements.
Personal Branding
Your personal brand is about building trust as an individual. Share your genuine story and expertise freely. Choose one primary platform where your audience spends their time and focus on providing valuable content there. Engage in conversations and answer questions to demonstrate your knowledge and build real relationships.
Internet Branding
Think of your online brand as the sum of all your digital interactions. Your goal is to be helpful and visible where your target customers are. Use social media to offer quick tips and engage with your community, but always guide people back to your website. Your website acts as your home base where you can tell your full story and build credibility.
Service Branding
For a service-based business, your brand is the entire customer experience. Create a clear and reliable process for delivering your service and give it a name. This makes your offer feel structured and valuable. Consistently meeting your promises at every step builds a reputation for quality and turns clients into loyal supporters.
Product Branding
Your product’s branding tells its story before a customer even uses it. Invest in packaging that creates a memorable unboxing moment. Focus your energy on perfecting one primary product and use your descriptions to highlight the specific benefits and improvements it brings to the customer’s life.
Cultural Branding
Your company culture is the internal personality that drives your team. Define a few core values that truly matter to you and live by them in your daily work. Hire people who share these values. A positive and aligned team naturally provides better service, and that internal energy becomes a powerful part of your external brand.
Retail Branding
Your retail brand is the feeling a customer gets when they walk into your store, whether physical or digital. Treat your space as a stage. Carefully curate the lighting, music, and layout to create a specific mood. Train your staff to offer a warm, consistent welcome. In an online store, this translates to intuitive navigation, beautiful product photos, and a seamless checkout. Every detail should reinforce the story you want to tell.
FAQs
What are the 5 P's of branding?
The 5 P's are Purpose, Positioning, Personality, Promise, and Performance. Purpose is your brand's core mission. Positioning is how you stand out. Personality is your brand's character. Promise is the value you guarantee. Performance is how you deliver on that promise through quality and experience.
What are the seven key elements of a brand strategy?
The seven elements are Purpose & Vision, Target Audience, Competitive Analysis, Brand Positioning, Brand Identity, Brand Messaging, and Brand Experience. This framework defines your reason for being, who you serve, your market landscape, your unique spot, your visual identity, your communication, and every customer interaction.
What are the 5 principles of marketing?
The five principles, known as the "Marketing Mix," are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and People. This covers what you sell, what you charge, where customers find it, how you raise awareness, and the human element of your team and customers that shapes the experience.
Final Thoughts
Branding creates a distinctive identity that becomes synonymous with your business or product. Remember, it's not the product or service you sell; it's the value that intrigues people toward your business. And from this value, you will shape consumer perception, build your brand positioning, and decide how you create consistent branding and marketing efforts.
Let us know how Evolv can help your digital marketing efforts!
Also, check out our blog for the latest insights on brand-building that create a strong emotional connection with your audience.
