10 Branding Must-Haves For Your Startup
Branding is an essential aspect of your start-up; it is what differentiates your startup from other companies.
According to Shopify, branding, “is all of the ways you establish an image of your company in your customers’ eyes.”
Your branding is one of the major things you need to sort before launching your startup. Your brand has to be memorable, unique, and attractive in order to get the attention of your target audience. The right branding will help you clearly communicate your values to your target audience and it would attract the right market to your startup.
Here are the branding must-haves you need to work on:
Vision: Where do you see your business in the future? Let’s say in the next 5 years? What are those things you hope to have accomplished by that time? This has to be clearly articulated.
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Mission: Why did you start this business and what do you hope to achieve with this business? What problems are you solving?
Name: You can’t just choose a name because you like the name; you have to choose a name that is memorable, communicative, and one that relates with what you are doing. You must also ensure the name you choose is easy to pronounce, spell, and doesn’t have any unpleasant meaning in other countries and your own country. In addition, you should test your name to know how your target audience would accept it and also do a trademark search.
Core values: What are those values that your business is guided by? These are the values everyone in your company must know and work by.
Brand positioning: How do you want your audience to think about your product or your service? How do you want to be positioned in their minds? What problems are you solving and how do you want your audience to relate with the solutions you are offering?
Brand story: Your brand story is the narrative of your brand. It tells us who you are, what you do, why you do what you do, who you do it for, how you do it, and when you started doing it. You can share your brand story with your internal and external audiences and make sure everybody understand your “why”
Visual identity: You also need to develop those things that you would be identified by such as your logo, colours, fonts, etc. Your visual identity should stem from your vision, brand story, and brand positioning. This helps you make sure all of your branding elements are in sync.
Brand tone and feel: How do you want your brand to sound? What should your brand voice be? And how do you want your brand to feel like when your target audience come across your brand?
Customer personas: Who is your ideal audience or target audience? You need to create a persona that describes their income, age arrange, likes, pain points, location, etc. This is an essential element that helps you in all your communication and marketing activities. You need to know who you are targeting and their major characteristics.
Platforms: Your platforms are where you would connect with your target audience and share your message. One of the important platforms every start-up must have is a website. Your website is your online real estate and you must invest in one. In addition, you should think about offline and online marketing channels.
Have you sorted out your branding? If yes, what are some of the tips you would like to share with us? Please drop your comments below!
