March 2021
Your brand is what new clients will come to know about your business. After you have designed your logos and selected a color scheme for your website, you need to coordinate your brand marketing to align with your business goals.
How do you assess if your branding and business goals are in sync with each other? Think about what type of clients you have. Consider how you can tailor your brand to appeal to existing and new clients. Read on to learn about branding guidelines, including how to align it with your overall goals.
What Are SMART Goals?
To get started, you need to make a list of quality goals that you want your business to achieve. A great model for setting your goals are the SMART objectives:
- Specific: Clearly define your goal objectives for your whole organization to understand.
- Measurable: Make sure you can monitor the metrics of your goals to know when they’ve been achieved.
- Attainable: Be sure that the goals you set are realistic.
- Relevant: The goals you set should be related to your business plan and matter to your industry.
- Time Bound: Establish a specific time frame to meet these goals.
Brand Your Business to Align with Goal Setting
So, how do you use your brand to align with your goals? The steps listed below help you strengthen your brand image, which can engage more customers and lead to business success.
Incorporate Your Customers Values into Your Brand
Research your target audience and learn more about their lifestyles and values. Understanding your target audience can help you create a more specific brand identity to coincide with their interests. That way, you can define the voice for your brand that will speak to them directly. These needs may change over time, so it is essential that you monitor your customer base from time to time.
Create a Brand Legacy
Another key component is establishing your brand legacy. How would you like your customers to relate to your company? What is the core idea or product? How can your brand impact the customer’s lifestyle or business? When you focus on what matters to the customer and do whatever you can to make the experience better, you will create customer loyalty.
Give Back
It’s a great idea for companies to show their appreciation to the customers who were there from the beginning. This is a way to remind customers that you are not just some faceless, soulless company out to make a dollar. Behind that brand image are people who customers want to feel connected to. Find some way to give back to your customers as a thank you for supporting your business. Even something as simple as a rewards program or a coupon code is enough to keep loyal customers.
Many consumers are drawn to a new company if they do something for the greater good of a community. A new business can also benefit by giving back to a community in need, so it can be a win-win scenario. You can do this by organizing charity organizations and events, community outreach efforts, and even provide sponsorships.
Disney, for example, started the Star Wars Force for Change Initiative. The initiative has raised over 4 million dollars for UNICEF Innovation Labs by having a contest for a walk-on role in the film Star Wars the Force Awakens.
Develop Brand Positioning
The timing when you brand your business is another key component. Your marketing should be in sync with the current audience demand. Analyze all data about your target audience. If you use your demographic data about your audience to anticipate their needs for a new product or service, your brand reputation will improve for this innovation.
Develop a Messaging Strategy
What is your company’s overall message? You need to establish a real connection between the topics discussed on all your promotion channels. Select relevant topics that are aimed at your target audience, but not industry colleagues. You can severely damage your brand image if you publish content with topics that are not tied to your business goals. Make sure to have a clear and concise message on what your business is about.
Create Your Brand Story
On your website, publish a short story describing your company. Here, you can tell the visitor about your company objectives—other than just making money. Disclose who your ideal customers are, and how you plan to support them. Describe in detail how you are helping your current customers. Tell the audience the goals you’re trying to accomplish and the value it provides. Tell the audience how and why you are different from the competition and what make your company unique.
It can be a difficult task to make sure that your brand is aligned with your business goals. We can help get your brand in sync with your business goals. Contact Inner Works Pro today to get started creating an engaging brand that people want to interact with.