Without a brand and an identity, it’s hard to make the market know your existence, perhaps even impossible. At the end of the day, your brand is your ID, it’s what makes you unique and separates you from your competitors. But your uniqueness requires more than plastering your logo all over. Behind every logo, there should be a well thought out and defined identity, brand strategy and a story.
Creating and defining your brand identity and identifying strategic measurements is a major assignment and includes a range of different tasks. In this blog, we’ll take you through why effective brand communication is one ingredient you need to nail to succeed in building your brand.
What is brand communication?
In life, communication is more than words and text. How you act, dress, move, face expressions and what you do, is communication. The same applies to branding. How your brand looks, tone-of-voice, customer engagement, social responsibilities, your values, your pricing, store location and more, is brand communication. Said differently, every part of your branding process is about communication. It’s how you choose to present your brand using different approaches and methods.
Also read: How to communicate your brand
Establish effective brand communication
You have established your brand identity and your brand strategy goals are defined. Now you’re ready to tell your audience that you are here. It’s time to get to work.
The first thing you need to do is to acknowledge that nothing should be set in stone. Your audience and the market are destined to change, and you have to be prepared to adapt. Next, you need a communication strategy to keep you focused and aligned with the brand strategy.
- Define your communication channels: You know who, but what channels and sources do they engage with and trust for their decision-making? Don’t limit this in the beginning. Most likely you need to test and experience how your audience reacts to your brand before you narrow down the most effective communication channels. And remember, just because a channel exists does not mean that you need to use it. It’s not about the channel, it’s about your audience. There’s no point in using TikTok if your target audience isn’t using it.
- Identify what your audience is looking for and is triggered by: What you want to be acknowledged for and what your audience looks for doesn’t always match. You need to know these details otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of time and resources shooting blanks – it’s ineffective and pointless.
- Be flexible and adaptable with your message: One voice – One brand is key in building a brand, but don’t mistake this for One message. You need to acknowledge that your audience is varied and consists of different personas. The better you meet your personas needs, the more relevant you’ll be with your message and the more precisely you’ll hit home with the target audience(s). It’s all about adapting to what the audience wants, but remember to be honest, reliable, and relevant. If your audience catches you lying or feels you’re wasting their time, you’ll lose them.
In other words, don’t use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Effective brand communication occurs when you use your resources wisely and meet your target audience with what they want to hear. The smarter you are about it, the less money it will cost you and the more successful you’ll be at building your brand.
Communicate and build your brand
With the above in place, it’s time to initiate your strategy and build your brand. Through your website, chosen social media channels, a blog, advertising or any other channel or platform you see fit, you’ll present your brand. And here’s a second situation where it’s easy to stumble. A hectic work life alone puts strains on your ability to deliver on demand, and if you have limited resources as well, perhaps you get careless with your brand image and inconsistency is a fact. This is a disaster for your brand building and very difficult to recover from.
You need to safeguard your ability to deliver a consistent brand image regardless of audience or channel. This is where you need to update your Martech stack if you haven’t already done so. A brand management tool is a life saver when it comes to building your brand and of course it’s also a powerful tool for effective brand communication as well.
Also read: What is brand management?