Is your business struggling to stand out on social media? You aren’t alone: According to a survey conducted by Visual Objects, 93% of small businesses have difficulty with at least one aspect of social media marketing (e.g., engagement, lead generation, or follower count). Social media marketing has surged in popularity over the last five years, making getting noticed more challenging, especially for SMBs with limited marketing budgets. However, it’s still possible to achieve a strong social media presence with the right tools, a good strategy, and – most importantly – a compelling brand.
By working with a branding agency, Toronto small businesses can use proven brand-building techniques to carve out a unique digital niche. Below, we’ll explore several reasons brand building is crucial to social media success and provide practical tips for developing a memorable brand.
4 Reasons Brand Building is Important for Social Media Marketing
1. Your brand is your key to connecting with consumers
Your brand is more than a collection of logos, images, colors, and typography; it’s your business’s personality. It puts a human face on your company, allowing social media users to interact with it just like they would communicate with another person. This process encourages consumers to form an emotional connection with your brand, which establishes feelings of trust and loyalty even before a sale has been made.
2. Brand Building helps you understand your customers
An integral part of the branding process is collecting data about your business’s target demographic (i.e., the type of person most likely to become a customer). With this information, you can create more effective social media posts using the tone and graphic style that appeals most to your audience.
3. A strong brand makes you instantly recognizable – anywhere
The number of social media platforms has increased significantly in recent years, and it’s become common for businesses to target multiple platforms simultaneously. Ensuring your business is easy to identify across different networks is therefore essential to creating a successful social media marketing strategy. If someone can recognize who you are and what you do just from seeing your logo, it’s more likely that they’ll follow you on multiple channels and share your content.
4. Branding is important on social media because it gives you credibility
Branding is the first step toward building your business’s online reputation. Having a consistent, professional brand image on social media shows customers that you’re an established, reputable business – which helps them feel comfortable buying from you for the first time. It also encourages consumers to choose you over competitors who have put less effort into building their brand.
5 Tips for Building Your Brand Online
1. Before you start posting, create a plan
Because most social media networks are free to use and easy to join, many businesses start posting without setting specific marketing goals. However, because social media management is very time-consuming, this can lead to a significant waste of time and resources. Before you start trying to market your business on social media, set clear goals and figure out how you’ll measure your progress. Then, outline ways you can use your brand image to achieve your goals more quickly and effectively.
2. Check out the competition
For your brand to be memorable, it must be unique. As such, it’s crucial to examine your competitors’ brands and consider what you could do differently to stand out. You can also analyze your competitors’ social media campaigns to figure out what’s worked for them in the past (and what hasn’t), then use their successes to inform your brand strategy.
3. Find your target demographic
Knowing the average age, gender, and background of your customers will allow you to create a brand that appeals to their tastes, interests, and passions. It will also help you figure out the best social networks to focus on, so you don’t spread your digital marketing resources too thin.
To start collecting data, send out customer surveys with an incentive attached (such as product discounts or the opportunity to win a prize). Ask questions about your customers’ ages, hobbies, communication preferences, professions, and what problems they’re hoping to solve with your products or services.
As your brand grows, you’ll want to monitor more detailed customer data in real-time via analytics tracking. In-depth data analysis can be performed with online tools (e.g., Google Analytics), but using these tools requires time and technical expertise, so it’s preferable to outsource this task to a professional. By working with a branding agency of Toronto, small businesses can derive full benefit from advanced customer analytics without the hassle of using complex software.
4. Give your brand a personality
Your brand’s personality will set the tone for your social media content, so before you start posting, you need to know “who” your brand is. Sit down with your team and choose no more than five adjectives to describe your brand (for instance, “cheerful, energetic, strong, honest, and reliable”). You can also try using metaphors to clarify your brand identity; e.g., what kind of animal would your brand be? What kind of vehicle would it be? If your brand took a vacation, where would it go? Etc.
5. Invest in professional graphic design
Your logo is the ambassador for your brand; it’s the first thing prospective customers will see and how they will remember you. If your logo is poorly designed or optimized, your business’s online reputation will inevitably suffer. Don’t take this risk; collaborate with a graphic designer to ensure your brand’s graphical elements portray you in the best possible light.
Looking for Help With Branding in Toronto? Contact AllinBrand!
Creating a compelling brand from scratch is one of the most difficult tasks faced by small business owners. Brand building requires a diverse array of creative, technical, and problem-solving skills, in addition to digital marketing experience. For this reason, it’s better to treat branding as a team effort and seek out professional graphic design, content writing, data analysis, and online reputation management services. Working with a comprehensive branding agency will ensure your image is always consistent and on-target while preventing you from making costly social media marketing mistakes.
To get started with branding in Toronto, contact the team of experts at AllinBrand for a consultation. We offer a full suite of affordable, cutting-edge design, development, and digital marketing services, giving you everything you need to accelerate your brand in one convenient place.
