You want to build a brand? Great! Start here!
A playbook and why brand awareness matters
Hi! If you are here it’s because you are passionate about something, and you decided to turn it into a venture. Congrats! Even though it can be daunting, and scary, it’s such a powerful cathartic experience to start, and an engine for both personal and professional growth. Maybe you are just thinking about it, not building yet, and are looking for some pointers. Maybe you are in the starting block of your project. Everyone can do it, no matter what’s your background, you just need to roll up your sleeves and get ready to work. I’m here to help and give you these pointers.
Building a brand isn't just about slapping a logo on a product. It's about crafting a story, forging an identity, and establishing an emotional connection with your audience. It's the difference between being just another business and becoming a household name. And it is hard to stand out, and it takes time… There are millions of brands out there… It can be daunting. But I intend to help you with that.
This guide is your roadmap to brand-building success, specifically tailored for entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and corporate creatives. We'll break down the process into bite-sized, actionable steps, equipping you with the knowledge and tools to launch and grow a brand that resonates and thrives.
Phase 1: Know Your Why & Who 🤔
This is what I would call the who am I? phase. It involves:
Uncovering Your Core: Define your mission, values, and unique selling proposition (USP). Why do you exist? What problems do you solve? What sets you apart?
Targeting Audience Discovery: Identify your ideal customer(s): demographics, interests, pain points, and aspirations. Who do you serve best? Make a set of marketing personas.
Investigating Competitive Landscape: Do you have competitors? Analyze your competition. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How can you stand out? What do you do differently compared to everyone else?
To get you thinking about your why, check out this great TedTalk by Simon Sinek:
Phase 2: Craft Your Brand Story & Identity👨🎤
Storytelling Workshop: Develop your brand narrative. Weave your core, audience insights, and values into a compelling story that resonates emotionally. Get personal.
Visual Storytelling: Design your brand identity: logo, colors, typography, and imagery. Ensure it aligns with your story and conveys the right emotion. Think of keywords to associate with the logo: modern, traditional, sophisticated, chic, corporate, colorful, minimalist, bold etc…
Voice & Tone: Find your brand voice: friendly, authoritative, humorous, etc. Create a tone guide to ensure consistency in all communication channels. Same thing here, use keyword association to define how you want to communicate and stick to it.
All those should define your “brand guidelines” guaranteeing that anything that comes out on your website, socials, posts, prospects, and PR are always “on-brand”. For people who will be exposed to your brand across multiple channels on multiple instances, this is very important as it will create stronger brand recall, elevating your brand awareness on multiple touch points. Your brand will come back more easily at each instance, driving them deeper in the marketing funnel, eventually considering your brand for their purchase.
Phase 3: Launch & Amplify Your Brand 🚀
Content Marketing Engine: Create valuable content for your target audience: blog posts, social media, videos, podcasts. Offer solutions, build trust, and tell your story. Let’s say you are building an app to find babysitters in a specific area. Content could be blog posts about what to look for in a babysitter, how to prep your kids for this, how to prep the house etc… This allows three things:
provide value to your potential user, and show that you are one of the good guys;
position yourself as a thought leader in your industry;
optimize your SEO and referencing for organic search.
Community Building: Foster interaction: online forums, live events, Q&A sessions. Grow a loyal community that champions your brand. This allows you to build trust and direct connections with your community. Checkout this great podcast episode where I discuss with Natasha Chang, social media manager at monday.com:
Sponsored ads: whether brand awareness or acquisition, you can boost your exposure with paid ads, whether on social media or Google. It’s not just about paid, organic is equally important.
Strategic Outreach: Collaborate with influencers, relevant media outlets, and complementary businesses. Expand your reach and tap into new audiences. This gives you social proof and network effect. The best advertising is word of mouth, when someone talks about you, not when you talk about yourself and say “we the best”.
Phase 4: Growth & Refinement
Data-Driven Decisions: Track key metrics (website traffic, engagement, conversions). Analyze what works and adapt your strategy accordingly.
Experiment & Evolve: Stay relevant and innovative. Test new tactics, refine your message, and embrace continuous improvement. Truth is, there is no right formula, besides this blueprint (and that’s all what it is: a blueprint). Everything evolves so fast these days in marketing, that what is effective today, probably won’t be tomorrow. Otherwise, everyone would be successful. So you must measure, experiment, and a/b test regularly. Learn from your mistakes and successes, and reiterate.
Build Relationships: Cultivate connections with customers, partners, and mentors. Collaboration fuels growth and opens new doors. In the end, brand building starts and ends with creating a strong emotional bond between your brand and the people who need your product. So nurture it.
TL;DR:
Develop a brand mission statement and brand guidelines.
Leverage social media platforms strategically.
Utilize email marketing to nurture leads and build relationships.
Invest in professional design and branding expertise if needed.
Authenticity and consistency are key!
Remember, building a successful brand takes time, effort, and dedication. But with the right approach and consistent action, you can create a brand that resonates with your audience, stands out from the crowd, and drives your business toward success✨.
Special offer on the paid subscription: get 69% off forever and get brand insights right to your mailbox here 👇
Bonus: brand-building kitchen tool suggestions 🥣
Most options below have a free plan to get you started (some links are referral links):
Google Suite: mail, video conferencing, cloud drive all in one place. If like myself you care about privacy, you can use Proton, the privacy alternative ( no conference call, but enterprise-grade VPN, password manager added). It is end-to-end encrypted, zero knowledge and they have a business plan.
monday.com: Your project management pantry. It starts with a robust work management platform. Track tasks, manage deadlines, and collaborate with your team effortlessly, ensuring your brand-building efforts stay on the right track. Think of it as your trusty kitchen assistant, keeping everything in order and ready to serve. *Full disclosure: I currently work there, and I have tried a lot of work management platforms in the past 10 years. This one is simply the best and most intuitive, with a lot of automations and integrations possible.
Canva: Your visual frosting. Design stunning visuals that make your brand pop, even if you're not a design pro. (Still tastes as sweet as ever!)
MailChimp: Your email icing. Craft emails that connect with your audience and grow your business, without any artificial flavors.
Buffer: Your social media sprinkles. Schedule posts and keep your social feeds buzzing, all from one easy-to-use dashboard.
Google Analytics: Your data cherries. This is how you know where your visitors are coming from, and how they got to you. Get insights into your brand's performance and make data-driven decisions to optimize your recipe.
Ahrefs/SEMrush: Your SEO magic. Cast a spell on Google and rise to the top of the search results, attracting more hungry customers to your brand. Free alternative: Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest, and Google’s Keyword Planner
Zapier: Your automation oven. Connect your tools and apps to create seamless workflows, so you can focus on the creative side of branding while the technology takes care of the grunt work.
ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot: your AI companion to bounce some ideas, help you with research, and overall help you boost your creativity.
If you are new to this, and you need more guidance and assistance, I offer consulting services here. (free consult if you get a yearly subscription).
That’s it, good luck and happy branding!
Brand-building content suggestion
How to efficiently build a presence online (Brand Runner podcast with Or Hadar)
Hubspot’s A Step By-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing Strategy
Brand Audit Checklist: Assess Your Brand's Current State (free with paid upgrade to this substack)
Connect with me on LinkedIn
You can subscribe here if you have not yet. The paid plans get my “assess your brand” checklist and a once-a-year 30-minute call to talk about your ideas.
Listen🎙️ to the Brand Runner podcast on:
Fabien, I love the blurb you wrote me, it's great but it's twice too long and when I use it the page crops half of it... Would you be so kind as to just leave the second half (for instance) Then I'd love to use it!
Great playbook for starting out!