4 Secrets to Building a Successful Brand

Even the best product or service can fail if it's not backed by a powerful brand image and strategy. In today's competitive marketplace, it's easier than ever before to fall into obscurity against brands and products with a clear communication strategy, offering simple to see solutions and making customers feel great about associating with them. This quick and easy guide will take you through 4 fundamental pillars of brand strategy to ensure you reach your business goals – and leave a lasting impression.

Make your offering is clear within the first 30 seconds of finding your website or ad

If you haven't already, create an elevator pitch for your brand. However, the online space means that your customers' attention span is even shorter than a minute – limit yourself to 30 seconds or less. What are you offering, and how will this improve their life? Try and capture the essence of your product, brand, or service in a powerful sentence and tagline with a clear Call to Action. The more straightforward your message, the higher the outcome of converting your customer.

Identify what you do better than your competitors

It's crucial to research your competitors. How are they selling what they're offering – and what gaps can you still see in the market? What does your product do that sets you apart from the crowd? Take time to identify what really makes your business unique and weave your brand strategy around that. For example, if you're offering a housesitting service and can extend services on short notice, highlight that: "Verified and trusted housesitters available in less than 24 hours – so you can enjoy life the way you want, when you want".

Keep your brand voice and image consistent across all platforms

What do some of the most recognized brands in the world have in common? Consistency. Putting aside million-dollar rebrands every few decades, most of the iconic brands we know and love have kept their essence intact since inception and are instantly recognizable to people from the bustling streets of New York to the residents of a sleepy Swiss village.

Create a strong yet simple brand image to compliment your logo. This means a color scheme, a font, a tone of voice and a tagline – otherwise known as "brand guidelines". This will help explain the brand to new team members or when hiring freelance creative services. By staying true to these brand guidelines across online and offline platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Ads, and more – you'll be building up strong brand recall that will deliver powerful results.

Weave your product into the daily life of your customer

With Gen Z and millennials beginning to dominate the market, brands are shifting to a more authentic, relatable approach in their marketing. Forget the days of pandering to your customer or waving your selling points in their face – try and find a way to communicate your brand that will let your customer know how it'll make a difference in their daily life. Think along the lines of the Mastercard campaigns that talked about life's priceless moments, or any Apple launch that talks about how their technology will let you capture life's important moments better.

When communicating with your target market, try not to go the way of 'the product is the best, it's really good, buy it!' but instead, weave it into how it will improve people's lives. Will they be able to see their loved ones more? Will it save them time in their stressful day, or manage their finances more easily? Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer and try and see how your product will improve their day to day, and then translate that into your marketing.

At the end of the day, almost no one gets their brand strategy perfect straight out of the gate. As you're setting out into the market, you'll find yourself constantly making changes and tweaks to your brand and communication – which is a sign of you learning more about your audience and adapting to it! While there's no hard or fast rule when it comes to marketing, keeping these four tips in mind can make a massive difference and help you build a strong foundation for an incredible, impactful brand.