In an ever-changing marketplace, it’s now more important than ever to rethink and revisit your brand image and marketing strategies to reach and keep your customer base. Here are five crucial steps that will take your business’s marketing strategy to the next level by refining your brand’s image.

Study the target audience of your brand’s image 

When studying about how to start your marketing and communication strategy, it’s crucial to first identify your target audience, or in other words, your ideal future or current customer. Each and every detail is important when you’re gathering information about them. In order to appeal to your audience, you have to know them, know how they think and know what motivates them to want to invest in your business.

Important factors to identify in this stage of refining your brand image is to see where you exist in the marketplace you’re within. Who are your competitors, how does your online presence compare to similar companies/brands, how do your customers/followers/clients interact with your brand best? 

This stage is the vision-casting portion of refining your brand’s image, and although it may seem daunting, it should clarify what your brand needs to stay cutting edge in the marketplace you’re working within.

Know your creative flare. Know your voice. 

Now we get to the introspective and, in my opinion, the exciting part of refining your brand’s image. Take a moment and think of what makes your brand YOURS. What’s unique about it? Why did you decide to enter the marketplace with your unique product/service? What are you looking to bring into this community that wasn’t there before? 

From here, you get to see the core of what makes your brand image identifiable from the rest. 

A brand’s image is the colorful side of business, it’s the logo, colors, designs and fonts. In essence, it is the truth about who you are, and you get to define the truth of your brand. 

Keep your brand’s image consistent AND current. 

This is a tricky line to teeter but it is crucial to maintaining an overall brand, as well as maintaining its effectiveness at reaching your audience/customer base. One of the reasons a brand image is so essential to a thriving marketing strategy is that it should be identifiable and unique. You want your brand to stand apart from the rest- in the right ways to the right audience. This is done by keeping it consistent across marketing platforms. 

Having a consistent look, voice, and feel is how customers/clients build loyalty and trust in the authenticity of the brand image you’re putting forth– which is crucial to building a community surrounding your company. 

Research. Test. Research some more. 

The only way you can know if you’re still effective in your strategies and brand approach is keeping track of the impressions and statistics. This is when the clever work of Google Analytics comes in great use.  I vividly remember learning about how useful this analytics tool is in understanding how the activity you generate on your website is actually working. 

When it comes to refining your brand’s image, it’s crucial to work with the customers you’re aiming to draw in. Understanding what appeals to them and what actions/impressions your brand image leaves them with is greatly beneficial. 

As always, setting measurable business goals for your company is also necessary for refining your brand’s image. At South Street & Co. we can help you set those goals and track those impressions as well. 

Focus on relationships with your customer base. 

Internal relations and external relations keep the brand trustworthy and effective, and if you refine the external brand image, it’s greatly important that your internal workplace reflects that same feel. This might seem elusive, but essentially, knowing that your internal communications and company vision are agreed upon is crucial.

A successful brand image is one that is trusted, given that customer trust is built, you have to establish a brand that is congruent within and outside of your company’s culture. A great way of doing this is to refine your interactions with a genuine and appreciative tone. Consistent communication on social media and in face-to-face relations is key. This also helps you to stay on top of the current beat of your marketplace. 

Here at South Street & Co, we can also help you find those creative parts of your brand image, fill out the form below to schedule a consultation with Kaitlyn to talk about how we can help you achieve that next level in your small business marketing strategies.