When your mind is moving a million miles a minute, contemplating everything you’ll need for your business from sticky notes to a warehouse full of product, it’s critical for business owners to take a deep breath. Stop to consider the least tangible yet most impactful component of your entire operation’s success: your brand.

You can’t touch it, taste it, see it or smell it, but your business’ brand is the one thing consumers feel or think about when your company is referenced. It’s more than just your name and logo; it’s every image that’s conjured up in consumers’ heads when your company is referenced. It’s your story, but also the impact you make on how your customers tell their own stories using your product. If defining your brand is put off until operations and product development are set in stone, you as a business owner will have no control over the perceptions people form about your company and thus will have no say in how they talk about you or even what you become.

Focus on three key steps when launching your company:

1. Defining your brand
2. Building your brand voice and look
3. Managing the conversation about your brand

STEP 1

Take things slow and strategic. Define your brand, and to do it well conduct a lot of competitive research that allows you to see first hand what works and doesn’t work within your category. This research is also critical to determine the open positions your brand can take so that your company leaves a unique, lasting impression on customers that they’ll remember long after interacting with you. That recall will ultimately drive your sales and increase repeat business, which will keep your COO and CFO veeeeeery happy.

STEP 2

Once you have your brand defined, create the first key pieces that you’ll need to share that brand and its message with your customer base. Your logo is the foundation for your brand look, but extensions of that logo including a color palette, key fonts, styling and design elements will communicate your brand message in a visual way the same way body language communicates intention in people without saying a word. Consistency is crucial and all these design extensions of your brand should mirror the brand position to reinforce it rather than confusing customers with different brand experiences. Similarly, control and decide the brand voice or personality your company will take on in the written communications you send to customers. It can be fun, serious, playful, witty, adventurous – any word is fair game. But understand if the tone of your brand voice conflicts with your defined brand, you’ll lose trust while trying to build a foundation with your first customers which is a huge misstep of businesses large and small.

STEP 3

Managing the conversation about your brand starts with identifying where people talk about your company most. If social media platforms are relevant, any business should claim their pages on every outlet. Similarly, your company’s website is an outward communication tool that allows you to curate and control what information people receive about your brand and its mission. Expect customers to want to engage with you, whether it’s on social media, via a contact form on your website, on the phone or in person. Then engage them back when they do. Responsiveness, friendliness and helpfulness all build brand trust quickly for cons

umers, but neglecting to follow up on inbound calls or requests for information from your customers will alienate them just as quickly. It’s much easier to build a strong relations

hip with the public from the beginning than to have to rebuild one later once they have lost trust simply because your business wasn’t available to answer

questions they had or reply to comments they took the time to leave you.

These steps are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to launching a brand and building a business. If anything you’ve read sounds relatable, we can help you bring your business to life through a strategic brand and marketing plan that tak

es into account everything touched on above. We’ve helped dozens of business owners like you craft their brand, leading to success and sales as well as a long-term partnership with our firm.

Let us answer your marketing questions and prove why having a partner is so much better than going it alone when launching your business.

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