If you are slogging away, using the same old marketing techniques in the hopes of catapulting your brand from obscurity into the spotlight, it’s probably time for a change.

That’s easy to say, but harder to actually achieve, unless you know what left-of-field tactics are actually worth implementing.

To that end, here are just some compelling options for effective brand-building that should help to showcase the personality of the company you are promoting and engage with audiences as directly as possible.

Redesign Your Logo for the Social Media Age

The best logos are simple without being simplistic, and this is especially true of those which are intended to gain traction on social media.

Conversely if your logo is overly complex, obscure or over-saturated with uncomplimentary colors, it could be an anchor holding you down.

It is important to think about how prospective customers will be seeing your logo; it needs to be identifiable even if it is only a few pixels in size as they scroll past your Twitter profile or see your promoted Insta stories.

Furthermore you need to remember that your logo will also be appearing elsewhere, such as on promotional products that you send to clients and provide in goodie bags at trade events.

There are so many good customizable gift ideas for your business to latch onto that you need to ensure your logo is of a high enough caliber to make people want to wear it on t-shirts, see it on reusable water bottles and have it plastered on the side of a USB stick.

Work Out What Competitors Are Getting Right

It is highly unlikely that you will be capable of coming up with a completely fresh approach to marketing your brand, so there is little sense to using trial and error to see which of your home-grown strategies are most effective when every one of them will have been tested by some other firm in the past.

This is where it is important to remember that creative marketing does not exist in a vacuum; rather it feeds off the efforts and successes of others. As such, you will be in a better position to implement sensible, tangibly beneficial brand-building strategies if you look at how the competition has gone about this.

On the other side of the coin, you should also try to pinpoint the missteps made by rivals so that you can prevent your own brand falling at the same hurdles.

Establish an Industry-Appropriate Tone

Branding a business needs to be a holistic process, and one area which is often overlooked is that of the tone of address you use. This needs to be consistent across all platforms, from marketing emails to social media posts and responses. It also should suit the industry you occupy, meeting customer expectations rather than subverting them to the point that they feel like they are getting mixed messages.

Tone is a topic deserving of a long discussion in its own right, but the main point to take away is that it is better to have one than to seem unfalteringly neutral. A lack of distinctiveness in this area will mean that your brand is unmemorable, and will not leave its traces on anyone who encounters it, whether online or in any other context.

From quirky and approachable for a consumer-facing brand to confidently professional for a serious B2B trader, a cleverly chosen tone can boost brand recognition and also generate trust, which is a valuable commodity itself.

Let the Story of Your Company Shine Through in Your Brand

Storytelling is an oft-encourage marketing strategy, especially at a time when social media makes it easier than ever for companies to share content related to their everyday operations, as well as the journey they have taken to get where they are today.

While it might seem like this is only something that very large businesses can realistically pursue, it is actually arguably even more impactful for smaller, up-and-coming brands. Whether you create videos, blog posts or photo stories that chart the rise and rise of your brand, this is a process which will help to humanize it and show the people behind the façade of your company name, logo and mission statement.

This is a subtler way of showing people who you are as a company, rather than just telling them and expecting them to take you at your word. Contained within it is the kernel of the idea outlining why they should care about what you can do for them, beyond the surface level of the transaction you hope they will make.

So brand-building is a task which should be seen as ongoing, and one which requires creativity as well as a commitment to constant revision to get right.

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