Recruitment Marketing vs. Employer Branding: What’s the Difference?

Several terms are a mainstay in brand awareness and HR parlance, but recruitment marketing and employer branding stand out.

Both terms are commonly used interchangeably. Even if both terms have similarities, differences also abound between them.

For instance, recruitment marketing focuses on promoting a company’s brand through multiple channels. But employer branding aims to build a company’s reputation to attract significant popularity.

With understanding of both terms, it becomes less challenging to make the most of your strategies to great effect. Using these terms in one campaign could provide several benefits.

Some of the common benefits from leveraging employer branding and recruitment marketing are:

• Attraction of top talent
• Easier support on how to build career site infrastructure to boost engagement
• Improved recruitment expertise
• Greater ROI
• Established brand reputation

Recruitment Marketing

Promoting the brand through offering custom, targeted messages to candidates is recruitment marketing. Without an employer brand, recruitment marketing becomes inefficient.

Talent attraction to fulfill the goals of an organization is where recruitment marketing targets.

Most recruitment marketing efforts are designed to initiate an interactive session with potential employees. Sites like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc. help HR experts market their brand to candidates without hassle.

Also, recruitment marketing adopts a design where several approaches are used in attracting candidates. Let’s check out more on recruitment marketing to get a better idea of how it works;

Involves Multiple Marketing Tools

A barrage of recruitment marketing tools is available for organizations to bombard the HR landscape.

And besides having several tools to work with, recruitment marketing can happen across channels. Long gone are the days when paper-based correspondence ruled HR. Everyone has gone online.

Social media channels, emails, phone/live chats, and more are available for recruiters to contact applicants. Making the most of recruitment marketing is easy, as it can happen across channels with relative ease.

Designed To Create and Sustain Social Appeal In A Brand

When you closely consider recruitment marketing, the brand remains a major focus.

Businesses keen to keep afloat have to sustain their operational standing. Without proper recruitment marketing support, it could become hassling to sustain a brand image.

That’s why several tools aid maintaining the social reputation of brands to max out their sustained growth potential.

Employer Branding

Employment branding involves a series of steps taken to develop an organization’s reputation. The brand makes up most of employer branding’s focus to make an organization more appealing to individuals and other companies.

Most companies receive tons of applications based on their brand reputation alone, and remains attractive many years later.

A stronger employer branding strategy proves support for an improved brand image. The enhanced brand image makes attracting top-performing individuals less challenging.

Employer branding supports the ethos of companies any way they can. Several terms like candidate persona and employee value proposition make up some parts of employer branding.

Also, employer branding efforts are usually tasked with managing the reputation of companies for sustained recognition support.

What’s The Difference?

Recruitment Marketing	Employer Branding
1.Prone to evolution to meet modern practices, innovations, and must-have trend adjustments.	Constant effort to improve organization’s social image and increase appeal to professionals seeking to come onboard.
2. Deals with promoting the brand through a series of actions designed to find, attract, and employ individuals suited to vacancies. Also helps through providing support for candidate re-assessment and hiring template creation	Helps in determining brand reputation through employee value proposition, candidate persona engagement, among others.
3. Has a dynamic approach designed to aid being current in the recruitment industry	Set of practices designed on the basis of company culture, values, mission, and vision for the long term.
4. Can only function when there is a brand reputation, making it dependent on employment branding	Needs recruitment marketing to sustain already-built reputation, making it dependent on recruitment marketing.
5. May require lesser steps for actualization	Involves a wider range of practices to ensure functionality.

Bottom Line

Even if some differences are present, recruitment marketing and employer branding function are mutually dependent terms. Both employ similar processes to support organizations’ growth potential.

When you plan to select any of both processes for your organization, it is essential to understand your strategy’s purpose.

Also, getting a solid grasp of what relevant practices in both processes are helps businesses use them to potential. Finally, it is expedient for businesses to develop an all-inclusive strategy designed to help promote your company’s overall image.

If all these check out, you can develop a strong strategy designed to help garner more popularity for your business. Since you know what both terms are and their differences, it becomes less hassling to maximize both without hassle.

Read More»

How to Use Brand Colors In A Video?

Creating a brand image is crucial when it comes to the long-term growth of your business. From the brand logo, you choose to the brand name, every detail counts. One other detail that is often ignored is the color scheme. You should aim at creating a strong color palette based on the personality of your brand. Making videos is easy today as you can easily find several free YouTube video creator tools and video editing software options. What matters is how much you consistently maintain the color schemes in your videos.

Why Should You Worry About Colors In Videos?

Consistency in your color schemes across various brand elements and marketing campaigns help create a visual impression that works well with potential leads and new customers alike.

Even customers who do not remember your brand name initially might relate with the colors provided you use them wisely. Finding the same palette in multiple channels makes it easier for the customers to recognize your brand. When there is a uniformity in the colors used in your website and the content you post on social media, you can work on strengthening your social media presence.

How To Choose Colors For Your Brand?

Color psychology is a field that intrigues various marketers. Different colors have different effects on people’s moods.

The type of colors you choose should reflect your brand’s personality. Plain colors might not enthrall the young audience. If your brand focuses on elite customers, too many bold or gaudy colors should not be part of your brand’s videos.

You can use complementary colors that are known to look good in combination with one another. This is when you pick colors from the opposite spectrum on a color wheel.

Monochrome palettes are the easiest to work with. This is where you choose a single hue and then pick multiple tints.
Your colors should be in sync with the kind of products and services your brand offers. For a brand selling mattresses or other types of sleep and relaxation related products, vibrant and stimulating colors like red might not be the right choice.

Study the color wheel to understand better the relationship between different colors and their shades. Some subtle palettes are suitable for the colorblind audience. For eyewear brands and other such categories focusing on such diverse groups of the audience is essential, you can pick muted palettes that all your audience can differentiate.

How Can You Incorporate Your Color Palette In Your Videos?

The type of video editing tool you use determines the procedure for adding the color schemes in your videos.

Create The Color Palette

You should know about the various elements in a video when you are trying to freeze a color palette. This would include the combination of the colors you use for each element. Background, fonts, and accents are among the elements to study. You should be able to visualize how a particular font color would look in the chosen background color. Individually these might be wonderful colors having a positive impact on the onlooker. But when used together, they should look captivating. Only when the font color is visibly contrasting from the background would the text make an impact. To know how each color would work with the other, you should put together a color palette of foreground color, one or more background colors, and accent colors. The actual number of colors you choose depends on the video editing app you make use of.

Brand-Specific Vs. Project-Specific Guidelines

This color palette you pick can be uniform for the brand or a particular project. Some brands have diverse product lines. They might focus on niche colors for each product line or category. So, when a new category is launched in the market, sticking with the same color scheme across various campaigns helps in creating interest in the latest release. This is where you would find color wheel based color selection to be useful. A brand that predominantly uses pastel color palettes can show the difference when there is an innovative new lineup being introduced by going for the darker shades.

Customize Templates

When you are working with video editors both online and offline, you can easily tailor the templates readily available to suit your needs. When you have a color palette ready in your hand, customizing the template to fit your marketing campaigns becomes so much easier. You would be able to work with your marketing team by simply giving them your color palette so that they can align the campaign themes uniformly. With the colors ready, you can simply add the images, select the colors in the template, add desired text, and apply the effects to generate your video in seconds.

When You Create Videos from Scratch

When you are creating videos from scratch, you have the option to pick colors for each element individually. Check the themes page for more information on the colors you can set initially. The primary color would be the font color or foreground colors. This can be chosen along with the font styles and size as well. You would also be able to add other effects like shadows or borders on the fonts. Choose borders in the same color as the font and for shadows choose lighter shades of the chosen font color. Complement these colors with the right transitions or effects, and you have a great video.

Conclusion

One main aspect when it comes to selecting color palettes is to identify the colors used by competitors or even the bigger brands in your industry. Remember how strong the influence of colors can be on the audience. So, the key is to stand out and not remind your audience of your competitors. Focusing on brand colors and themes for videos is very important now that there are various channels utilized for marketing. It creates a sense of familiarity for the audience when they come across various ads and videos on social media.

Read More»

How To Select The Right Market Research Company For Brand Promotion

A brand, whether new or already in existence, needs a target market to sustain its business. Reviewing the strategies adopted by your competitors also helps you gain a sturdy foothold in the industry. To create a successful brand, the services of a competent market research company come in handy.

Launching a business without doing considerable market research is detrimental to its very success. Only when you study your potential clientele can you develop products and services that fulfill their requirements and expectations. A sustained attempt to conduct thorough market research helps your brand to:

• Identify business opportunities
• Lower business risks
• Create effective promotional material
• Reach your intended audience through the right channels
• Beat your competitors
• Set achievable goals
• Make informed decisions

Approaching a recommended agency specializing in this niche domain is ideal for endorsing your brand in the open market. Use the guidelines suggested here to select a market research company that best promotes your company:

Adaptive To Your Needs

The agency you partner with must have the ability to create a custom plan to achieve your business objectives. Ideally, they must believe in your brand to be able to advise you correctly on the methodologies guaranteed to deliver results.

A firm that makes an effort to comprehend your business goals and adopts a flexible approach shows promise. An agency that displays a willing attitude to make their assurances a reality is worth entrusting your faith in their expertise.

Display Proactive Tendencies

Through a market research study, you are likely to get answers to specific key business questions. You can design your business strategies on the outcome of such comprehensive research when you have a reliable advisor who supports you through the process.

A research company with prior experience in marketing a similar brand has an eye for identifying core problem areas. When they anticipate issues that could potentially damage your brand appeal and proactively suggest corrective practices, it puts your company in the driver's seat.

Prove Cost-Effective

Only a sensitive vendor will respect your marketing budget and make an effort to work around it while handling your account. A proposal received from the potential market research company must not be limited to the cost element.

A detailed proposal outlining its objectives, design, fieldwork, approach, timeline, and reporting structure give you deeper insights into its deliverables. An agency genuinely interested in promoting your brand will find ways to meet your ultimate objectives most cost-effectively.

Effectively Analyse Data

Effectively analyzing the data collated from the market research conducted is an art that gives you valuable takeaways. A supportive partner who is adept at summarizing and highlighting key research insights graphically is an asset to building your brand.

When a market research report contains self-explanatory and crisp summaries, it becomes easier to comprehend even for a layperson. Such reports also draw your attention to vital areas that should become your central focus to strengthen your branding.

Trust a marketing agency that combines traditional with technology-enabled approaches to maximize your brand appeal from the research-driven data collated.

About the Author:

Helen Harry is a freelance writer and a GOT fan. Apart from writing Technologies, she likes to read & write fiction. More than anything, she loves to spend her time with her family, explaining technologies to the elders.

Read More»

Top 5 Branding Tips To Strengthen Your Business

The best way to define your business is to satisfy your audiences. And in return, they will act as your brand representative. With loyal customers, you can make people aware of the fact that you were able to satisfy them. This makes new audiences believe in your product and services.

Have you spared any thought about how your business performs on digital media? What about thebranding tips? Are your branding tips are optimizing it well enough to get the most exposure on the search engines? Well, if not, then it is high time that you start to pay more attention to creating a more dominating digital presence than your competitors.

And to do so, you need to have detailed information about your audience and the buyer’s persona you are looking for. Starting in the marketing business before having all the necessary data.

With more than millions of searches happening every second, you are mission most of your potential customers due to a lack of digital media presence.

You might be a small business or a large enterprise company but with a brand, your company is just among the million companies in the world. Having a brand means you have a fixed asset for your company that will only rise with time.

With that being said let get to the point. In this article, I will talk about some of the most trusted tips that most marketers use to strengthen their business roots.

Branding Tips To Strengthen Your Business

Branding is all about creating awareness among the audience of your existence in the marketing word and education that you give to your audiences about your product and services.

Here are the most used branding tips.

1. Develop A Voice For Your Brand

You must consider your business as a living person. And you know that a person should have a voice of its own. Without a voice of its own, you can hope to compete with the other companies in the market. But what to do? How to do?

Think of companies like Apple, Starbucks, Adidas, what do you think what makes these companies what they are now.? Why do people believe them so much? There must be something that makes these companies different from the others. Yes, you guessed it correctly, it the code and principle on which these companies perform. We all know how much better Apple products are. This is all because they have made sure that they provide the best to their audiences. And this is the reason why people buy their product. They think that they are the best smartphone in the world after using the iPhone.

This kind of voice I am talking about. A voice where you can promise something to your audiences and customer.

2. Showcase Your Goals

Now that you have finalized your codes and principle of your brand, the next important thing is to make people understand your codes and goals.

What do you think, what makes apple the most loved smartphone brand in the world? Is it a logo? Is it high-quality web designs? Well, truly speaking nothing matters to the audiences. It is just that Apple was able to create content that is relevant to the audience. And that has helped Apple to gain the trust of their audiences.

A message sent out to the audiences related to your work, goals, and the reason why you are pursuing this goal will help you to come closer to your audiences. And if the message is clear enough for the audiences to understand with the first pitch is the most efficient way.

There is also one more thing that you must consider, that is, the buyer’s decision-making approaches. You need to have a clear idea of why your customers are buying your product. Knowing this will surely help you to come up with the most effective strategy to target your audiences.

3. Do Not Over-Commit With The Website

Yes, it is important to have a website of your business, but that does not mean that you over commit with the flow. Stop putting all your effort, money, and time on your website. Remember that website is just a piece of the marketing puzzle. You must invest only a fraction of time on your business website.

Sure, your website is the first place where your customer will go to find your brand to avail of your services but that does not mean that you will spend all your money manpower on a single price of the puzzle. It is very important to prioritize your business section accordingly so that you never over commit with anyone. This way you will able to make your business more efficient.

4. Create Content Relevant To Your Audiences

Are you creating content that your audiences like to consume? Are you doing ground-level research about your audience’s preferences? Well, if not then it is high time that you start thinking of your audience’s requirement.

The best way to attract your audience is by creating personalized content for your audiences that target their emotions, needs, and requirements. If you are capable of doing so, then I can guarantee you that your conversion rate will take a high curve.

5. Don’t Forget About HEO

Yes, we all know how important it is to optimize your website as per search engine optimization. SEO not only helps you to exposure your website and its content to other people o the search engine, but it also helps the audiences to find you on the search engine easily.

There are many marketers that forget the HEO (Human Experience optimization) in the midst of SEO. but you must keep in mind that the website you have created, you have created for your audiences and customers and not for the search engine. SEO is just the part of making your website rank higher on SERPs. But it will not do good if the customers are not happy with the website’s customer experiences.

Conclusion

Marketing is all about how well you can serve your audience. This also means that you must serve them with the best customer experience as well. Yes, it is true that people are attracted to good quality product but you can deny the fact the having a good customer experience will act like a catalyst for them to make their second purchase from you as well.

Trust me, all the tips that I have mentioned above are not at all easy, but once you can rightfully implement them into your marketing plans and strategy, you can surely boost your business.

About the Author:

Ariana Smith is a passionate blogger. She loves to share her thoughts, ideas, and experiences with the world through blogging. Ariana Smith is associated with Follow The Fashion & Online News Buzz.

Read More»

Introducing A New Brand: The Importance Of Online Presence

The survival rate in the business industry is high but worth noting that half of the new businesses don't survive. A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report shows 50% of all new businesses in the US survive after five years. This statistic applies to almost all industries in the country, including manufacturing, construction, food services, and retail.

Studies also revealed business failure has different causes, such as insufficient funds, lack of proper management skills, and inability to market the brand. If you are planning to build your own startup company in the US, you need to know how to address these issues.

Introducing Your Brand To The Public

Launching a new brand is exhilarating, especially for first-time business owners. A brand launch, however, requires a lot of complicated processes and preparations. If you want to introduce your business to the public, you need to make a lasting first impression. You also need to make sure that potential customers will have positive feedback after launching your brand.

You need to ensure your target audience can witness your business launch to make sure your brand will reach its potential clients. You can do this by providing people with teasers or a glimpse of your business. If you want more people to know about your brand launch, try establishing a robust online presence first.

The Importance Of Online Presence

If you are a new brand, the best solution to get your name out there is to establish your online presence. You can start by creating your website designed by a credible website designer in your area. You can hire Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists and social media managers. These experts will assist you in building your online portfolio.

Here are three benefits of having a strong online presence:

• Potential Customers Can Reach Out To You - surveys show about 87% of customers search for products online. If you have an online page, you will create a bigger opportunity for your potential customers to notice your business. You will also provide a platform for people to reach out to you for business inquiries, appointment booking, or follow-ups. Make sure your email address and contact numbers are all working. Ensure that your contact forms, chat features, and other messaging platforms are functioning, too.
• Boost Brand Authority - the majority of modern consumers check out a brand's online reputation before purchasing products. So, if you have a website or any page online, you can build your brand authority and reputation through online reviews. You can gather all the positive feedback from your customers and display them on your page. You can also highlight your brand's milestones, like getting a business award or recognition from the media or an authority blog.
• It Provides A Platform For Marketing Your Products - it will be easier to promote your products and services. You just need to post an update on social media, create new content, or add a new page on your website. You don't need to go out and distribute printed marketing tools. You can quickly inform your target market about an upcoming product or if you are having a limited promo.

In today's modern world, businesses should up their strategies to make sure they can keep up with the intense competition. Having a strong online presence is one of the best investments that can help boost your brand identity and popularity. The key is executing the right strategies and working with the right team. Make sure you also follow up on your brand launch with effective marketing strategies to continue building your brand.

Read More»

How Reputation Management Can Boost Your Brand

Building a strategic business plan and knowing what to prioritize is essential for business owners. Those who are successful in their chosen industry understand that it’s essential to focus on the most significant aspects of the business. This is probably why a lot of business and franchise owners concentrate on growing their brand and planning about future investments.

While focusing on business growth and development is an excellent strategy, some companies fail to see existing business issues. If you own an enterprise, paying attention to your products and services is also beneficial for the sustainability of your business. Additionally, it’s important to consider your client’s demands and listen to their feedback.

Why Businesses Receive Bad Reviews

Low quality of products and poor customer service are only some of the most common reasons why some businesses receive bad reviews. Many angry customers also post online comments to get back at brands who do not meet their expectations.

Having tons of these negative reviews can hurt your business. Although there are techniques to turn off reviews on specific platforms, you can’t expect people to stop sharing the unfavorable experiences they’ve had with your company. If your online reputation is full of bad reviews, here are practical solutions to prevent this from happening.

How to Manage Brand Reputation Online

Having an excellent brand reputation online can help your business flourish. According to a study, 65% of customers pay attention to positive feedback. People are likely to patronize a brand and its products if they have positive reviews. They are even more convinced to purchase products from a brand with great reviews, even if other brands are using better advertising strategies.

To help you manage your brand reputation online, here are some tips that you can consider:

Manage Social Media Channels:

Social media marketing for business franchises are not only about producing content for different social media platforms. While it’s great to constantly promote your products and services, social media strategies should also focus on engaging with your customers online. Take some time to read their comments and watch out for negative feedback. Make sure to answer inquiries and address any concerns that they post online.

Convert Negative Feedback Into A Business Opportunity:

Take note of negative feedback and find out different ways to address it. If the bad review talks about the slow turn-around time of their orders, check your shipping process. Consider modifying the process or replacing your shipping service provider. If the comment is about the poor packaging of your products, make some quick improvements. This way, you can address client concerns as well as provide solutions to your company’s current business problems.

Highlight Positive Reviews:

Improve your brand reputation by posting or sharing excellent customer feedback on your social media pages or company website. Doing this can help you convince more people to trust your brand as well as the products or services that you offer.

Keep in mind that one bad review can damage your business in the long run. You need to ensure that you can prevent customers from posting more negative feedback about your business.

Follow the tips mentioned above to help you improve your brand reputation online. Don’t forget to address client concerns as well. While the customer isn’t always right, sometimes they know a thing or two that you don’t.

Read More»

How To Create A Website That Bolsters Your Brand Identity

Your website is at the center of your business venture, and it is only proper you make it as informative as possible. Any visitor should find it easy to navigate through your website. You need to create an urge towards your website, this to make your visitors want to visit more often. Provide them with a mixture of good experience and proven information. Ensure to keep everything involving your site credible and at the top level.

The information that follows is a combination of how to have a website that pushes your brand forward. Techniques you can use within your website to ensure you get the best out of it. These actions, support, explain, and sell your brand to the world.

Use A Reliable Web Host

A reliable web host will provide you with the required tools to get your brand out to the world. When creating your website, having the means to do everything in one place is very is efficient- which is what a web host provides you with.

A reliable web host is fast, has enough space, gives you a proper bandwidth, has a superior feature, provides enough email space, fair pricing, and has a ready support system. Having all these features in one web host will ensure the website you create supports your brand to the fullest.

Provide Up-To-Date Content

The content on your website determines whether it is to be visited more often or not. Up- to date content educates your viewers, they need to find the information helpful in their day to day activities. Determining what is valuable to your viewers is very subjective. It does not matter what you are writing about, ensure you engage your readers, urging them to invest more time and resources to your organization.

Consistently create new articles, videos, eBooks, and infographics to keep your readers coming back for more. Remember to engage them by providing room for comments and responding to them as soon as possible. Always remain relevant to your brand, let the content you provide drive them towards understanding your brand more.

It is significant to use a content management system which allows you to work from one place. It offers you the following advantages;

• Enables you to optimize your content for google search results.
• Ensures the work you produce is consistent.
• Comes with templates to make your work look more presentable.

Proper Imagery

Representing your content with fitting images goes a long way in representing your brand. It gives it a face- a visual description-making it easy to understand. It acts as supporting evidence for the service you claim to offer. A proper example of such a website with images that send a message is a site like Marble.com.

An Easy To Maneuver Website

Everything in your business begins and ends in your website. Your website should be the first place you concentrate on to make the environment as conducive as possible. Anyone who visits should have an easy time moving around your site. Everything should be well arranged, visible, and compatible with as many gadgets as possible.

Have enough content that relates to your business. Any visitor to your site should not get bored. Provide them with a mixture of up-to-date content, appealing images, and videos to keep them glued to your website.

Connect well with your customers, urge them to feel free to give their views on your content, and promptly reply to their comments.

Proper Brand Message

Your brand message should be as direct as possible. Your customers should be able to relate to it and give them a drive towards your business. Touch on details relevant to your business.

Be sure to mention what your company does, the problems it solves for your customers, and what distinctly sets it apart from the rest. By answering these questions, you give a proper description of your business brand.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization ensures your content ranks high in google search pages. If your website is to market your brand further, it must have content optimized for google search results.

There are proven methods that you can use to optimize your content. You have to learn how to do it or hire a professional to help you through it. The following are methods you can use for search engine optimization.

• On-page optimization- this is when you optimize all the content that appears on your site to achieve a high google ranking.
• Use keywords- find relevant keywords to your business either through google analytics or assuming the role of a visitor. Use these keywords to rank your content higher on the google page.
• Up to date content- offers educative and current content information to attracts more visitors to your website.
• Off-page optimization- use other websites to link viewers to your site
• Google authorship- it ensures your content is acknowledged by Google when you post online.

Link To A Social Media Account

A strong social media presence can do wonders to your brand. It provides you a platform where you can market your brand and interact with your potential customers. For your website to properly sell your brand, you must link it to an active social media account.

You have many social media platforms to choose from, ensure you choose one that will go in line with your type of business. Social media platforms you could use include; YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Final Thoughts

To sell your brand out to the world, you need to be willing to embrace numerous new inventions. Platforms such as social media allow you to reach out to a diverse form of audience. The above information guides you on how you can market your brand to the world. It is a starter pack on how you can make your business relevant to your customers.

Read More»

Reinventing the Market - How To Build A Strong Brand Identity?

Brand identity is critical for building a successful business enterprise that will endure and thrive. In addition to logos and slogans, nowadays consumers recognize companies by their values and what they stand for.

While many business professionals view financial backing and a solid business plan as the most important elements to have, that is not enough. Before your business can begin the hiring process or order their first set of business cards, you need to think about your brand identity.

“Businesses grow and stay on top because consumers align with their values.”

Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola stand out in the crowd as leaders with strong brand recognition. Consumers recognize these corporate giants by their slogans, colors, and logos. What’s even more important, they know their messages and values, and these resonate with consumers.

One thing that got them there is listening and observing - they take cues from the world around them and how things are changing, and they take an active role to be part of those positive changes. This is an enviable position for any business to be in.

Here are a few strategies that have shown success for many businesses:

Market And Competitor Research Stay The Basis

Market and competitor research has been a starting point for sales and marketing departments for quite a while now, and this will not change anytime soon. What many businesses fail to understand is that not everyone within your industry is your enemy.

Just because another business is in the same industry, it doesn’t mean that they are automatically a competitor. Unless you are competing for the same customer, then you are not in competition with one another.

Your focus should be on those businesses who target the same consumer base. This will help you identify what works and what doesn't for those competitors, and it will reveal areas that they are struggling with.

For example, if your major competitor is struggling with slow delivery rates, then you will want to focus on having better and faster delivery rates as part of your brand identity to gain an edge over them.

You Will Have To Choose Your Values Wisely

The key to establishing a brand identity lies within your strengths. Identify your strengths and what you want customers to associate you with, and sing it from the mountaintops.

• Are you fast with your delivery?
• Is your customer support fast and super friendly?
• Do you offer personalized experiences and regularly engage with your followers on social media?

Any of these can be your strength. This can make the process of identifying key strengths somewhat complicated - which ones are the best picks?

“If you are having a hard time identifying your strengths and values, write a brand manifesto for clarity.”

A manifesto will serve you as a guide that can be consulted every step of the way. Your marketing department and all other employees can consult it to easily align their approach to the values and messages you want to associate with your branding.

This way, you will create a consistent identity across all channels - an omnichannel experience. Consistency is key for effective branding.

You Should Offer Your Own App

Mobile apps are getting a lot of attention from marketing managers and consumers alike. About 40 percent of mobile generated sales transacted by the largest 500 sellers originate from mobile apps. Based on this information, company managers should make it a priority to create a mobile app.

But why would you want to have your own app? You have a mobile-friendly website, isn’t that enough?

It all comes down to consumer preferences, really. Most of us shy away from purchasing items through mobile browsers, even if the site is mobile friendly. An app makes it easier for customers to purchase because it’s made specifically for their phone’s OS.

“A mobile app the perfect medium for delivering promotion and discount advertisements to increase purchases, essentially keeping the brand name in front of your customers.”

This is why it’s important to do it right on the very first try. Unless you have a staff member with the technical skills to help guide you through this process, you might stumble into some pitfalls along the way.

Now there’s a lot of guides out there about mobile app development, but most of them are dealing with the technical stuff. You should focus on the business side of things and find out what steps you need to take as a business owner.

Focus Your Resources On Creating Excellent Brand Art And Copy

Your brand art and the copy must reflect your image and make it easy to see what you're selling. Consistency is critical for a unified message.

“If a consumer goes to your landing page and can't quickly figure out what your company does and why they should seriously consider buying from you, they will never convert to customers.”

The copy and content should be "spot on" so that potential buyers immediately know who you are. This is not the place to cut corners if you want to be successful. Hire the best artists and writers you can afford to be sure your message is attractive and aligned with your brand identity as expressed in your manifesto.

Establish Creative Decision Timelines

You have to set some hard deadlines for creative decision-making or you risk getting into a possible scenario where you are always looking for something better. Without a "drop dead" deadline, it is too easy to spin your wheels.

Set clear, creative goals upfront to get the process off to a good start. Creative talent needs autonomy to achieve the best results. All team members should feel empowered with a common goal to do their best work and follow the established timeline.

Train Employees To Become Brand Ambassadors

Your employees should be your first brand ambassadors. Since your employees interact with your customers in many cases, they need training so they can fully understand the brand identity.

Company leadership must make training employees about brand identity a priority to be sure that they fully understand the role they have in promoting that image.

In Business, Image Is Everything

Consumers have more choices than ever before to select the company they want via digital introductions. That explains why brand identity is so important and why sales success will be linked directly to your company's ability to promote a strong, brand identity.

About the Author:

Ashley Wilson is a digital nomad and freelance writer from San Diego, California. When she is not busy baking cupcakes, Ashley loves writing about business, digital marketing, and finance. Connect with Ashley via Twitter.

Read More»