How to Improve your Brand Image

Building your brand identity is one of the first steps when setting up a new business; however, it is just as important to develop your brand identity as an established company. 70% of brand managers believe that building an online audience reaps better long-term results than converting sales. Today, you are expected to create a constant flow of engaging content or you risk losing customers. Creating content is already hard enough but now, you are expected to create content in the form of podcasts, blogging, social media, and live streaming. See our blog on The 3 Steps to Mastering Your Content Creation to find out more.

Releasing content that is interactive and engaging helps to develop your brand identity and builds long-lasting customer relationships. The trick is not to oversell your products and services, but to let your brand sell them instead. This means reducing the amount of content regarding your treatments and skincare products and increasing the amount of content that highlights who your brand is and why your audience should care.

Sometimes it can be overwhelming to think about everything your company needs to do to stand out from the crowd, but we will break it down for you and give you our top tips for improving your brand identity. 

Brand identity is, quite literally, who your company is. This identity tells your customers what your values are, what you stand for, what your unique selling point (USP) is, and why they should invest in your business. 89% of shoppers remain loyal to brands who hold the same values as them; once you have identified your target audience, you need to promote their values and give them the content that they want to see.

Defining your brand makes your business more personable and approachable, resulting in better customer relationships. Clients do not want to feel like they are just another sale, they want to feel understood and cared for by your company. Consistency is a key factor here. If you release engaging content, but you only do this once a month, your customers will not view your business as reliable and trustworthy. To gain loyalty from your customers, you need to be loyal to them by providing a constant stream of relevant, informative, and interesting content. 

Developing your brand identity ensures that your business is viewed as credible and dependable. 

When people think about marketing in terms of selling, people often view it as a rather aggressive and forceful approach. Most of the time, we don’t want to be bombarded with irrelevant emails and leaflets that offer no benefit to our lives. Of course, email marketing can be a successful marketing tactic when executed in the right way, but this needs to be paired with an inbound marketing strategy. Inbound marketing essentially means giving something for nothing; it involves producing content such as blogs, podcasts, and social media posts that add value to the customer.

The ultimate aim of this type of marketing is to build a relationship with potential clients so they are more inclined to buy from your company. Once again, we return to this idea of building trust and credibility, which in turn, links back to brand identity.

Nowadays, it is clear that social media is an essential part of digital marketing; half of all social media users follow four brands on their chosen platform. Once you have established which platforms your brand should be present on, you need to consider how your brand can effectively engage with an online audience. It is also crucial that you identify which social media platforms your brand should be on so that you target the right audience.

Social media is one of the best ways to convey your brand values, whether this is through tips, company photos, new blog alerts, case studies, or success stories. The use of imagery and text is a good way of breaking down information and giving your audience informative tidbits which will help them to determine your brand identity. 74% of marketers use images in social media marketing; this demonstrates the power of imagery and how it can be used to emphasise your brand.

Another way to express your brand identity is to make the most of live streaming. Live streaming has become one of the most popular ways to engage with an online audience.  Video marketing increasingly popular over the past few years, people prefer to watch content instead of reading it. 80% of online audiences favour watching a brand’s live streams over reading blogs. This is because videos are an easier way to digest a lot of detailed information; For example, if you wanted to find out about the scientific process of Microneedling, would you rather read five different research articles or watch a 5-minute video giving you an overall summary? No competition.

Live streaming allows you to educate, interact, and answer FAQs for your audience. You click the ‘live’ button on your chosen platform and you are immediately broadcasting to your followers. These followers can choose whether or not to join the live stream and they can ask questions that will appear to you straight away. This allows you to have direct communication with numerous members of your audience; it can be used to host interviews, make announcements, hold Q & As, showcase events, or simply to have an informal chat with your customers.

This type of online interaction gives your brand a distinct personality and makes the entire process of selling much more human. Live streaming is available on most social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. 

In a similar way to video marketing, podcasts are another tool to help your customers process complex information. Podcasts can be used to continuously advise your clients throughout their treatment or skincare journey and update them on the latest news at your clinic. Building your brand identity is about stripping away formalities and allowing your customers to get to know your brand on a personal level. 

In recent years, podcasts have become one of the most popular forms of content, with 72% of podcast consumers use podcasts to learn about something new. The use of podcasts enables you to weed out users who are not part of your target audience; those who are not interested in your business will not waste their time engaging with your brand. This is a good thing because it means that you will generate better quality leads and build an online audience who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. Once again, the concept of a podcast gives the audience something human to engage with, reminding them that your company is run by authentic individuals who can build meaningful customer relationships. 

Podcasts ensure that you can connect with customers all the time; people can listen to them wherever they are, meaning that they fit it into their daily routine. Podcasts allow your business to expand its reach and connect with multiple people in different places, at different times.

These are just a few ways that you can develop your brand identity, but there are many other methods of connecting with your audience. Building relationships with clients can be difficult if you don’t have the time to engage consistently; if you feel like you need some help with social media management and lead generation, book a free consultation with us today to make your life a little easier.