Each January, millions of people decide to try and change their lives with New Year's resolutions, but too often those self-made promises fall by the wayside just a few weeks after the new year begins.
This year, make a promise to employ smart branding strategies with these top business branding New Year's Resolutions.
1. Lose the baggage and excess weight of cluttered marketing
Losing weight is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions humans make, and it's a concept you can apply to your branding strategy with impressive results. Losing weight as a business means getting rid of old, tired designs and streamlining features like marketing plans and company logos.
Do you have one logo for your company that appears on everything your customers see? If you've got a different logo on the front of your store from the one that shows up on your website and your custom bags, you'll want to create a unified logo that's consistent across all platforms.
When your company uses everything from newspaper advertisements to Facebook feeds for marketing, a consistent logo helps your customers recognize your brand subconsciously. Each time they see a person walking around with one of your custom printed bags or they notice a post in their Facebook feed from your company, they'll recognize your company.
"The mantra among professionals when it comes to crafting a message is: frequency, consistency, and relevance."
Further, Inc. offers some simple guidelines for creating consistency in your company's message.
- Create a single identity for all products and services, even if those products are wildly different or are used in varied applications.
- Focus your marketing efforts in such a way that it promotes your brand to the demographic that would be most interested in your company.
- Don't overextend your brand by creating too many "personas" with different logos and styles. Keep it consistent and build the reputation of your brand rather than individual products.
In today's fast-paced marketing environment, it's essential to start with a singular brand and market everything according to that unique company persona.
2. Create a marketing budget that's lean and mean but effective
Another popular New Year's resolution is setting a budget and sticking to it, and this concept is definitely one that can be adopted by any business. How often has your company arrived at the end of the year only to realize that the estimated marketing budget was reached and breached months ago?
Don't let your company's brand fade away out of the public's consciousness by spending too much on marketing at the start and running out of steam (and money) by the end of the year. Just like your logos and marketing style must remain consistent across different platforms, your marketing presence must also remain consistent and ever-present.
When creating your budget, you'll want to make sure the following projects are included:
- Original content like blogging and new website pages
- Create a loyalty program or frequent buyer club
- Market within your niche
- Create consistent social media posts
Don't risk your brand disappearing sometime in October because you lose interest in your social media campaign or the budget runs dry for scheduled advertising.
In addition, don't be afraid to revisit the plan you create at the beginning of the year. The Small Business Administration (SBA) advises:
"Ultimately, it’s more important to determine whether sticking to your budget is helping you achieve your marketing goals and bringing you a return on investment (ROI) than to adhere to a rigid and fixed budget."
3. Focus on authentic and non-automated communication
In the world of "there's an app for that," your business can do just about everything with an automated script, program, or service. Some automated services help your company save time, but using some automated features too much means distancing yourself from your customers.
In an age where customers often feel a personal connection to a company because of interactions on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, an impersonal and automated approach to your branding efforts isn't going to build loyalty and reputation.
"If you try to automate everything, your customer will notice your scripted messaging and the use of templates, which makes it far more likely that you’ll be ignored. At the same time, you won’t be targeting or segmenting your audience appropriately, which defeats the purpose of using some of these tools to save time, remain productive and reach your marketing goals."
Analyze each of the tools your company uses for automation and label each tool as one that saves time or one that just makes your company seem like a robot. For example, if you're trying to advertise your new product launch, don't blast out an impersonal email to your entire email list with static details about the day the product comes out.
Instead, create an email that features a paragraph from your company founder or the design team that talks about how the product (or service) came to be and why the company believes its customers will love the new product.
Let Us Help You Stick to Your Branding New Year's Resolutions
Market your company's unique brand with creative packaging options from Howard Packaging. If your business is interested in using modern packaging solutions, let us know! Find out what we can do for your business. Request a Free Catalog and Sample Kit Today!
