You don’t need to spend thousands of pounds on online courses to understand your own brand and how to market it.
You built the brand and you have more knowledge than anyone on the elements of who you are.
To market your brand, you need to consider your mission, your products, your market, your audience, your perception and your authority. These elements are linked to form your brand as you know it.
Your Mission
Start by considering your brand mission statement. This should identify the purpose and goals behind your brand. This is the wireframe to all the other elements that define who you are.
If you haven’t written a mission statement yet, you need one. The three key things to think about are: what your company does, how and why you do it.
Your Products
Here you need to think about what you are offering customers. Are your products physical, software or services? You also need to think about what this product will do for your customers, why do they need it?
The products you’re offering directly affect who your audience are, the market you need to use and the places you should be advertising.
By knowing why someone would need your products you can more effectively market to them.
Your Market
Next is where you sell your product. Is it available online or do people need to come to your brick and mortar store?
Within your market you need to consider how competitive the arena you’re selling in is.
Where you’re selling your product will affect your marketing plan. If people need to come into a store you can focus on local marketing strategies with Google my Business and location targeted ads.
Your Audience
Knowing your audience informs where you can market your products. Specific audiences use specific platforms.
A strong audience definition means that you won’t waste money on platforms that aren’t used by your audience.
For example, of all Facebook users, 53% are female and 47% are male. While 88% of online users age between 18 and 29 are on Facebook. While on Instagram, 68% of users are female and 80% of users are from outside the United States.
Your Perception
Perception is how you perceive your brand and how you want people to perceive you. This will influence the marketing techniques you use.
If you want to be perceived as a formal and professional brand, which is common if you’re a B2B business, then you’ll want to use formal ad copy. You’ll also most likely stick to text ads and any creative content would be very polished. You’d most often be advertising on the likes of LinkedIn, Search Engines and Facebook.
If you want to connect more personally with your audience then you would most likely be using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On these platforms you can drive great brand awareness and engagement with your audience. A lot of e-commerce brand succeed on these platforms with a personal and creative attitude.
Your Authority
Your authority as a brand comes from what you are known for. In the digital marketing field, people go on awards, accreditations, shared content and speaking engagements.
Do you have awards in your field or are you particularly well known for something?
These are great aspects to use in a marketing campaign as they can make you stand out and provide credibility to your brand.
Overall this seems like a lot to think about. But really, you already know these things. Successfully market your brand by knowing who you are and being where your audience are.