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How to Create Your Unique Brand Voice

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Brand Voice|How to Create Your Unique Brand VoiceSo you’re thinking about getting your marketing off the ground for your business? Before you do this, it can be a good idea to establish your brand voice. Brand voice is a brand personality that is created by the company. It is what a customer perceives when they are in touch with your brand. It can be something as simple as a logo or as complex as an entire business strategy. A brand voice can be a strong point for your business and an opportunity to create more revenue for your company. It can also be used to build trust of customers and help them to make the right decision when buying from you.

What is a Brand Voice and How Can It Be Created?

How can you create a unique voice for your brand? The new generation of brands are characterized by a distinctive voice, that is, the way in which they communicate with their customers. This unique voice is created through the use of digital marketing and branding.. The most common examples are logos and brand names that are used to convey information about the company’s identity, products or services.


Finding Your Unique Brand Voice in Today’s Market

In today’s world, the need for brands to be different is more important than ever. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you must create a brand that will be remembered for years to come. The key to building a unique brand voice is finding your own voice. You can do this by asking yourself questions about who you are and how you want to be perceived. You can then start to think about pulling together the personality of your brand and create content that fits within the voice to start creating your brand position.

Creating a Brand Position For Your Business

Branding is one of the key elements of any marketing campaign. It helps companies stand out from other competitors in the market and make them easy to remember. There is no doubt that branding is important for many businesses. But even if you are a small business owner, you will probably want to attract more customers and increase your sales. The best way to create a brand positioning for your business is to create an image that you can use for your business. This then allows you to place an image of your business in their mind about who you are and what you stand for.

Hiring the Best Content Writer For Your Business

Sometimes, it can be a great idea to hire a writer to help bring your brand voice alive. A content writer is the one who writes all the copy for your website, blog, newsletter and any other medium in which you want to communicate with your audience. You should hire a good content writer because they are highly skilled and have expertise in writing different types of content that your customers or potential customers might need. You need to make sure that you are hiring an experienced professional who knows what they are doing and can help you create high-quality content that will be of great value to your audience.

7 Ways to Get Inspiration When Planning a Logo For Your Business

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Business Logo|7 Ways to Get Inspiration When Planning a Logo For Your BusinessDesigning a logo by yourself can be a complicated process.

After all, you’re only one perspective.

So, what are your options?

Outside inspiration, of course.

Drawn from a source of established brands, popular blogs, and creative designers.

All using market and consumer-related design strategies and trends, proven to communicate your brand’s identity and engage your target audience.

Now all you need is to know where to find them.

Good news, that’s what we’re going to tell you.

Let’s look at 7 ways to get inspiration when planning a logo for your business.

It All Starts with Your Brand

Before you look externally, consider looking internally for ideas for logo creation; after all, your logo’s primary purpose is to represent your brand and what better place to start seeking inspiration than your own story?
Ask yourself the following questions to get your home-grown creative juices flowing:

  • Your Voice: Why does your business exist? Who are you serving? What are your goals and beliefs?
  • Your Market: What designs, colors, and typography are related to your niche?
  • What Qualities do you Prioritize? Are there any images or icons that reflect your brand’s qualities?
  • Brands and Artists: What existing brands or artists match your brand’s voice? Is there anything about their style that connects with your brand? Can you use elements of their work to influence your logo’s design?
  • Create Visuals or Wordplay: Can you use a catchy wordplay or visual to create your slogan or brand name? If so, it’s an excellent strategy for creating a memorable logo

Let Your Competitors Inspire You

Your competitors are in the same market and therefore have the same goals, so it stands to reason that some are using design techniques proven to work for your market place.

Typically, your competitor’s logos will contain proven design tactics that are worth considering. However, should you notice that many are using a similar logo design, it could be beneficial to go in the opposite direction to ensure your brand stands out within your niche.

Big Brands Know All the Tricks!

Big brands have big budgets and employ the best designers who know the latest trends to create their logos, so looking towards theirs is an excellent way of finding up-to-date inspirational ideas.
Also, pay attention to any leading corporations and see if it’s possible to isolate any parts of their logos that are working well and adapt their approach while infusing your own identity to create a truly unique and high performing logo.

Social media Is Always Up To Date

Spend Some Time on Pinterest and other social media platforms to hunt for logo inspiration; Pinterest, in particular, allows you to search by subject matter, so you can narrow your search for art that’s related to your niche.

You’ll find thousands of images, and the inspiration within these platforms is only as infinite as your imagination.

Magazines and Design Blogs Can Also Help You

Magazines and blogs should also be on your inspirational radar, as they regularly publish logo related content in the form of image collections and expertly created logo design galleries.

Image Searches Should Not Be Overlooked

Images are often the essence of a great logo; think about some of your favorite brand logos, do any images to mind?
You can apply the same approach by using any images you can think of that would be a suitable fit for your logo; when you have one, send it to a freelance graphic designer along with your name, you could end up with an instant logo!

Still Stuck! Ask Friends, Family, and Co-Workers.

If you’re still lacking inspiration, bring outside voices into the conversation.

After all, we are a subjective vacuum. Sometimes, it helps to get different perspectives by asking other people for their ideas.

If you have employees, seek their opinion on how they see your business and what connects with their viewpoints. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, there are still plenty of people you can brainstorm with for logo ideas. Ask members of any clubs you’re in or family and friends with business or marketing experience; you never know what skills they have; they might provide you with that inspirational spark you’re seeking.

How Can Brand Identity Boost Your Online Business?

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Brand Identity|Brand Identity Design and How It Boosts Your E-CommerceIn the world of the internet, developing and maintaining a compelling and authoritative brand identity for your e-commerce organization is paramount for driving success and staying competitive. The e-commerce business environment is fiercely competitive and overwhelmed with too many businesses.

So, if you want to start your own business online, effective branding can help you achieve your business and marketing goals. Your brand identity allows you to attract the target audience, convey your brand message most effectively, project your values, and get ahead of the competition curve.

The success of your brand depends on how effective your brand identity is. This identity represents your business in all its splendor. Think of it as your business ID in the online business world. It’s how you present yourself to the world of consumers and one of your business’s most valuable assets.

The Importance of a Strong Brand Identity

There’s much more to your brand than just a logo. Although brand identity is the very personification of your business online, it’s just one aspect of effective branding. However, building a strong brand identity is the very foundation of your branding.

Here are a couple of good reasons why building a strong brand identity matters considerably for your success:

  • It allows you to develop a brand personality that your customers can relate to.
  • It helps shape the way your consumers perceive your business.
  • It projects the promises and expectations your business extends to your consumers in terms of trustworthiness, reliability, service, quality, and authoritativeness.
  • It helps establish a meaningful relationship with your target audience.
  • It helps create loyalty and trust from both your partners and customers.
  • It helps you become more relevant and competitive in your business niche.
  • It helps your consumers differentiate your brand from the competition.
  • It positively affects the purchasing decisions of your customers, directly resulting in higher profitability.

The Benefits of an Effective Brand Identity

A strong brand identity benefits your e-commerce business in several different ways.

1. Branding Makes Your Business Look Bigger and More Serious

We live in a visual world, where the average consumer’s attention span is no more than 5-10 seconds. Therefore, you need something captivating to grab the attention of your target audience.

When consumers see a professional brand that’s continuously providing consistent and relevant content on social media, website, and business cards, they start visualizing your company as worthy of their attention.

Modern consumers look for brands that offer real solutions to daily problems. More importantly, they won’t have any issues paying more if they perceive your business as well-organized and established.

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Brand Identity|Brand Identity Design and How It Boosts Your E-Commerce2. Your Brand Identity Gives You a Relatable Persona

Building a brand around your business is as much about you as it is about your consumers. They need a brand they can relate to, put their trust in, and get more than they expect with each interaction.

If you want to stand out from the rest and make people buy your products or hire your services, you’ll need to work on your branding efforts. A good brand identity is what gives your business a personality that your consumers can relate to. With a good relationship comes trust and, ultimately, respect.

3. Trust and Loyalty

If a brand develops a loyal following, they won’t be having any trouble with getting ahead of the competition. More importantly, a strong and unique brand makes a difference in the marketplace too.
By conveying your brand’s values, you can build a meaningful and emotional long-term connection with your target audience. The main result of that connection will be improved customer loyalty.

When customers are loyal and happy, they tend to talk about you and recommend your brand to people they know. After all, word of mouth is still the number one marketing tool.

4. Conveys Stability

Building and investing in maintaining a strong brand identity allows you to present your business as authoritative, successful, prosperous, and stable. A well-organized and defined brand identity speaks volumes about your business and sends a clear message that you’re the one consumers should be talking to.

5. Makes Your Brand Memorable

Modern consumers are all about consistency. They appreciate brands that invest in an effort to satisfy their needs and overcome their expectations. Building a brand identity is all that and more.

Aside from providing your consumers with exceptional customer service and user experience, a strong brand identity helps your consumers memorize you and remember your business.

If you consistently keep your brand identity accessible via all available communication channels, your prospects will see your brand. The more they see your business, the more likely they are to reach out and contact you.

Tips on Developing a Strong Brand Identity

Since a strong brand identity is one of the main driving factors of success, the following tips should help you develop and take control of your brand identity in a way that matches your business and marketing strategy.

Start with a visual identity!

The first step toward developing a strong branding is creating your visual identity. It has to align with your business and marketing strategy and goals, as well as your business vision.

More importantly, it has to send a clear message about your company, culture, and mission. Hopefully, it will be enough to entice your target audience to start being interested in what you have to offer.
Pay special attention to your online reputation!

Regardless of how successful you are or how strong your brand identity is, monitoring your online reputation should always be your top priority.

It puts you in control over how potential prospects and loyal consumers perceive your business and allows you to take advantage of ongoing and upcoming trends in your industry.

It also allows you to contact satisfied consumers who will be more than happy to say a few positive words about you online. You can never have enough positive reviews.

Always Deliver Top-Quality User Experience!

Modern consumers are more demanding than ever. They expect you to exceed their expectations. Therefore, aim to deliver the best user experience with each interaction and across all available communication channels.

Conclusion

Starting a business online is all about creating a strong brand identity design. Having everything you need for your business is one side of the coin while getting everything you need for building effective branding is the other.

Only by putting the two pieces together will you get ahead of the competition curve and keep your consumers happy. Keep in mind that your business focuses and vision have to be aligned with your brand identity.

Focus your brand on your customers, and you will reach a broader target audience. If you need help with your brand identity design, hiring creative design companies is the best way to get on top of your brand identity game.

They have both skills and knowledge it takes to come up with an effective and competitive design that will put your e-commerce business on the world map.

Use Your Story to Sell Yourself

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Brand Marketing|Use Your Story to Sell YourselfBrand marketing is something every business should focus on if it wants to excel in its industry. If you are a business owner, you must apply this strategy to every campaign you launch to ensure that people don’t just use your service, but they keep coming back for more.

But how does a business decide on its brand? Everyone has a story. A tale of who you are and how you got to where you are, but some business owners prefer to forget the past and only focus on the future, where in fact it’s the past that can prove most fruitful for them.

Through this story, you can start building something that customers and clients come to recognize. They associate the story with your business, and if done right, this can make you more appealing.

Be Authentic, But Avoid Sob Stories

Authenticity in business is difficult to unlock. Regardless of your best intentions, a company that appears to be pandering to its customers can drive them away. A little sentimentality is okay here and there, but if it doesn’t match your brand, then it can have adverse effects on your business.

It’s also vital to avoid sob stories. It might work on reality TV, but business is not reality TV. A sob story can come across as fake, and it can distract from the service your company offers. No business wants customers that pity them, so while it’s okay to be honest, it’s perhaps best to ease off on going full superhero-origin-story.

Customers are smarter than a lot of people like to admit, and they are sure to catch on if something about your business seems a little off. In a time where information is accessible to anyone who knows how to Google, any half-truth or an outright lie can be easily fact-checked.

Freebies to Reflect You

Everyone loves a freebie, so you should take advantage of spreading awareness for your brand by investing in promotional products complete with your name, logo, and even contact details that you can give away at events.

Anyone who has ever been to a business convention knows these places are ripe for grabbing as much as you can, and freebies are up there with networking and competitor research as one of the big reasons people attend.

So it’s about time you use this to your advantage. The promotional items you hand out there can give future customers an idea of why they need your service, even if they don’t they do just yet. If the products reflect you, it makes it easier for people to identify with you, which will drive them to choose you over competitors.

A Brand Personality

Once upon a time, brands were brands, and people were people, and they lived in (mostly) harmony. However, the rise of social media and the ability to interact with customers, this has blended into something a little too Frankenstein’s Monster for some people’s liking.

But this is a minority, and more and more brands are jumping on the social media marketing train to spread brand awareness. You likely saw the Wendy’s phenomenon from 2017, and many companies followed suit. They understand that the general audience is sick of the corporate nonsense that plagues LinkedIn. They don’t want to talk to a representative anymore with a clean-shaven face and slicked-back hair. They want to speak to someone real.

Creating and maintaining a brand personality helps customers differentiate from similar brands in your industry. If you do it right without causing offence or being several weeks behind internet trends, then you can reap the benefits, and even if people aren’t buying what you are selling, they are at least talking about you.

Fighting For A Cause

Every company should have a cause to fight for. However, there are so many charities and fundraising opportunities that it is difficult to decide which is right for you. However, here is where your story comes in.

We’ve already established that sob stories are not always ideal, but you can still use the inspiration from your past to help choose the right cause to fight for. If you have had family members with illnesses, then help improve donations for charities fighting such diseases. If you’ve always had a passion for nature, then environmental causes are the way to go. Only you know what motivated you to start your company, so choose something based on that drive.

Fighting for a cause help you appeal to a broader market and even people who may not be your target market. They will see you have principles and be drawn to discover what you do. As long as you stick to these principles and don’t sell out for a profit, your fight could inspire others.

A Human Touch

Despite all these options, there are few better ways to use your story to sell yourself than actually getting your face out there so that customers can put a face to the logo. It’s often too easy to forget that behind the branding and the products are people hoping to do their best, so you can help people remember this by being ever-present.

You can do this by taking the opportunity to engage with your community, especially when launching a store somewhere new. This helps ease any fears they may have, and also gives you the chance to field questions regarding your business.

It’s too easy for people to be cruel when hiding behind a keyboard, but seeing you in person may change their approach, and instead of spitting bile, you might be able to have a conversation that’s productive rather than destructive.

Don’t Sell Yourself Short

A business that has a story, especially one that others can relate to, is the perfect way to guarantee that your brand marketing is on point every single time. However, you cannot solely rely on this story, as once you get big enough, it may not be as relevant as it once was. Combine your story with ideas that set you apart from your competitors so you can add chapter after chapter to a story that is only just beginning.