Building a Brand that Resonates with Your Target Audience
No matter what industry or business you’re in, today’s marketplace requires brand-recognition in order to promote growth, maintain relevance, and foster an audience that effectively aligns with your brand.
Today’s blog post is all about strategizing brand-building in order to resonate with your target audience.
When it comes to building your brand, don’t feel overwhelmed by some of the seemingly perfect brands out there, because none of them are YOU - and your unique brand persona is your edge. So keep an open mind and read on as we take you through some key tips to building a brand that resonates with your target audience.
Define your target audience
First of all, let’s discuss what a target audience is.
A target audience is a group of people who are based on the common denominator of their likelihood as potential clients for your products or services. Typically organized by common behaviours and demographics, a target audience represents the collective of individuals you should be directing your brand’s advertising and messaging towards.
Before you can reach your target audience, you must first define who your target audience is.
Having a clear understanding of who your target audience is is the first step in outlining a clear strategy toward building a brand that will align with your defined audience.
One of the most common and accurate forms of defining target audience is via market research. This will allow you to zone in on who your audience is, what their particular wants and needs are.
Some strategies for market research include:
Analyzing your existing customer base. By considering your existing clientele, you can examine the buying motivations and service experience and specifically, buyers or clients themselves, who have purchased and are making use of your business and its services.
Engage. Reach out to your audience on social media and connect with them directly in this way to inquire about their experiences and understand what it is that they like about your product or services, and also what constructive feedback they may have. For businesses where personal branding is at the forefront, it can be intimidating to reach out and interact with your immediate audience - after all, there’s no buffer between yourself and your business, which can trigger some very real feelings of vulnerability and insecurity.
The best way to overcome this is to just dive in! Get your feet wet by seeking out some existing customers whom you are confident have had a positive experience with your services, and pick their brain!
Research the competition. Take this one with a grain of salt, because while it’s absolutely vital to know what your business is currently “competing” with - it’s equally important not to get overly fixated on what others in your industry are doing. There’s a fine line between doing your due diligence on the existing brands in your industry and losing sight of what makes your own brand unique.
Understand the difference between researching the competition to gain insights and inspiration versus modifying your own business model and values to “keep up” with your competitors. Your greatest advantage in any forum is YOU.
Use analytic tools. In a time where technology is advancing at lightning speed, it’s now easier than ever to take advantage of tools designed to manage your business.
Analytic tools will help you to determine things like traffic to your websites and platforms, the demographics and activity of users, their geographic location, how they were directed to your channels, and much more. Knowing what is bringing your audience in and what they are spending their time on once they get to your business platforms is paramount to understanding your audience and their current driving needs and interests. Using that information, you can pivot your platforms to lean into the things that are attracting people the most, and amplify those offerings to continue to bring new people into your growing audience.
Establish your brand values and personality
Brand values are the core beliefs that reflect the driving force behind your company.
Having a strong set of brand values that are clearly communicated verbally and non-verbally through your platforms will allow for potential customers to determine whether or not your business and brand aligns with their own values. These values should be significant and meaningful, as well as unique and easy to internalize and remember. Even when expressed nonverbally, the messaging should still resonate and leave a positive and lasting impression on the user.
More than that, the best brand messaging is sincere. When it’s genuine messaging, people can sense your authenticity and it implies transparency for the brand overall.
Most of all, great brand values are sincere and clear. Successful brands choose values that truly reflect the way they think and operate. Being clear about these values and where they are applied through the business gives both customers and team members a better understanding of how a brand lives its values.
Know your brand messaging
When it comes to your business and your personal brand - what is your message? What are you and your offerings all about and what are you trying to say?
Brand messaging refers to the way your brand presents its value to the world via both verbal and nonverbal messaging. This messaging enables potential clients to form an anchor to your brand with the understanding that they feel aligned or resonate with your brand messaging.
The point is to facilitate connection-building between your brand and your audience.
So how do you establish and portray your brand messaging?
One of the best ways to portray brand messaging is by ensuring your messaging is uniform across all of your platforms and touch points so that you have brand consistency and reinforced recognition.
Your visual identity needs to align with your brand personality to establish a seamless and cohesive branding strategy that will leave (the intended) impression on your potential client base.
Spread the word and broadcast your brand on as many relevant platforms as possible
Once you have a solid brand strategy in place - it’s time to launch a campaign and spread the word!
Many web-hosting platforms and social media channels allow for scheduled posting, boosted posts and a variety of ad-campaigns that you can opt for when launching your brand - or as you periodically continue to advertise your business.
Nowadays, the best referral you can get is via Google Reviews, where verified clients can provide star-ratings and testimonials to highlight their experiences with your business and services. The system isn’t foolproof, however, and occasionally these reviews can produce negative ratings from online bots or just generally disgruntled users. The best remedy for bad reviews? Drowning them out with good ones!
At the end of the day, your brand’s biggest cheerleader needs to be you. You need to believe in your services enough to confidently put it out into the world and build it on a foundation of clear messaging and consistent brand-marketing.
“Personal branding is not about being perfect. It’s about being yourself, and showcasing your unique talents and skills to the world.” – Christina Lattimer