We live in a world where technology has made it easier to communicate and run a business. It’s not like the old times when the marketplace was quite static, and only a few big organizations had control over it. Today, it’s easy for anyone to start an eCommerce company. Sure, big enterprises have thousands, maybe even millions of devoted clients and huge marketing budgets, but social media offers you plenty of ways to compete with them.
Whether you sell T-shirts on Shopify or design online games like Bunny Boiler, customers nowadays expect a service that fits their needs perfectly. The mantra “Customer is king” still holds in 2020. And a one-size-fits-all is not an acceptable policy anymore. When creating a global brand strategy, it’s essential to narrow down your audience.
And to give you some help to put together your new master brand strategy, we’ve compiled this list of helpful customer-oriented tactics. Ready?
1. Find Your Brand’s Purpose
If you’re wondering what is a brand strategy, it’s a plan for a brand to reach its pre-set goals. It is followed across all departments of a company. But to gain a real competitive advantage, you need a strong purpose, which is behind every success story and should be the starting point of every brand’s strategy process. Have a look here at how your purpose can affect growth of your brand.
As you are familiar with the brand strategy definition, here are some basic questions to help you define your brand’s purpose.
- Why should people care about your company?
- What are the problems your business solves?
- What makes you different?
Answering them gives you the foundation; use it to make up slogans, visuals, stories, and other marketing materials. And here’s the thing: according to a survey, 63% of customers prefer to buy from brands with a solid purpose. So, don’t just be satisfied with superficial answers; dig deeper to find out what makes your venture different from others.
2. Study Your Competition
Check this out: you can find some of the brand strategy examples simply by studying your competition.
Obviously, you shouldn’t copy exactly what the successful brands in your industry are doing. But being aware of their tactics can give you ideas on how to do things differently. And that’s the key to making your customers choose you instead of them.
Here are some questions to guide you:
- What is the competitor doing to market the business online?
- Do they have customer reviews available to read?
- What seems to be the quality of their products?
- Are they consistent with their visual identity?
3. Find Your Brand’s Target Audience
A simple Google search will give you countless brand strategy templates to choose from. But the first step in all of them is determining your target audience. Because here’s a simple truth: you can not be loved by everyone.
The smart thing to do is to focus on only the people you want to reach. This allows you to tailor a specific message that meets the target audience’s exact needs. And the more specific you get, the more likely your message gets read or heard. Here are a few examples of narrowing down your audience and then taking it one step further:
- “Bicycle riders” is too broad. A more specific approach would target “semi-professional cyclists looking to take their riding to the next level.”
- If the target group is “all Dads,” narrow the focus to “Dads in their 30’s who enjoy golfing on weekends.”
- Instead of going for “video gamers,” try “20-24-year-old video gamers looking to start a career in eSports.”
This kind of approach gives you a very focused starting point for even a complex multi-brand strategy.
https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-discuss-about-graphs-and-rates-3184292/
4. Utilize Social Media Marketing
The eCommerce space has been completely changed by social media. And the new reality is that brands with a strong Facebook or Instagram presence have higher chances of getting noticed. Social media has an enormous user base, and anyone can easily find thousands of people interested in their specific niche.
To find the best platform for your brand, go back to studying your competition. What platforms are they using? How is it working out for them? Are they completely ignoring social network that seems more suitable for their products?
5. Use Influencer Marketing in Your Brand Strategy
Both Facebook and Instagram enable you to create a page for your company to advertise it. And the best way to reach the ever-increasing number of users on these platforms is to collaborate with influencers in your niche. You’ve probably noticed how successful content creators have managed to attract a huge following — partner up with the influencers who seem to be congruent with your brand’s message. And look, they don’t even have to make a lengthy video advertising your products. One comment by an online celebrity can boost your sales overnight.
6. Get Feedback From Your Customers
If you’re just starting, it’s easy to get lost in trying out different marketing tricks. But don’t forget to collect valuable customer feedback, which allows you to build relationships and make your brand more people-centric.
You can begin by going through all the comments, tags, and reviews about your company on social media. This gives you a general idea of what people are talking about. But don’t stop there. Next, reach out to your clients. Ask them to share their opinions about your brand. Every client has their tastes and preferences, and listening to them all gives you valuable insights and new ideas.
7. Let Your Brand Image Shine Through
If you’ve tried any brand strategy consulting sessions, you’ve probably heard about visual branding and the importance of keeping it consistent. In a nutshell, it means that everything your clients hear or see about your brand should carry a similar theme. So, if you’ve got an office or a store, the brand image should be visible everywhere. Advertisements, business cards, and the products: they all need your logo.
And getting back to social media: your brand needs to look identical on every platform. Why is this important? It’s simple. A consistent voice in messages, videos, color, etc., helps to make your service memorable.
Conclusion
Use the tactics outlined in this article, and you’ll be able to build a strong brand image that people feel connected to. And who knows, if you get really good at implementing the tactics, you might have a whole new career waiting for you. With the increasing popularity of social media, brand strategy jobs are always in demand. So, what’s stopping you? Now it’s your turn to come up with the best possible solution for your brand.
Which tactics are you using to build your brand’s strategy? Leave comments below; we’d love to learn something new.
