Around 90% of startups fail in the first year. Many reasons contribute to the high failure rate, and one of them is not paying enough attention to brand recognition. After all, your business can’t succeed if no one knows about its existence.
Unfortunately, there’s no exact formula for building a brand, but this article can provide some ideas of where to start. Here, you’ll learn eight fundamental steps to letting the public know about your startup effectively.
1. Research the Market
Market analysis is a method of learning a company’s target market.
If you aim to get quantitative results, try to use surveys. They can be transformed into usable statistics, like demographics, market demand, and willingness to pay. Survey tools, such as Survey Monkey and Google Forms, can be a great help to collect the data.
Another type of research to conduct is competitive analysis. Get to know your competitors’ products, pricing, marketing channels, and promotion strategies so that you understand how to outperform them.
2. Identify Your Brand Purpose
Brand purpose explains why your business exists and what you stand for. A unique brand purpose will stimulate people to purchase and support a brand since they can relate to issues it raises.
To define your why, ask yourself several questions:
- What does your business do?
- How does your business do it?
- Why does your business do it?
Nike is one of the famous brands that have a clear brand purpose. It focuses on athletic clothing, launches sustainable products, and encourages people to have a healthy lifestyle through its campaigns. Their brand purpose is to create a healthy planet with active communities.
3. Create Your Website
Many people will research a brand online, and almost 70% of them start the search with a search engine. So make sure they get information from your brand directly by creating a business website.
A website can be a place to showcase anything related to your business, including products, history, and terms of service. With proper engine optimization (SEO) strategies, it can also be a great way of increasing revenue with minimal expenses. An application can also help your brand to grow, yet it is important to choose the right app development company.
To start, get the best web hosting for brands by considering important factors, like uptime scores and quality of customer support. Then, consider using WordPress as your CMS because it’s free, customizable for various uses, and secure.
4. Choose a Business Name
A brand name is frequently the first component of your brand that customers notice, whether on your physical or online store. Brand names are often also used as domain names too.
Try these approaches to come up with a perfect business name:
- Combine two words, e.g., Quicksilver.
- Change the spelling, e.g., Tumblr.
- Incorporate connotations, e.g., Amazon.
- Make up a word, e.g., Google.
If you’re still stuck, use an online business name generator. Just type in keywords related to your business, and it will come up with a list of name ideas.
5. Create a Brand Personality
Brand personality refers to the characteristics of a brand from customers’ perspectives. It helps set the brand apart from competitors and creates an emotional connection.
Here are five brand personality dimensions:
- Sincerity. Captures the idea of warmth and wholesomeness in a brand, like Disney.
- Excitement. Means that a brand has a daring and spirited personality, like Coca-Cola.
- Competence. Shows intellectuality and leadership, like Google.
- Sophistication. Focuses on upper-class and glamorous looks, like Tiffany & Co.
- Ruggedness. Tends to glamorize strength and masculinity, like Jeep.
Incorporate one or more personality types into your website design using visuals and tone of voice in your copy. Doing so will make your website a more accurate representation of your brand.
6. Create Business Plans
A business plan is a document to describe your startup ideas. It acts as a pitch to other people, like investors and partners, so it should make people believe in your professionalism and ability.
Start by describing the critical facts, including:
- Your products or services
- Development goals and strategy
- Management team
- Operations and financials
- Customers
- Competitors
Pay attention to detail, especially to financial information, which many investors examine thoroughly. Make the sales predictions well-founded by including cash-flow projections, balance sheets, and break-even analysis.
If you’re unsure of the numbers, seek assistance from an accountant or a business advisor when writing your business plan.
7. Build Social Media Presence
Many people spend hours on social media, so it’s a great place for brands to work on their brand awareness.
Learn which social media platforms your target audience uses. Then, start publishing content on these platforms, including videos, product photos, or infographics.
Try to find a good balance between informational and advertisement-based posts, so your audience won’t get bored with promotions.
As a strong presence doesn’t happen overnight, create a content calendar to help you be consistent in publishing your posts. Use Spreadsheet or a project management app like Trello to schedule the content.
8. Leverage Network
Your network of friends, family, and colleagues can be excellent assets in building your startup brand. Contact them to help spread the word about your business and ask them to recommend your products by tagging you on their social accounts.
If you want to begin networking with other startups, join social media groups and industry events. Or become a part of a coworking space community. There, share impressive stories about your brand, but avoid too many sales pitches as people don’t like being sold to.
Conclusion
Good branding is a crucial foundation for your startup’s overall success in sales, customer loyalty, and credibility. A strong brand image can influence potential customers’ interest in your product or service.
Start by analyzing your target market and defining your brand purpose and personality. After that, leverage digital platforms, including a website and social media, to develop an online presence.
We hope the steps in this article will give you a solid starting point for growing your startup into a booming business. Just always keep in mind that persistence and patience are key.