Before you take the plunge to assign a content strategy for your business or SEO, you must first build a brand. Many businesses are unaware of the importance of a brand and limit its importance to its logo design and the signature colors.
A brand is your organization’s identity. It is the voice of your organization, and most importantly it is an amalgamation of all your organization’s actions and customer perceptions. It defines the qualities and the values you associate your organization with.
According to Forbes.com:
“Branding only works in one direction. It informs your marketing channels, as a kind of blueprint for what’s acceptable for your organization. It must remain consistent, or you’ll lose momentum.”
This means that before you begin any form of content strategy or SEO planning, you must first successfully brand your organization. As Forbes further states:
“Your branding can inform your marketing campaigns but not the other way around. You may think – “How can I create a brand without marketing help?” You don’t have to settle with the brand order you create before your content strategy and SEO planning. You can gradually adjust your brand after building a reputation.”
Still confused about branding your organization before the content strategy? We understand that this can be a confusing task. Before you begin, you must understand that branding is a complex process.
There are two main aspects that govern branding. They are:
- Your differentiating qualities: This is a very important criterion for branding. How does your brand stand among your competitors? What makes you different? Are you approachable? Are your solutions more readily available? List everything that sets your brand apart.
- Your target audience: This is another important criterion. You can’t just say “everyone.” If everyone becomes your audience then you will end up marketing to no one. Every product or service sold in this world has an audience. Who is your target demographic? Men and women like different things and so do children. If you take a look at women, every age group has their own likes and dislikes. What is your unique selling proposition? Group them and target your marketing strategies accordingly.
Once you have figured out the answers to these questions, you can move on to these guidelines.
- Creating an image and a voice: We talked about how important this is earlier in this article. Lending a visual and a voice to your brand gives it a personality. What type of “personality” do you want your brand to exhibit? What are your qualities? Are you professional? Experienced? Identify your unique image and voice.
- What competitor advantages do you exhibit? Once you have identified your target demographics, what can you offer that will give you a unique competitive advantage? A different selling point?
Once you have all these figured out, you can begin with your SEO and content strategy.
