Your brand represents a unique promise that you make to every single one of your customers and potential customers. It is the consistency of this promise and the overall quality of the delivery of this promise that will encourage your customers to be loyal to your brand. Getting your customers to become loyal to your brand is the only real way to make your brand successful. But in order for your promise to be effective, it must be distinct and clearly distinguishable from the many other promises your potential clients will encounter.

What kind of promise is your brand making?

Who is your brand making this promise to?

Why is your brand’s promise different from everyone else’s? 

Why should anyone believe your promise?

At a glance, the task of defining your brand may appear quite simple but please do not be fooled. The golden arches of McDonald’s and the Nike swoosh did not become what they are in a day. These and other successful brands are the product of careful research, distinctly defined boundaries and a comprehensive Marketing strategy. The result of all this hard work is that each customer and potential customer knows exactly what these brands represent. Have you ever walked into McDonald’s to order to purchase a Pepperoni pizza? Will anyone in their right minds drive to Nike to pick up a pair of ruby red stilettos? Of course not! That is as a result of these brands being so carefully defined that we know exactly what to expect and what these brands can deliver. Customers are far more likely to be loyal to a brand that sends a clear message or has a distinct voice.

The first step to defining your brand is thinking carefully about and documenting what your business is good at. You can make use of S.W.A.T analysis to outline the major strengths and weakness of your business. It goes without saying that your brand should represent the strengths or core functions of your business. This will require some amount of honest self-evaluation. Some Entrepreneurs fall into the trap of aiming to be good at everything or doing too many things at the same time. Even worse is trying to make a ‘universal’ product or service that has no specific target audience. The result of this kind of strategy would be a brand that is not well defined and will not encourage brand loyalty.

Trying to target everybody and doing everything will force you to spread your resources too thin. The easiest way to get nothing done is to try and do everything at the same time. Once you have a clearly defined message in mind, the next step is to choose the right tools. The Marketing tools that you choose to make use of should then emphasize the core focus of your business. In doing so, your Marketing strategy should also emphasize what your business is not and thus make your clients see that your focus is not on ripping them off. This is an easy way to highlight the difference between you and the competition. A memorable brand is not worth the effort if you are not earning any money and the easiest way to make money is to take out the competition.

After assessing the strength of your business, find three simple words that represent what your business does well. Think of it this way, which three words would you want your clients to use to describe your brand if your brand was a person? This will require that you and your executive team carefully define the mission and vision statement of your business as well. Your next move should be figuring out how to communicate these attributes to your target audience with the utmost simplicity. A complicated commercial or website is a major turn off to potential clients and will not be very effective at generating sales. Keep your message simple if your aim is to make your brand memorable and profitable.

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity.”― Leo Tolstoy

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ― Clare Boothe Luce

“To be simple is to be great.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Defining your brand and the identity of your brand will require much more than a fancy logo. It must instantly bring to mind what your business does and what your brand represents. One core principle that never fails is to focus on quality and convenience. The identity of your brand should be carefully tied to adding value. Make your clients think of your product or service as being of the best quality, the easiest to use, the most affordable or even the most durable. Selling hype will not get you very far.

Always remember that your aim is to give your brand a pleasant voice and a distinct identity. The ultimate aim is to get the voice of your brand off the printed page or website into the mind of your target audience. Your message should make such a deep impression on your target audience that purchasing your product or service should seem like the only sensible choice. You should not have to clutter your website or commercials to get potential clients to remember what your brand represents. This will prove to be a waste of time since your brand may become easily confused with another. The next section will provide further details on building a unique identity for your brand.

Some Entrepreneurs try to build the identity of their brand by imitating other well-established players in the industry. This strategy will prove futile. As stated in Chapter 1, customer loyalty is a product of building a unique identity for your brand. Chapter 4 of this book will however provide some guidelines on how to leverage the strengths of existing market players without becoming a copycat.

If you are already the mastermind calling the shots for a brand that is struggling, my first suggestion is to turn to your existing customers. You would be surprised how much you can benefit from some good old-fashioned research by means of a brand audit. Carefully assess what customers currently think about your brand and what they think it represents. You may be quite horrified to realize that your clients have completely misunderstood the voice of your brand. In the same breath, take the time to find out how they think your brand fares against the competition. Your business and your brand might be too close to your heart for you to critique it objectively. This can be achieved by means of online surveys or even in-house questionnaires. The key to getting the right information is to ask the right questions. Ask clear, simple questions that get straight to the point.

“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.” - Thomas Berger

"There are no right answers to wrong questions." - Ursula K. Le Guin

Now that you have asked the right people, the right questions and have gotten into the minds of your customers, it is time for action. But don’t pick a fight with every naysayer you encounter. Choose your battles carefully and always remember that you will not be able to please everyone. Try to identify any common themes in the responses of your clients. Please bear in mind that some of these responses may be aimed at improving the quality of your product or service. Leaving a bad taste in the mouth of your clients will do very little to help you build a successful brand. Build on the complaints or lack of enthusiasm for your brand. Use that information to guide your brand identity strategy. All of your creative resources should be aimed at removing common road blocks from the minds of existing customers and thus potential clients as well. Be sure to also reinforce the positive aspects of your brand that your customers identified.

Now that you know what to do, it is time to learn how to do it! Building the identity of your brand might take some amount of time, but aimlessly spending money is never the solution. Now that you are armed with all the right information, it is time to skillfully aim your blows by means of a carefully thought out brand identity strategy. Designing a good strategy means you have almost won the battle. Your strategy should be centered on objectives, but only a few. Please remember how the first section stressed the need for simplicity. Also, ensure that you link each phase of your strategy to a specific objective. Your strategic objectives should be as SMART as they come. By SMART, I mean Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Don’t be too quick to implement a new strategy. Consider all the ‘what ifs’ before you jump and take the time plan the kind of attack your competitors will never see coming.

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. ” ― Michael E. Porter

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” ― Sun Tzu

Developing a logo is the first aspect of developing your brand’s visual vocabulary. In addition to the logo, you will need to create a specific look and feel for your brand that will be consistent throughout the various platforms you will use to promote your brand. All successful brands are associated with a specific blend of colors, fonts and slogans. In order for your creative elements to resonate with your target audience, you must be consistent. Every aspect of business, your website, your social media pages and even your business cards, should feature the same creative elements.

Do not just choose a color just because you think it is pretty. Remember that specific colors tend to evoke very specific emotions. Yellow for example is often associated with happiness, while red is often associated with anger or romance. Always keep your target market in mind while selecting your creative elements. The occupation, age and even social status of the group you aim to target will influence how they view your logo, colors et cetera. Be sure to also test your logo by means of a focus group before you launch it. Some logos, as creative as they may be, can be misinterpreted or even confused with the logo of a similar brand. Whatever you decide, ensure that your creative elements are so memorable that even if a client sees only half of the picture, they can still imagine exactly what is coming next.

What good will it do if you build a distinct brand that no one has ever head of? Social media allows you to reach the right people, with the right message all the time. Additionally, social media is one of the most affordable options to reach your target audience. So why not make full use of it? There are so many social media platforms just waiting to help build your brand. In fact, all the successful brands of our generation have invested heavily in creating a robust social media presence and so should you. All you need to do is post the kind of content that will lure in potential customers. Chapters 3 and 5 of this book will delve into further details about producing relevant content and designing a suitable social media strategy.

Chapter 6 of this book will explain in greater detail how to accomplish this task. But, in short, your website should be loaded with useful content, easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing. There is no bigger turn off than a website that takes decades to load or isn’t mobile friendly. A website is one of the few points of contact that you have full control over and it is best you use this to your advantage.

Posting relevant content is one of the hardest aspects of building a successful brand. Who really defines what is relevant or isn’t relevant? How will you know which aspect of your content will go viral or will be considered shareable? Relevance is not something your content team is born with or can learn. Posting relevant content is as a result of keeping up with market trends and producing content that your target audience will either find amusing or useful. But of course, this is much easier to achieve in words than in reality. So, what can you do?

Buyer personas are overly generalized examples of who your ideal customer would be. This forces us Entrepreneurs to remember that our products and services affect the lives of real people. And in so doing, we begin to focus more on how we can make the lives of these people better by means of our business. But the million dollar question is, how does one create a useful buyer persona? You start by simply asking the right questions. The insights I encouraged you to gather from your clients in Chapter 1 of this book will prove very useful. All you need to do is figure out the type of people who have believed your brand’s promise in the past and are very likely to continue doing so in the future.

Every sensible survey begins with simple demographic questions such as age, gender and occupation. Make good use of this information! In fact, you do not even have to re-create the wheel by creating your own survey, market research on existing buyer personas are published daily. Why not use this kind of research to your advantage? If you have front line members of staff or a designated sales team, their interactions with your customers can provide very useful information about your customers. Be sure to solicit information from both good and bad customers. It is always advantageous to learn more about your own strengths and weaknesses.

Once you know exactly the kind of people you are trying to reach, it will make it much easier to reach them with relevant content. But as I have mentioned before, you want your target audience to welcome you into their lives and not feel like you are barging into their homes through the front door. Being subtle is as excellent way to be bold. Instead of posting content about business and product offerings all the time, get your audience excited or intrigued. You need to get them talking about you without even realizing it. Here are my suggestions:

• Post a thought provoking question about topics such as current events and world affairs

• Post useful how to videos about hobbies that would suit someone represented in your buyer person

• Have exciting giveaways that feature your clients sharing pictures of themselves, perhaps even pictures of them using your products

• Post Memes your target audience will likely find hilarious

• Post content from other companies that your target audience will find useful

• Participate in trending challenges

If you intend to post SEO content to attract new business, you need to also take some time to understand the concept of user intent. Creating a list of keywords is important, but this should not be the focus of your SEO strategy. It is better to understand what your audience actually intends to do with the information they are trying to find. Generally a user will search for content online with three main intentions, to find a location, understand a topic or learn how to do something. With this is mind, you will be better able to create a keyword list that will be more ideal for one or a combination of these intentions. Additionally, content created with the intention of the target audience in mind will be of the utmost relevance to these individuals and they will be more likely to share this content with their contacts. It is a win / win situation. Your audience will benefit because they have learned something useful and you will benefit as these individuals unintentionally draw attention to your brand.

Despite your intentions of becoming a distinguished brand, there is much to be gained by sharing the content of other brands. I am not recommending plagiarism but it would not hurt to share relevant content from other businesses. Are there any breaking news reports, inspirational quotes or instructional videos your audience might find useful? Sharing this kind of content will give your audience the impression that you genuinely want what is best for them. If you intent to make use of this bit of advice, please be cautious. Do not share content from competing brands in your niche. Your good intentions may be misinterpreted as an all out attack or attempts to surrender.

Now that you know how to post useful content, let us now focus on ensuring this content emphasizes one key message. Posting the same images, videos and information on a number of different platforms, may not be the best way to send a consistent message. Your brand will come across as being either too lazy or too pushy. A better option would be to focus on particular themes that are closely tied with the objectives of your company. For example, if your product or service aims to make your customers healthier you can take the direct approach and try to sell your product by any means necessary. But, you can also subtly encourage sales by encouraging your audience to focus on a more holistic approach to their health. You could then post content from other sources featuring easy work out videos and healthy meal preparation guides. You can then use this kind of content to draw attention to the benefits of your product. Remember the aim is not to be pushy but to be effective.

When you employ the subtle approach and make use of content from other relevant sources, you will be emphasizing the strengths of your brand without becoming too repetitive. There is only so much and no more that you can say about your limited array of products or services. The next chapter will focus more on how to use the strengths of existing players in the market to strengthen your own brand.

Social Media is one of the most useful and affordable tools to build any successful brand. Social media is not specific to a group or product and making wise use of it will prove advantageous to any brand. But your objective should not be to publish photos of your brand representatives at a random array of local events or donating to various charities. This kind of display will prove beneficial, but only if you keep everything tied to the objectives of your brand. Aim to educate your customers. Highlight all the good attributes they already see and emphasize the ones they do not see. But don’t be too aggressive. There is no need to post long rants about your brand or your competitors all over social media. Use simple Memes and creative videos to emphasize and reemphasize all that your brand represents. This will however require that you keep up to date with the latest trends.

Companies all around the world have participated in various challenges to get potential clients curious about their brand. But no one can predict which trend will be cluttering up your news feed three months from now. Social media is not about forcing your message into the lives of your customers. If you make use of this tool to your advantage, potential clients will be sharing your message all around the world without ever asking you for a dime. Social media allows you to waltz right into the homes of the very group of people you wish to target. But in order for you to reach them, you have to make them welcome you into their homes. You will only be able to achieve that if you present your brand in a way that excites or intrigues the masses. In short, keep up to date, keep it fun and as you learned in a previous section, keep it relevant.

Be warned however, there is a hidden danger in this strategy. Social media makes it very easy for your clients to ‘call you out’ on whatever issues they may have with your product or service. Be sure to carefully monitor the comments being posted and prepare yourself to have to do damage control at just about any time. Anything offensive that is posted on your account can reach the very ends of the earth in just a few seconds. And even if you eventually delete it, this harmful content will do permanent damage before you are even aware of the harm that was done. That is why I strongly discourage delegating the task of posting on and monitoring your social media accounts unless you have hired a proven, trusted professional to do so.

If you want to make use of social media effectively, you will need to devise a plan that emphasizes the goals and message of your brand. Your social media account should simply be an extension of your brand strategy. But once again, this is far easier said than done. It is so easy to become swept up in the millions of Tweets, posts, Snapchats and comments that can lose sight of their goals altogether. Remember that your brand was designed to send one central message and to reach a very specific group of people. That means every image or post you make should be tied to a specific objective. Your aim should not be merely to entertain your audience. While it is true that comedic content will help attract new followers, you may very well end up attracting the wrong kind of people. It is best to focus on educating your followers, especially when your brand is relatively new. If you are able to combine being entertaining and informative, you have already won the battle.

Always remember that managing your social media accounts will be almost like a full time job. So while it is good to use various social media platforms to build your brand, try not to stretch your resources too thin. Your time is always your most precious resource. It is better to carefully select a few platforms that are known to be favorites of your buyer personas, than to waste time managing too many accounts. The beauty of a social media account is that it is one touch point where you are encouraged to make contact with your clients as often as possible. This will not be possible if you have too many accounts and your brand will not build loyalty by posting the same content on every one of its social media pages.

As mentioned before, the frequency of your posts are of utmost importance. Frequency is the only real way to get the attention of your audience. The world of social media can be quite forgetful. People today want to be engaged constantly and are generally always glued to their mobile devices. If their focus is not on your brand or your product, your competition may have captured their attention. And do not be mislead to think that it is just posting informative content that will get your brand recognized. You need to engage your followers as well. That means posting comments that will solicit their feedback and responding to their comments. If your communication via social media is one sided, it will not prove to be a very useful tool. Followers become very disgruntled when they feel their opinions are being ignored and you simply want to push your message on them. Communication was always meant to go both ways.

“Two Monologues Do Not Make A Dialogue.” – Jeff Daly

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ― George Bernard Shaw

“Constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating.” ― Charlie Kaufman

As I have emphasized time again, successful brands are those that earn the trust and respect of their target audience. Social media can assist you in that regard because it allows you to become an expert in your niche. If you are always posting informative content, your audience will constantly look to you to learn something new. It is this kind of anticipation for what you have to say that will gradually gain their trust and soon, lead to increased sales. Always remember that social media is regarded as the most useful platform to reach an audience because the world is your audience once you make that final click. Even if your brand is currently ‘local,’ try to break out of the mindset of thinking only people within a specific region will benefit from your content. Gradually move away from location specific content and become more of a general expert in this specific field.

Another important aspect of your social media strategy is the quality of your content. Proof read everything more than once! Bearing in mind how quickly your mistakes can spread around the world will help you to remember this point. Worded content on social media should always be short and sweet. Save wordier messages for your website or your blog. The quality of the images you post is also a matter of serious concern. Social media is one of those platforms that encourage people to forget the dangers of copyright infringement. Always check who owns the images you intent to use and the usage rights for these images. Please also ensure you select crisp, clear images at all times. Try to avoid images with watermarks or the logos of other companies.

Video content is always a great option for promoting specific products or services. Use videos to highlight how to use your product and always aim to make it look easy. No one wants to complicate their lives unnecessarily. You can also engage your clients by encouraging them to showcase themselves making use of your product or service. Everyone wants to be a star and you can easily leverage this innate desire to your advantage. Despite the various benefits of social media, this alone cannot help make your brand a success. You need to make use of an assortment of platforms to build your brand. The next chapter will highlight another step to building a successful brand.