Make your brand stand out in a crowded marketplace!
Cotswold Web • 11 October 2019
You have a brilliant idea for a new business and now need to work on your branding.
How do you ensure your brand will cut through the noise and stand out?
Good branding is not just having a memorable logo (although this is important); it also increases the value of a company, motivates employees, and helps you to acquire customers.
Before you approach a web design agency for help, it will save you time and money if you first identify your ideal market and potential customers, and what you want your brand to portray to them.
Ensure your brand appeals to customers
One of the best ways to ensure your brand appeals to customers is by tapping into their emotions… how does your choice of logo, straplines, colours and images make a potential customer feel?
Up to 90% of purchases are influenced by visual factors—especially colour, which can increase brand recognition by up to 80%.
However, don’t just stop at creating a logo or colour scheme. Your brand is about more than what you do or how you promote a product or service, it is about the effect it has on your customers and how you go about interacting with them.
Let’s use Apple as an example. We are all aware of Apple’s logo (the apple with the bite taken out of it), but Apple’s brand isn’t about fruit (obviously), or even just technology, it is about making people feel connected, fashionable and current!
Understand your business marketplace
Knowing who your target customers are and how they would like to be spoken to is important.
Whatever your product or service, there's a target audience for it out there.
How are you going to reach them … via social media, online advertising, mobile advertising, or print advertising?
If, for instance, you are targeting older people, don’t assume that mobile advertising is off limits. Even if many of them don’t use social media, they often have smartphones, which mean you can contact them via SMS marketing.
Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash
Find your brand personality
Your brand is unique to you and your business, so make sure your website and your other platforms stand out. A bespoke website will differentiate your business from all of the other generic websites that are out there.
Tell your story
… It is easy to make your brand’s message too ‘salesy’, so think about telling a story with your message.
You may, for example, be promoting a new range of microwaves, don’t talk about how many settings there are and what wattage the oven is, talk about how amazing the meals are that your microwave helps you make, and how you have more time to read to the kids in the evening.
You are selling the concept of a better quality of life brought about by using this product.
Be interactive, use images and straight-talking text
Be creative with your branding … aim to have an interactive website that offers the opportunity for customers to engage in blogs, forums, and social networks or that has live chats or clickable maps for example.
Images and straight to the point text (which is free from jargon), will help to drive customers to your site and keep them there.
You should consider offering a call to action such as clicking on a button for more information.
Photo by Balázs Kétyi on Unsplash
Be consistent
It is vital to keep your brand consistent, no matter what the platform. Your brand identity should extend from your website to social media, marketing material, and, if appropriate, product packaging.
You must use the same colours, logos, images and text across the board.
Consistency in branding will help to cement your product or service in people’s minds
– they will come to recognise your brand and will start to seek it out. Apple’s iconic logo is recognised globally for example.
At Cotswold Web,
Cheltenham, we’ve been designing and developing websites since 2008 and have
over 50 years’ collective experience. We love what we do and would be only too
happy to chat to you about ways to improve your website or click here
to see for yourself.
More Posts.
In today's digital landscape, effective content marketing can be the key differentiator for small businesses striving to stand out. As consumers increasingly turn to online platforms for information, brands must engage their audiences through valuable content that resonates with their needs. Understanding the nuances of content marketing is crucial; it encompasses various strategies designed to attract, inform, and delight customers while ultimately driving sales. From developing engaging customer personas to measuring success through specific metrics, small businesses have an incredible opportunity to refine their marketing approach. This article explores eight proven strategies that can lead to content marketing success for small businesses, equipping you with the tools necessary to create impactful and sustainable marketing efforts. 1. Understanding the Importance of Content Marketing Content marketing is vital for small businesses. It helps connect them with their target audience, builds brand awareness, and drives organic traffic. A well thought out content marketing strategy lets small businesses compete with larger companies by using cost effective methods. Regularly sharing valuable content can position a business as an expert in its field. This fosters trust and encourages potential customers to seek their services. Documenting your content strategy also increases the chances of seeing your marketing efforts as effective, allowing a higher allocation of budget toward content marketing. Creating a diverse range of content types is key. Here are some content formats to consider: Blog Posts Social Media Posts Email Marketing Visual Content Developing a strategic content plan helps business owners carve out unique market spaces. Establishing clear business goals and using tools like Google Analytics to gauge conversion rates can refine your approach. Below is a quick checklist for effective content marketing: Know your target audience Set SMART goals Use a content calendar Perform a content audit By focusing on these elements, small businesses can enhance their content marketing efforts and achieve growth. 2. Developing Customer Personas for Targeted Engagement To create targeted content, small business owners should develop detailed buyer personas. These personas are fictional versions of ideal customers, including demographic and psychographic details. Tools like Google Analytics and social media insights provide valuable data to shape these personas, making them more accurate. Understanding your target audience through buyer personas is key. It allows content marketers to tailor pieces of content that address specific needs and challenges. This approach boosts engagement and builds trust with potential customers. It is often necessary to have multiple personas to cater to various products, services, or customer segments. Each persona reflects different motivations and interactions with your brand at various stages of the customer journey. Here's how you can develop them: Collect Data: Use surveys, Google Analytics, and social media insights. Analyse: Determine the needs, interests, and behaviours of your audience. Create Multiple Personas: Define different segments based on your findings. Tailor Content: Use the personas to guide your content marketing efforts. Effective personas lead to a successful content marketing strategy, enhancing your business goals with every piece of content created. 3. Crafting a Comprehensive Content Plan Creating a successful content plan is key for small business owners. It acts as a guide to align all your content marketing efforts with your business goals. Here’s how you can craft a comprehensive content plan: Identify Key Topic Areas: Focus on subjects relevant to your target audience. This ensures you create valuable content that speaks directly to potential customers. Choose Content Types: Use a mix of blog posts, infographics, and videos. Different content formats can help engage various segments of your market. Plan Distribution Channels: Decide where to share your content. Consider social media posts, email marketing, and your website for maximum reach. Set Calls to Action: Encourage your audience to take the next step. This could be signing up for a newsletter or visiting a product page. Utilise a Content Calendar: This keeps your content marketing strategy organised and consistent, minimising missed opportunities. Analyse Metrics: Use Google Analytics to track conversion rates, engagement, and content performance. Including these elements in your content plan aligns with the fact that structured strategies significantly boost success rates. Regular content audits refine this strategy further, ensuring continued engagement and growth .
This article will delve into the strategies, statistics, and tips that will define successful content marketing efforts in the coming years
An SEO audit is a way to evaluate how well your website is optimised for search engines
Heading 1 LinkedIn might not be the first platform you think about for advertising your business. But if you’re looking for business-to-business (B2B) sales, you shouldn’t ignore LinkedIn’s paid ads. Most online advertising is geared towards business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses. In B2C, you can rely on mass advertising and big audiences. But B2B is all about being more focused on finding the right people. LinkedIn has an audience of 850 million professionals. They are potential customers for your B2B business. (For comparison, there are just over 3 billion Facebook users, but the demographic of Facebook is much more mixed, and its advertising is far more relevant than to a B2C audience.) While your own (or your company’s) LinkedIn profile might be active, your posts will only reach your direct connections. If direct connections comment on or share your post, it might then reach second- or third-degree connections. But it’s not going to reach even a fraction of the audience you want to target. Using paid ads on LinkedIn will take your reach way beyond your organic following. B2B buying has a much longer lead time than B2C. According to LinkedIn, the average B2B sales cycle is six to nine months. Advertising in the B2B sector is about building long-term relationships. And LinkedIn helps you to do that. LinkedIn says it helps businesses to ‘Target the professionals you care about’ and ‘Reach a qualified audience with sophisticated B2B targeting’. According to its own data: 180 million senior-level influencers are on LinkedIn Four out of five LinkedIn members drive business decisions LinkedIn audiences are six times more likely to convert LinkedIn’s audience has double the buying power of the average web audience 40% of B2B marketers see LinkedIn as the most effective channel for driving high quality leads LinkedIn has a ready-made audience of professionals, a variety of ad types and the right data to help you target your advertising to reach the right audience. LinkedIn’s audience data is what it calls ‘deep zero-party data’. In other words, the data has been provided by LinkedIn members themselves – so it is trustworthy, accurate and frequently updated. This means your ads can be targeted at a very specific audience.
Facebook Ads: Measure your conversions! Without tracking, you can’t gauge ROI. Facebook Ads are effective, but to know how effective, measure your conversions.
Heading 1 You can invest as much time and money as you like into Google Ads. But if you don’t measure conversions, you will have no idea how effective they are for your business and how good your return on investment (ROI) is. A conversion happens every time your ad achieves its purpose. This isn’t just a sale. In fact, for many business to business (B2B) companies, booking a call or a prospective customer filling in an enquiry form is an important conversion. As a business, you decide on what counts as a conversion depending on your own business goals. Each business will have its own higher value conversions, which won’t be the same as those of other businesses. It is essential to always measure these conversions. It is the one definitive way of checking whether your ads are leading to those meaningful actions you want potential customers to take.
