Developing a brand is a difficult process. It requires time, effort and dedication to successfully develop a good brand. Many businesses chose to develop a brand in order to stand out on the market and win over the hearts and minds of their customers. Not only that, a brand can also help even small businesses become lucrative enterprises. However, simply developing a brand is not enough for your business to succeed.
You must continue to work on your brand and identify opportunities that will help it grow and develop further. That being said, many businesses start by developing a local brand as a first step in their branding strategy. Once you’ve managed to build your local presence and win over your community, you can easily move on to the other markets as well. Here are a few ways you can recognize growth opportunities for your local brand.
Conduct a competitive analysis
No matter where your brand starts off, you’ll always have other brands competing against you on the same market. A branding strategy helps you stand out from the others, but only if you perform better than your main competitors. That’s why it’s important to conduct a competitive analysis in order to determine how to gain a competitive advantage.
Analyzing your competition gives you insight into their operations, such as how they treat customers, their marketing strategies, product placement and so on. This allows you to identify market gaps you can exploit to perform better than your competition and to differentiate your brand from the others. That way, you’ll know how to tailor the right messages to your customers, develop engaging content, as well as how to develop compelling marketing promotions that will grab your audience’s attention.
Engage your local community
The best way to build visibility and awareness for your local brand is to actively engage with your local community. You can attend important events and gatherings in order to show your presence. Moreover, you can also host special events and charities for the benefit of the local community. What’s more, you can hand out branded gifts such as custom pens, T shirts, coffee mugs and other, in order to promote your brand and encourage local consumers to check out your business.
As a matter of fact, 79% of consumers are more willing to do business with a brand that gives them promotional gifts. In addition to that, 84% of consumers claim branded items help improve their brand awareness. Therefore, participating and hosting beneficial local events is an excellent way to build your local presence, as well as build awareness about your brand.
Identify your unique selling proposition (USP)
One of the best growth opportunities for brands is identifying their USP. A unique selling proposition is something your brand has that other brands don’t have in their offers. For instance, unique product quality, return policy, loyalty program and so on. These can all be a USP, but only if they’re unique in a way that’s both interesting and valuable to customers.
Identifying your USP helps you stand out on the market, but it also helps you stand out from other brands as well. That way, more customers will turn to your brand, and you’ll be able to grow your consumer base. On top of that, satisfied customers will become brand advocates that will promote your brand further through word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals. Needless to say, a USP can help your brand grow for years to come.
Leverage search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is a cost effective marketing strategy and an excellent growth opportunity for local brands. Not only can you leverage local SEO listings to help your local customers familiarize themselves with your brand and help them find you more easily, but you can also leverage SEO to gain vast exposure on the market. SEO helps build a brands authority, credibility and reputation through activities such as link building, guest blogging and content marketing.
Moreover, the more optimized your website is, the more satisfied your customers will be. SEO will help you build visibility online, which can be a significant advantage on the market and a unique growth opportunity. After all, if your brand is more visible and available, as well as more credible and reputable than others, online consumers will flock to your brand and drive its growth towards success.
Developing a local brand isn’t easy, but growing that same brand is even more challenging. That’s why it’s important to plan well and identify opportunities that will help your brand not only grow and prosper, but that will also help it make a presence on the market that will sustain its success.
Guest Author, Raul Harman, s a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he’s not enjoying travel, football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com.