Rike Aprea, the marketing director for Spartan DEKA, shares three focus areas that will help sharpen your brand profile.
The recent years have been challenging for many businesses, especially in the fitness industry. Now, many studios and gyms don’t only have to compete with other local gyms, they also have to compete with online classes, free YouTube fitness videos, workout streaming services and more.
This is just one of the many reasons to focus on building a strong, distinctive brand that makes you stick out of the crowd.
Your brand is the most valuable asset of your business. It reflects your vision, values and the promise to your customers. It’s not just a logo but the soul of your business.
The term “brand” stems from the custom of burning marks on cattle to differentiate them from animals of other herds. Similarly, your brand should differentiate your company, products or services from your competitors.
A strong brand is one of the primary reasons why consumers are willing to pay a premium price for a product. However, if you fail to deliver the promises consumers associate with your brand, you’re very likely to lose them in the long run.
Online marketing activities and digital products can make it even harder to stick to your brand guidelines. The need for quick adjustments and the general pace of the digital world can tempt business owners to pay less attention to detail.
Many businesses with an extraordinary offline presence fall short when it comes to representing their brand online.
However, a strong brand is especially important in the online world:
- Your competitors are only a click away.
- It has never been easier for consumers to compare prices and product features.
- There’s an abundance of FREE content or products that you might have to compete with.
A brand audit can help you to create a distinctive brand identity and set your brand apart from its competitors. Here are three areas and respective questions that are essential for successful brand development:
1. Sharpen Your Value Proposition
A strong band tells a consistent story based on your value proposition. If you have a clear brand promise, it will be easy to attract the customers that will appreciate and value your products or services.
Here are seven questions that can help you to audit your brand promise:
- What is your company’s mission?
- What is your target audience?
- What is your promise to your customers?
- What makes your brand promise unique?
- What are 3 to 5 adjectives that describe your brand promise?
- What is the first thing that should come to mind when someone mentions your brand?
- What do you want consumers to say when referring to your products?
Take your time to answer these questions. Once you’re happy with your answers, discuss them with your team and make adjustments if necessary.
After you’ve developed a clear, unique brand promise, evaluate all your marketing activities, digital products, content, influencers and ambassadors. Are they genuinely representing what you want to be known for?
Don’t be afraid to make hard choices. They will pay off in the end.
2. Monetization
Most companies are very creative when it comes to creating content but have no strategy on how all this great content will help them to drive revenue. Of course, content can be used for pure brand building, but if you like to utilize content to create an additional income stream, the following seven questions can help:
- What are people willing to pay for my products or services?
- Would I be willing to pay for them?
- Can my target group afford what I offer?
- What differentiates my services, products, or content from all the free content that’s out there?
- Are my products or services easy to be copied by other content creators?
- Do my services, products, or content offerings have an up- or cross-selling potential to any of my other digital or tangible products?
- Is there anything I can add or change to make my products more valuable?
3. Education and Trust
Having a revenue model that creates immediate income is not the only way to monetize your brand.
For example, providing your community with free education that builds trust and helps them to be successful is an excellent strategy to generate quality leads and help you to become an authority in your specific niche.
To make the most out of your content marketing efforts, these seven questions can help:
- What type of content would allow my company to become an authority?
- What form of content would be appreciated by your audience? Webinars, ebooks, or blogs, or newsletters?
- What content creates real value for my existing and future customers?
- How can the content help my customers to be more successful at what they do?
- Can the additional free content help to differentiate my products or services?
- Can I potentially sell the created content in the future? This is not a must but a plus.
- Do I have partners that can help me to create free content?
While authenticity, value, and trust are the cornerstones of any successful brand, they are lifesavers in the online world. If you embrace that, you’ve taken the first step towards building a successful online brand presence.
