In marketing, everything should begin and end with data. It is impossible to build a brand without data because they lay the foundation, providing you with opportunities to see where you fit in the larger market of your industry competitors. Using it to determine trends, insights, and patterns allows you to set a path and gauge whether or not that path is leading you somewhere. If you have done any background research at all, you will understand how essential branding is and will know that it means more than coming up with a sexy logo, choosing a desirable color palette, creating a memorable catchphrase, or organizing a social media campaign.

The initial branding process can be overwhelming, even if you are keenly aware of the Instagram statistics that matter. Here we look at a few effective brand building techniques and strategies that you will need to hit the ground running.

Find your voice.

Because a brand is a perception that consumers have of your business, it’s important to organize your story and find your brand voice. The perceptions consumers have regarding your business originate from what you tell people about your vision, your values, the product you offer, and how your customers will benefit from engaging with your company. Strong brand building means taking the time to define, articulate, and state a message about who you are, what you do, why you do it, and how you do it better than others who do the same thing. Strategic and creative designs will follow, but only if you have a clear insight into what you and your company stand for.

Your brand is not only the visuals that come to a consumer’s mind when they think of your business. It’s how they hear you. You can only develop a strategic representation of your brand when you have fully developed an idea of how your brand should sound to others. In order to understand what we mean, think of a person you know. Not only do you immediately generate an image of their face, but you also consider their body language, expression, speaking patterns, attitude, and tone. Consumers do the same thing with businesses, so you need to decide if you will approach your brand from a technical, authoritative, informative, or conversational position. What you choose is dependent on both your industry and the message you are trying to create.

Data informs a brand voice. Research can help you determine what consumers are looking for in a brand and what type of brand behaviors cause consumers to unfollow. It can provide feedback on how effective your current branding strategies are in generating engagement, and learn where your brand voice is highlighted the most.

Leverage your voice.

Once you find that voice, you will want to leverage your brand voice in order to stand out from the competition. You do this when you interact with customers, when you blast on social media, when you write blog articles, through email marketing campaigns, and when you develop other types of content like videos and graphics. Remember that your audience should always have a clear, concise, and accurate sense of your company’s brand expression.

Because brand expression is the external voice of your brand, you will find that there are many ways of communicating your brand to your intended audience. You can use your websites, your social media platforms and ad banners, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), brochures, radio spots, lifestyle imagery, and TV or billboard ads. A critical first step, of course, is getting to know your customer. Without understanding their wants, needs, and preferences, it will be impossible to predict how your brand messaging will resonate with them. If you want to make an impact, you will need to know your market.

Create brand authority through visuals

Brand authority is where you showcase your dominance, mastering, and command in your specific industry. Brand authority might be asserting your market dominance, or it can present the critical success or recognition you’ve received. It allows you to creatively embed yourself in the mind of prospective consumers by increasing recognition, growing sentiment, and encouraging preference. Remember that visuals are a means to an end, but branding goes far beyond the logos, photos, and graphics associated with your company. Branding includes both the tangible and intangible that goes into creating an experience of your company for your consumers.

Develop a visual identity system (the tools that a business uses to communicate a brand, including logo, use and application, typography, color, imagery, design, and layout) that showcases the positive aspects of your experience and success and establishing the value of what you know. Visual branding is an opportunity to influence what people associate with you, but it is not synonymous with “branding.” A brand marketer can help you identify the elements you want to include and ensure that the graphic components are a clear, accurate, and robust representation of your brand.

What questions do you have about building your brand? Feel free to share here.