To stand out from competitors a successful business needs to have a unique brand. But it’s important to remember that your brand is more than just a name and a logo, you need your brand to tell your unique story. You want your customer and target audience to connect with you and your business so it’s essential your brand communicates your key message.

Your Story
You need to communicate your brand to your customers and a great way to do this is by giving them the low-down on your business values, qualities, products and services. You are aiming to capture the essence of your business and create a connection between you and your customers.

Use a Consistent Tone

• In order to stand out from your competitors and become recognisable to your audience you need to make sure you use a consistent voice through all your marketing channels including social media, blogs and any print marketing. Make sure you don’t lose sight of your brand message and always stay true to your values- your customers are more likely to remain loyal to your business if your business remains loyal to your brand values.
  

Your ‘Why’
When you tell your story make sure you tell your audience what it was that inspired you to start your business and what you were trying to achieve. Again, this will help to build trust with your audience and make them see that your business is about more than just sales and profit- building your brand!
 
Make sure you tell your employees about your ‘story’, this will ensure you are all sending the same message to your clients and reinforce your brand identity. Telling your story and connecting with your customers will help build strong relationships and brand loyalty.
 
Your Visual Brand and Logo
Your visual brand needs to be on all your branding material both online and any printed materials such as stationary, business cards and any marketing materials. You should use colours that reflect your brand and the design of all your branding needs to clearly show your tone and voice. This is where you should consider using a graphic designer to help you create a logo that encompasses your identity.
 
Even if your business is fully established, it's important to review how your branding reflects your identity- is it giving the right message? Does it give a clear message about what you and your business are trying to achieve?
 
It’s a good idea to make sure your brand is conveying your key messaging and communicating with your target audience. Business’s change and adapt to the economic climate so there is a good chance your message has changed if your business has been running for a number of years.
 
Take a look at Marketing Donuts invaluable ‘Building a Brand - checklist’.
Do you need help shaping your story? Contact us for a FREE Health Check!

Hopefully you’ve already got email marketing set up as part of your marketing strategy for your business- if not then we recommend you read ‘Email Marketing For Small Businesses’ to find out why having one is an essential part of your marketing plan.

If you already use email marketing as part of your marketing strategy then great, but it’s important to update your email marketing strategy regularly in order to get the best results for your business. It’s no good just planning then leaving it for a few years. Over time your business changes and so do your customers. If your products or services have changed in order to meet demand, then your customers or your customers’ needs will most definitely have changed too.

Update Your Customer List
It’s so important to make sure you have an up-to-date customer list. If you’re using old contacts the chances are there are several incorrect details as well as subscribers who are no longer interested in your products or services. You need to be tough and cull any contacts that are no longer interested. Finding out who to keep and who to delete might seem like a bit of a task but it’s vital not only for your engagement but also to keep on the right side of the law with GDPR.

Email marketing services such as Mailchimp and Campaign Monitor will help you weed out the old customers and see which customers might just need a bit of a push to re-engage with your business.

Organise Your List
Once you’ve decided who to keep and who to throw out it’s a good idea to organise your customer list, whether that’s by the service they are interested in or behaviour such as previous purchases. Once you’ve got your groups sorted it makes it easier to tailor personalised email campaigns and hopefully increase engagement.

Make Privacy a Priority
You want to build trust with your customers and one way of ensuring that is by letting the customer know that their privacy is paramount to you. Keep on top of all legislation regarding privacy and make sure your customers are aware of the things you are doing to keep their data safe and secure - this can be detailed in your privacy policy. Finally, ensure it is easy for the customer to unsubscribe- make it clear and simple.

Make your Customer Feel Valued
Personalised email marketing is bound to have a much more positive effect on your customer engagement than the scatter-gun effect of just random content that might not resonate with all your subscribers. If you sell a product, you could consider sending out personalised birthday emails with discounts or for services- let them know how you are there to help and support them. You could also look at what's happening in the world currently- many businesses offer discounts to NHS staff or Key Workers in thanks for their continued hard work.
 
Book a health check if you need any support reviving your Email Marketing or Marketing Strategy.