techiners.in: TOP 10 WAYS TO CREATE A BRAND

WHAT IS BRANDING?

According to Philip Kotler, Branding is "a name, term, symbol or design or a combination of them which is intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors."

So how are you going to create your brand that stands out with those of competitors?

Here are top 10 ways to create a brand:

Create a Consistent Online Identity:

When it comes branding, you need to create an online identity for yourself and keep it consistent across multiple platforms, thereby allowing people to recognize and remember you and your brand. Create consistent social network profiles and domain name extensions to manage your online reputation. Pick an interesting / memorable name and stick to it.

To aide in selecting names it is helpful to use tools that allow you to check if your desired user name is available. This saves time especially if you are just beginning to build your brand. One such tool is Name Check. Just type in your desired name in Name Check and you will be notified of its availability.

Social media channels are constantly changing and we really do not know when a channel will soar with popularity. Snap Chat, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter are just a few examples. If you have a profile already created in the platform, you lessen the risk of having your "identity" taken.
Create a Digital Destination:

A digital destination is your personal website. This is your online real estate, your home. You own everything you post here. Why is this important? Because sadly you do not own anything you post on other platforms. This means you need to ensure that you have a place to invite your "guests" to. This is where they are able to learn more about you.

Like any good host/hostess knows, you need to keep your home inviting. You accomplish this with your personal website by keeping it fresh and updated with your blogs, compelling content and accomplishments; making sure all your social links point to your home base (personal website).

Create and Share Valuable and Compelling Content:

The next step with branding is to show your area of expertise. How do you do this? The answer is Blogging. People will not know what you are an expert in, unless you tell them. You can do so by creating valuable and compelling content in your subject area and sharing it with as many people as possible.

Yes, blogging can be a daunting task because creating fresh and unique content is not always easy. However, a consistent blogging presence that showcases you expertise is a surefire way to stamp your name in the minds and hearts of your consumers. View blogging as story-telling; a way to share your brand narrative.

Scoopit, Swayy.co, Feedly are some wonderful tools for content creation, curation and sharing. Providing ideas for top performing blogs. These tools suggest posts on your home page and offer ways of curating content. Scoopit has an added benefit in that it also allows commenting on content that is most popular in a community.

Engage with Social Channels:

Dormant social profiles and websites are damaging to your personal brand. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is creating a social profile, posting it on your blog or website, but not managing the profile in question. If you have a profile that you created to capture your brand, but aren't using it yet, do not advertise it. Only advertise what you are actively using and managing well.

Although spending a lot of time on social networks is neither possible nor feasible for all, especially considering most people have a busy day to day life, it is important to keep yourself engaged with social communications. This helps you keep abreast of trends in your field and aids in expanding your knowledge and reach.

With the increase in number of social media networks, there are several new tools available to manage social engagement. HootSuite stands out as it allows you to organize popular social channels in your home page easily. You can also setup "Social Listening" - tracking hash-tags, brands or people to follow as well as providing analytic tools to track and discover more about social media interaction. If this does not cater to your needs, there are options such as Sprout Social and Raven Tools that may be better suited to you.

Engage through Emails:

Email marketing is an excellent way of getting and staying connected with your audience. Remember, all your followers and fans on the different social networks are not truly yours; they belong to that network. You need to bring them in to your personal space, and to do so, you require their permission to engage them outside of those platforms.

You can get explicit permission to engage with your audience when they sign up to your mailing list. Think of it like the family that sends out a monthly newsletter to their friends and family, updating them on what is going on with them presently and what is to come. Similarly, a mailing list can serve you as newsletter to keep your guests up to date.

Mail chimp is an excellent tool to create and manage email lists and email templates as well as manage and track your emails. It enables you to share your recent blogs with email subscribers thereby promoting your business offers.

Create Image:

Images (pictures) are a must-have when it comes to personal branding. Images attract readers; thus the need for a good image creator. Canva is an easy-to-use tool for creating stunning images. You can create your own designs without any prior designing knowledge. The tool offers multiple features, including a way to add your own text to a picture, collate two images etc. Although there are some images you may have to pay for, there are also a lot of free images and you are able to upload your own images for your design. When you have the right tools for the job, personal branding can be a walk in the park. I hope these tips and tools for personal branding will help get you started in you building a successful personal brand.

Budget Unlimited or Limited - Use On Line Tools:

Large companies have a huge marketing budget, making brand building a lot easier. A bigger budget provides a wider reach through a larger database of resources like TV ads, newspapers, magazines etc. They also have the option to commission specialist agencies and brand strategists to build their brand and lay out the branding process.

As a small business owner, you do not have the luxury of an unlimited budget. Never fear, even on a limited budget, you can build and maintain a quality brand. And therefore you think of completely ignoring the need for a brand, remember that a product without a brand is just a product. It has very little to draw in and keep the consumer.

Make use of plethora of cheap / free online tools that help you build your brand.

Actively Remind People - Keep Shouting:

Your business will die in your hands if you keep silent for too long. Having a brand, brand identity and online presence is pointless if you are not actively reminding people of your presence. Eventually people will forget about you. It's a cold world.

The first thing you'll want to do is some spring cleaning. Cleat out the cyber-clutter by determining what you can handle and ditch the rest. There is no point having 20 social media profiles if you can only stay active on 3 of them. Invest in the areas that will give you the most output and grow from there.
- A great website.
- A Facebook account.
- A Twitter Account.
Once you have decided on the vehicles for your choice, start shouting. You do this by creating compelling content that tells your brand story, your purpose, your approach and your goals. Blogging is an excellent way of expressing yourself and giving the public access to your thoughts, passions and values. Share your blogs on multiple platforms and direct readers to your website.

Create Brand Identity:

Brand identity is about creating recognition of your brand through different outreach avenues. Start by evaluating what platforms are realistically available to you. TV ads? Radio? Magazines? Grocery store bulletin boards? Business Cards? Social media profiles? Word of mouth? Google?

Then establish how you plan to use these platforms. The more places you can present yourself the better.

Create Gateway Content:

Gateway content is branded content that begins in a state of impartial advice, transitions a reader to a potential customer, and conclude in a state of brand advocacy. Gateway content is different from the more traditional inhabitants of the "mid-funnel", such as white papers, case studies, or landing pages where a band's advocacy is made explicit throughout.
Gateway content also feels different from advertorial or native advertising, where the brand's ultimate intention and / or bias is often concealed from the reader. In Gateway content, a brand is explicit about its bias, acknowledging that the point of view is going to change and transition within the piece itself.

I myself have used online tools mentioned above while writing this post and creating images. You guys can try them out and let me know in the comment section below about your essential feedback what you feel about it. Keep Blogging! Happy Programming!