One of the best things you can hope your company can achieve is that your target market will be able to recognize it at a glance. Even people who haven’t been customers in the past see the name, see the logo, see the visual motif, and they know. That is brand recognition. It takes time to develop, but it doesn’t have to take you years upon years to get there. Not if you’re willing to work for it.
Know the market
You have to know your audience and their wants to be able to accurately portray your business as the answer to their needs. However, if you’re not looking at all the other companies that you’re sharing the market with, you might just be the next in a long list of lookalikes. Ensure that you’re taking your time to research the competition, their brand voice, their brand promise, and their aesthetic. Ensure that your niche style also fits the niche you’re providing in the business that sets you aside from them.
Have plenty of reminders
You are hopefully going to have a website alongside a marketing campaign that is unified with a powerful message. You don’t need to be boosting those signals at every opportunity. Rather, you should be looking at other ways to give your brand a bit more presence. When you send out invoices or receipts, make sure they’re branded. Attend trade shows, handing out branded promotional products. Give yourself and your employees business cards. Have your brand spreading its way out from the business like a tree growing roots.
Get people involved
You don’t have to grow it all yourself, too. What customers and what community you already have might be in the perfect position to play the role of gardener to your brand. You just have to get them engaged and sharing. On social media and in the real world, some of the best ways to do that are to get them involved in contests. Some of the most successful include competitions that prompt them to take selfies, or simply to share content. You either want to make it as effortless as possible, or you want to maximise on the positive social proof that seeing the real visual evidence of your community can provide.
Don’t make it all business
Your business’s presence can grow even further by poking into areas that aren’t necessarily 100% connected to the business. That utility is one of the reasons content marketing is so popular. Hosting a blog on your business website allows you space to provide expert advice and information even to non-customers. It works, too, if you can provide content with value. Content marketing has been judged one of the most effective ways to build referrals for a business from non-customers.
When you get to the point that people are able to understand what your business provides just by sheer recognition, you have a place in the market with real staying power. Along the way, you’ll find it a lot easier to keep bringing in new customers, too, which is a happy bonus for any business.
