New year, new you, new business goals? December is a great month to buckle down and do some business planning for the following year. Flow charts, sales pipelines, launch maps, content frameworks…all the things. But what about elevating your brand? If you have not included some strategies to help you boost your brand in 2019, we’ve got you covered with some simple but effective areas to focus on.
Raise Brand Awareness
When people are more aware of your brand they are more likely to look to you for your expertise, recommend you to friends, and colleagues give you shout outs on social media when they see something applicable to your services. How can you raise awareness? By getting your name out there! Spend time where your audience is and consistently show up for them. If you audience lives online, focus on the platform where they spend most of their time and create a social strategy to be there. If your audience is better reached in person, figure out where they go and get over there yourself.
Create Authentic Connection
The term ‘engagement’ has become one of the big buzz words of 2018. While we aren’t always ready to hop on the bandwagon and give those buzz words cred, we do know that when it comes to building up your brand and creating authentic connection with your audience, engagement is crucial. Time spent positively engagement with your audience is so important to gain that real connection. The goal is to show them that you are more than just a service or product; you are a real person behind the business who they can know, like, and trust. Thanks to the immediacy of social media, our accessibility to our customers is pretty much 24/7. While we’re not saying respond immediately at 2:03 am when a notification comes in, take advantage of the accessibility and both respond within business hours and reach out and interact with your audience on your terms.
Show Off Your Difference
Spend some time to create a campaign showing how you are different than your competitor. What do you do better? How are you more efficient? Highlight the ways in which you stand out from the rest and let those skills shine. People want to know why they should choose you and your business instead of someone else.
There might be five people who do the same thing as you or maybe even 5,000. But no one does what you do exactly like you. That is what makes you and your business unique. Show off that difference to help you stand out from others in your space and let those skills shine. People want to know why they should choose you and your business over one of those other 5,000. If you aren’t telling them, no one is. Your difference doesn’t have to be dramatic or grand, it can be something as simple as your values, or the way you listen to your clients, or the choice to use ethically sourced materials in the product you make. Whatever that little something is, look for a creative way to build it into your brand to allow your audience to better appreciate what you do.
Next month we are hosting a free 5-day bootcamp designed to help you boost your brand and we’d love to have you join us. By the end of the five days you’ll be better prepared to tackle the challenge of how to effectively build up your brand to help solidify your message and increase brand awareness. Learn more about it here:
