Your Brand Is Important: Take Care Of It
Managing your brand online has never been more important.
Creating a new business is a hugely challenging process, as millions of entrepreneurs and sole traders throughout the UK can attest. One of the most crucial parts of forming a new company involves defining its brand; creating a cohesive corporate identity that will strike a chord with potential customers and make your new enterprise recognisable in a crowded marketplace.
There is a popular misconception that branding is primarily to do with logos and advertising. In reality, your brand is the public face of your business, from visible elements like logos and letterheads to less tangible aspects such as customer services and the way telephones are answered. Marketing experts talk about brand awareness and brand reputation, which underlines the fact that a corporate brand is a far bigger entity than the choice of Pantone colour used on its website.
For a new company, creating a successful brand involves an appreciation of what the market currently offers and what it might require. Branding should be based around a strong idea or identity – if you are offering a local service it can be useful to acknowledge this in the company name or slogan. There’s a reason many businesses adopt the name of their home town or city as part of their title: to lend clarity to their brand. Indeed, a name is a cornerstone of any corporate profile. When Corus was formed in 1999, its name was selected from two thousand options that were gradually whittled down to a shortlist of just three. Corus was chosen because it could be pronounced in any language, was distinctive from its competitors, and had the phonetic “core” in its name to infer strength – a crucial connotation for a metals producer.
It’s also vital to emphasise what differentiates your company from its competitors in marketing literature and advertising. If you’re a veteran car mechanic, emblazon your leaflets with details of how many years of experience you can offer and the manufacturers you’ve worked with. Again, branding goes beyond logos or catchphrases; it’s the way customers relate to a business and identify its niche. Expertise or knowledge should underpin branding efforts, so be sure to promote awards or prior experience heavily.
Branding also extends into areas like packaging, website design and social media profiles. A Facebook company page should contain the firm’s logo and corporate colour scheme, along with other key information such as contact details and opening hours. Every status update should be reinforcing brand values like dependability or affordability, and there shouldn’t be any personal information on corporate profiles. No matter how much you love your local football club or hate a particular politician, effective branding rises above personal preferences to appeal to the widest possible audience.
Branding can be particularly challenging for an online enterprise that lacks premises or products. If you’re a proofreader, you’re unlikely to have retail units or e-commerce functionality that can create positive connotations. What you can do is promote the company through marketing campaigns and advertising, together with a recognisable logo and strapline. A memorable company name is also advisable, preferably with some reference to your chosen industry, and this should be chosen with consideration to available website addresses. Shorter addresses have greater recall among consumers, while shorter names are also easier to squeeze into character-limited tweets and Google Adwords campaigns. Nobody will recommend a company if they can’t remember its name, or if it occupies twelve syllables.
Finally, remember that your brand will probably outlast the products or services you offer at any given time. Consider the markup attached to any product with an Apple logo, or how people will buy an Audi or BMW even when rival products from less prestigious manufacturers can be just as good. Establishing a new company gives you a blank canvas to create a high-quality brand, whose reputation and public perception will increase with every successful transaction. Effective branding differentiates a company from its competitors, which is more crucial than ever in today’s congested online marketplace.
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