What's up brand builders Stephen Houraghan here at BrandMasterAcademy.com and in this
video you're going to learn seven branding tips to grow your brand so you can develop
an image and a meaning and more importantly a feeling
in the mind of your audience that will take your brand to the next level
now if you're new to the channel and you want to build brands that go beyond the logo and the
visuals using strategy psychology and creative thinking then you're in the right place hit that
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now branding often gets tied up in semantics and you know that's the debate of what branding means
and what marketing means and what branding versus marketing means and when you have professionals
debating so heavily about what one thing means to one what one thing means to the other then
it's no surprise that entrepreneurs and business owners are confused about what they need but when
you take a step back from it it's actually pretty simple branding is the art of shaping
the meaning of your business in the mind of your audience to ultimately influence how they feel
and ultimately their decisions so when you look at branding through that lens then branding decisions
become a lot easier so with that idea and with this video let me give you seven branding tips
that you can use to actually shape the image and the meaning in the mind of your audience
and ultimately their decision to go with your brand tip number one give them meaning now to
double down on what i said before we don't brand our businesses so that they look good we don't
brand them so that we can have a website or to put some graphics on the side of a van or in a shop
we brand our businesses to give our audience some context as to what our brand should mean to them
including what value we're going to bring what difference we're going to make in their lives we
can't assume that they're going to know what our brand should mean to them we need to give them
that meaning tip number two define your brand traits now most businesses go to market unprepared
they get themselves their logo they get themselves their website and then they go into their tactics
whether that's social media marketing whether it's facebook ads or google ads and that's how
they approach the market they don't have too much understanding or consideration for who
their audience is what they like how they connect what type of personality that they have but really
before you can resonate with who your audience is you need to understand them and you need to
understand what they're attracted to what kind of characteristics and traits they're drawn to when
you understand that about your audience and you understand what role you want your brand to play
in their lives then you can use characteristics and traits to associate your brand with that
meaning and ultimately resonate with who your audience is so define what traits you want your
brand aligned with write them down and build your brand with those traits in mind tip number three
identify the emotional association now we all believe that we're rational creatures that we
all understand what's going on we take all of the information that's in front of us and we make
logical decisions but that's not how our brain works it's not how it works at all we make
emotional decisions we are emotional beings we justify with that logic that we think we
make our decisions on but we actually make our decisions based on emotions so therefore
it's really important that you understand what emotion you want your brand to evoke
from your audience and what emotion you want your brand associated with so it might be hope it might
be excitement it might be the sense of achievement a sense of desire to succeed in life what kind of
emotions are going to trigger the feeling that you want your audience to have and how are you going
to align your brand with those emotions so it's really important that you understand what emotion
you want your brand associated with and keep those emotions in mind when you're communicating tip
number four craft image shaping messages now in my experience with the businesses that i've dealt
with with the entrepreneurs and business owners that i've dealt with they tend to invest more
in visuals than they do in messaging and copy but the reality is that the most influence a brand has
is through its messaging and copy so you really need to understand the image that you want to own
in the mind of your audience and then shape your messaging shape your copy to provide that image
in the mind of your audience so i can't stress this enough and this is really something that
i spend a lot of time with my clients with it's really with that understanding of the importance
of copy and messaging and how influential copy and messaging is in shaping the mind of your audience
tip number five design the experience now whether or not somebody buys from your brand whether or
not somebody goes from being a prospect to a customer is largely influenced by the experience
that they have with your brand now most businesses don't understand this most businesses don't take
the time to map out and design an experience but if you want to influence your audience if you
want to influence how they feel about your brand and what meaning they associate with your brand
and what decisions they take whether or not they buy from your brand then you need to design
that experience that they're going to go through so everything from your logo to your website your
messaging to your shop front or any collateral that you might have what is the e-commerce
experience that you bring them through what kind of email drip series do they get from you what
kind of follow-up service do you have what kind of after-sales service or customer service that
you have these are all part of the overall brand experience and if you don't take the time to map
out that journey that they're on to map out your customer journey and design that experience well
then they won't have an experience that you want your brand aligned with understand the journey
that they're on understand the experience and the feeling that you want them to have and design the
experience to give them that feeling tip number six earn trust with value now the days of push
marketing and direct response marketing they have absolutely had their heyday now i'm not saying
that they're irrelevant i'm not saying that they don't work anymore they do work and in fact if
you're going to have a cohesive strategy then they should be part of that strategy but they
have definitely had their heyday and today if you don't have a strategy that is about giving value
then you're absolutely missing out you need to be able to connect with your audience and
resonate with your audience and even if your brand is selling a commodity you can still do
that by giving them value through the context in which they will use that commodity so today
giving that value is absolutely paramount you need to connect with your audience you need to
resonate with them and you need to earn trust and if you give value if you show up every day if you
show them the path if you really help them along in overcoming their challenges on a day-to-day
basis if you help them on that journey then they will remember you you will earn trust and you will
be top of mind in that buying decision tip number seven be real now there's nothing too much that
you have to do here within this tip it's really just about stripping back those superlatives and
using language that sounds conversational and not trying to put on a facade and be something that
you're not if you think about how we connect with other people well we tend to push back from people
who put a facade on and pretend to be something that we're not we tend to gravitate towards
those who feel real who speak to us like we're humans and don't try to put on a facade or pretend
to be somebody that they're not and if you're able to take that into your business then your audience
will feel that they'll feel it in the copy that you use in the engagement that you have
on social media and they will have a soft spot for your brand so really take the time to strip
everything back and be as real as you can possibly be now look there's no shortage of articles on how
to market your business or how to build your brand and it can be overwhelming but if you take the
time to step back and understand the branding your business is all about creating context and meaning
for your audience then you can filter everything through that so every social post you put out
there every article you write every email that you write can be filtered through the idea that
you are providing meaning and context to your audience over time they will position your brand
in their mind that will be positioned based on an image that you want to own in their mind and
ultimately that's how they will see your brand if you want to learn to shape your marketing
messages to influence the mind of your audience then check out this video on copy hacks it'll show
you exactly how to do that until next time brian like a master and i'll see you in the next video