You’ve done your research. You found your target demographic. You built your brand. You created a logo. You began your digital marketing campaigns. You have a blog and social media pages to share the news. If you think you’re done, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your work has just begun. As you begin to create brand recognition, as you work with clients, and as your business grows, you can lose sight of your brand image. Let’s look at what you can do to reinforce your brand and ensure your company stays on track.
Keep Messaging Consistent
As your company grows, you begin to bring in individuals with their own style and vision for what your brand means. If you’re not careful with maintaining your brand’s consistency, you can find yourself facing a messaging nightmare. In small ways, this can include mixed messaging as people personalize stationary or email signatures, for example. If you allow your messaging to become too muddled, however, you can find yourself in British Airways’ situation.
In 1997, the company found itself suffering from a well-intentioned PR campaign. They featured tailfin art that featured international artists from their many destinations. While applaudable for supporting the arts, it muddled their branding and left them lagging behind their competitors on the runway.
As you incorporate new ideas, as you allow employees to create authenticity with personalization, ensure that key parts of your messaging stay intact. Your logo design, color schemes, and mission messaging should always be consistent, clear, and recognizable.
Send Periodic Newsletters
If you don’t have a periodic newsletter, you are missing out on a strong and proven brand-reinforcing strategy. A periodic newsletter allows you to keep your brand in front of consumers, demonstrate your expertise, and connect with your customers by providing news and insights about your industry. An informative newsletter will demonstrate to your customers why they do business with you – because you believe in meeting their needs.
How often should you send a newsletter? That depends on your industry. For example, the tech industry sees frequent innovations, so a weekly newsletter would allow you to keep subscribers informed of news that might slip through the cracks over the course of a busy week. Other industries that see less frequent changes and news, on the other hand, can benefit from a monthly or even quarterly newsletter. The important thing is that you keep your newsletter release consistent and ensure you always have important and relevant information.
Keep Up with Innovation
Have you heard of the tragic tale of Yahoo? By the late 90s, Yahoo was the leading internet search engine, with over 95 million page views a day. Yahoo was positioned for dominance, especially as it branched out from search into traditional media. For a time, Yahoo was your one-stop for news, financial information, and internet searching. Then it wasted away into a shell of what it was. Why?
Yahoo failed to keep up with innovation. As their media focus grew, they turned to a new start-up, Google, to power their searches. When the companies parted ways, Yahoo counted on its media presence to keep users, not realizing what those users really wanted was a reliable search engine.
Because Yahoo ignored how their users were engaging with their site, and the importance of reliable search, their brand faded from users’ minds in favor of the new kid in town, Google.
Reinforcing your brand is important to the longevity and success of your company. Consistent messaging, consistent and engaging content and consistent engagement with innovation and user needs will keep your brand strong and help ensure your company grows quarter after quarter.
Are You Looking to Build or Reinforce Your Brand? Contact me. I’ll help you meet your evolving business goals.
Comments