Where Marketing Ends, Branding Begins
So you’ve got a business and you’re ready to push your branding efforts online. The first question you encounter is “How do I go about with branding?”
What I’ve noticed from my years of experience in online marketing is that you probably think branding involves the following:
● Logos, color schemes, and website design – What should my logo be? What colors represent my business best? How do I go about with my web design?
● Brand mentions, links, and social popularity – I have to be as visible online as possible, because this promotes brand recall
● SERPs visibility, ad campaigns, and other promotional efforts
If you answered any of the above, then you’re looking at branding the wrong way. The items I mentioned are all marketing tools and strategies, and they only scratch the surface of branding.
What’s the difference between marketing and branding?
Marketing is the set of processes and tools promoting your business. This includes SEO, social media, PPC, local search, mobile, and traditional promotional methods and tools. Branding, on the other hand, is the culture itself, the message that permeates and rules all the process of your business.
Common Misconceptions about Branding
Mixing up marketing and branding is only one of the most common misconceptions about branding that you will encounter. Many businesses and marketers handling branding tasks also make the following misconceptions:
Misconception #1: Branding is marketing / advertising / promotion / anything to that effect.
As mentioned earlier, this is a misconception because branding goes deeper than marketing. Marketing, advertising, and other promotional activities only communicate your brand personality and message. Your brand is comprised of your personality, your voice, and your message; branding is the process of establishing these traits.
Misconception #2: You are the ultimate authority when it comes to your brand.
This is a very common misconception, especially among first-time business owners. The truth is while you set the tone and get the ball rolling so to speak, and you set the guidelines that your organization will follow and live by as they work with your brand, this does not automatically make you the ultimate brand authority.
Your customers are the ones who ultimately define your brand. Their perception of your brand is what sticks with the people they influence. This is why it’s very important to select your brand values carefully; otherwise, your brand may be taken the wrong way – or worse, it may fail when you don’t see repeat customers.
Misconception #3: There exists a formula for success when it comes to branding.
Just because everything in online marketing can be measured doesn’t mean everything has a formula. No two companies are alike. While a similar process for developing a brand may work for businesses in the same field, for example, these businesses will still have unique identities and needs.
The truth is that there is no formula – branding is and will always be a customized experience. The good news is you can measure the success of your brand easily. What you should look at in this case is the behavior and the interests of your target audience.
Branding the Right Way
In order to create and establish a strong brand, you’ll need to ask the most fundamental questions behind its development. Before you begin to plan your online marketing strategies, you need to do the following first:
Establish Your Purpose
The first thing you need to clarify is why you do what you do. You won’t get the answers right away – you’ll need to ask yourself why several times before you get to the root purpose, the very core of your business. Start with questions like:
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Why did I build this business?
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Why do I want to help out this specific group of people?
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Why does it matter to me that these things get done?
As you keep going, note the answers you are giving each “why” – these answers will form your purpose. Walt Disney answers this question very well, and is a good example of a company that knows why they exist: they want to bring joy to children everywhere. This permeates everything that they do.
Conclusion
Branding isn’t the same as marketing – branding is the core of your marketing strategy. In order to build an effective brand, you need authenticity and clarity in each of the steps discussed earlier, allowing your target market to identify with your brand personality and values successfully.
One final thing to remember – and a very important point – is that branding isn’t a one-time thing that you do at the beginning of establishing your business. It is an ongoing effort that permeates your processes, your culture, and your development as a business, and it requires your dedication and loyalty in order to reflect in your work. At the end of the day, the true measure of your branding success is in earning loyal customers who become your brand ambassadors as well.
Entrepreneurial Lessons From
Richard Branson
When it comes to great businessmen and entrepreneurs, few can rival Richard Branson as a cultural icon of capitalism and business savvy. Here’s a guy who built – quite literally – an empire from scratch and who did so with a fun public image and while involving himself in many exciting and daring adventures. He’s a real life Tony Stark, a billionaire playboy and a roaring success by anyone’s standards.
As such then he can serve as really rather an incredible role model for any other budding entrepreneurs hoping to one day follow in his footsteps and leave a mark on the world and the business scene. Here we will look at just some of the lessons that we can learn from old Rich, and that can help steer the way for the pioneers of tomorrow.
You Don’t Need a Fancy Education
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Richard Branson famously has little in the way of educational qualifications, but he never let that stop him. In fact that’s probably part of the reason he did strike out on his own. Don’t view a lack of degree as a barrier to success then. If you have the skill, you have the skill – you don’t need a piece of paper to prove it.
Be Controversial
Controversy sells, and Richard Branson knows this well. Not only does Branson enjoy occasionally drawing attention to himself and his company with occasionally controversial stunts – but even the name ‘Virgin’ was one that was met with some hesitation when he tried to get it registered and it’s certainly not one that people forget. Which is why it’s such a stroke of genius...
Turn Weaknesses Into Strength
Branson was diagnosed with dyslexia which is part of the reason he left school at 16. However, rather than letting this stop him he in fact turned it into an advantage – reading everything out loud and thus gaining a better understanding of it and becoming a better communicator.