When you’re starting from scratch, one of your primary goals is to find ways to build a brand fast, gain visibility and attract your target audience over to your business without any delays.
Like some very few lucky brands, with some push, you could find your way to the top in a few months. But, if you’re like most new brands, you will slug it out with other competing brands until you either find your feet or fizzle out of existence.
For those of us that started from scratch without any push, I can tell you for free… we literally died so many times before we could eventually build a brand that sticks.
As a brand that’s just starting out, there are a lot of things you’ll experience on your brand building journey and some of these things will either break you or help you stand out.
And to make this journey more worthwhile, I’ll be sharing with you some of the lessons that’s shaped our brand and that of a number of other successful brands. And how you can use these lessons to scale through and build a brand fast, even if you’re just starting today.
Define Your Brand
This is one of the most crucial advice you’ll get from here. To build a brand fast, the first thing you want to do is to define your brand.
Start with answering the questions, who am I? what do I want to achieve? and why should people care? These are the first set of questions you want to answer before launching out.
Let’s take a look at how you can answer the questions above:
- Who are you? List out your name or brand name and why you want to build this brand.
- What services are you offering? List out all the services you’re offering.
- Why should we care? List out the advantages you have over other competing businesses in your niche. This could be in your pricing, your skills, your target audience or the reason you’re doing this.
The moment you get all this out of the way, you’ll be able to get a lot of things into perspective.
Before you begin to decide on things like brand name, you want to figure out who you want to represent as a brand, what you’ll be doing and why people would be interested in your brand.
So, supposing you’re a freelance video editor and you want to create a brand that showcases you as a video editor, the first thing you have to do is to realize that this is who you are. And that’s the brand you want to build.
After that, the next thing you consider is your unique selling proposition. Why should people pay attention to you? This is where the question comes in.
To answer that question, you’ll have to figure out what makes you thick or the other things that differentiates you from other existing brands.
Could it be in your pricing, your skills, an additional product or the way you provide your services?
One thing that made us stand out when we started out was the way we provided our services. It was unique, client driven and unlike other brands very flexible to meet client needs.
Whatever it is for you, this is the time to identify and craft out an attention grabbing unique selling point that will distinguish your brand and get your clients to start paying attention to you.
As soon as these things are all sorted out, you can then go ahead to create your own brand name.
PS: It’s not compulsory to use your own name because it’s a personal brand. You can use whatever name you choose but in any case, be sure it’s something that sticks.
Find your Audience
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Now that you know exactly what you want to achieve, your next step to build a brand fast is to find out your audience – the people that can help you achieve those things.
A lot of brands always makes mistakes with finding their audiences. I remember when we first started, I felt our audience was “everyone”. So, I built my strategy to attract “everyone”.
But you know what? This also led to one of the biggest failures I experienced back then and one of the most solid proofs that building with the wrong audience, is a recipe for failure.
To create your audience successfully, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
Who’s my target audience? These are the people who’re going to be interested in your brand, product or services. If you find it difficult to identify them, check out the other brands offering products or services similar to yours and you’ll have an idea.
Where are they? This is the location of your target audience. Knowing this gives you information on how to further create a strategy that aligns with your audience, based on their location. And of course the platforms you can use for further promotions. Again you can check out the competition to find this or check out this guide.
How can I reach them? After you’re able to identify the location of your target audience, you can then find out how to reach them. Usually, you’ll reach them using specific marketing strategies including content marketing, paid advertising or direct marketing including email.
However, your first tip is to check up what your competition is doing to have an idea of what you can do. Alternatively, try reaching them using these different approaches until you find out what works specifically for your audience.
Build a Platform
One of the easiest ways to build a brand fast is to have your own platform. You can’t build a serious brand without getting a website for your brand because people will want to check you out online.
And the moment you get your own website, you make yourself reachable to people all around the world.
Keep in mind, the platform I’m referring to in this case is not a free platform or a social media handle. While those ones can serve as additional platforms, the primary platform you need to build is a website.
Build yourself a website. List out your portfolio, services and products offered, testimonials and every other thing you’d think will make a potential client interested in working with you.
While at it, be sure to use a domain name that is in your brand name. Also, choose a website color and design that reflects your brand colors, logo and brand values.
Create & Share Content
Remember in one of the steps above, I mentioned that creating content is one of the easiest ways to build a brand fast?
Well, the reason is because content marketing is one of the primary ways you can stimulate the interest of your target audience, in your brand.
Now, let’s get a bit more specific.
To get your target audience interested in your brand, you need to create and share content around issues that matter to them.
Again, you may not have an idea about what matters to your target audience. To figure this out, you can have a look at what your competition is doing and how they are doing it. And then find out what you can take or tweak for your own audience.
To take it a step further, you can go on a full keyword research to find out what your audience is actively searching online. And then create content around these topics, using the proper keywords.
PS: Before you embark on content creation, do not assume. Identify the form of content that matters to your audience. If your audience prefers short videos over written content, create that content for them. Otherwise, create a blend of content that will benefit both the ones that prefer videos and the others that prefer written content.
Become a Thought Leader
To build a brand fast, you have to establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche. This is very important. And thankfully with the age of online publishing, a lot has changed.
Although it might take some time say months or maybe years, to garner enough experience that’ll position you as a thought leader, you can always start somewhere.
Start with creating content that positions your brand as a thought leader in your niche. Create and share these on your social media, websites etc.
Get on trending topics, offer your opinion. Add your own perspective to key conversations going on in your industry.
To take it even further, consider writing a book where you’ll share your experiences, lessons and insights on topics around your niche.
This is a very solid way to cement your thought leadership.
You might be thinking I’m just starting out; I don’t have enough experience to write a book. The idea is not for you to have all the experiences. It’s about you sharing the ones you already have. So, let’s get started right there.
Writing a book is one of the best ways to establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche. And the more you create this perception, the more you increase the respect and admiration for your brand.
Leverage Social Media
The social media must be key part of your digital marketing strategy, if you ever plan to build a brand fast. You can’t ignore it.
With its large audience, social media gives you leverage to easily build a brand from scratch. And you have to leverage it.
Unlike before where new brands needed solid funds driven PR, big media budget and hours of media support to garner visibility, today, so much has changed.
With social media, you now have a plug and play audience, a platform and resources to build a brand online. So, why not key into this platform?
I have seen a lot of brands who started out on the social media to build something big. Personally, I have been a big beneficiary of the social media visibility for branding. And you can do the same.
So, head over to the social media and create your handles. Edit, update and make sure everything is on brand then begin to post your content.
Remember, you don’t have to enlist on all social media platforms. Choose the ones that have the highest number of your target audience and then focus your energy there.
Commit to consistently creating valuable content to your audience. Engage with them and share your content to sub platforms like groups etc. to get better visibility. Doing this will keep them coming back to your posts thus creating the visibility you need.
Volunteer, offer Freebies
People love freebies. And you can leverage this to build a brand fast in a matter of weeks.
Give out free offers, limited offers, products services etc. Get reviews, share them and watch your brand sell itself.
To take it a step further, at some point when your brand has garnered some momentum, volunteer to host or speak at events in your niche.
Doing this is another important strategy to build your brand fast as it positions you as a thought leader while also creating visibility for your brand.
Where you don’t have opportunities to volunteer, collaborate with other brands in your niche to host events, conferences and symposiums.
Doesn’t have to be physical, you can host it virtually or any how you want it. Just be sure it’s something that can add value to your target audience while also creating the visibility you need.
Additionally, volunteer to create and share content on other platforms, using your brand name. Something like guest posting.
Also, share your brand story, your inspiration, why you started and the difference you want to make.
Wrapping Up
In conclusion, there are so many ways to build a brand fast, and this right here are some of the most realistic strategies you can use to give your brand a headstart.
While at it, remember that consistency is very important. And you will never know how much you can achieve until you get started.
So, now that you’ve learned about how to cut through the queue and build a brand more easily, do you need further guide on how to create a brand that stands out? Let’s help you! Reach out our team here.
Now, it’s over to you. What are your biggest challenges when it comes to building a brand? Drop your comments below!
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