In today’s overloaded digital marketplace, making your business stand out is the key to attracting web traffic and boosting sales. However, achieving these goals isn’t possible if you’re just throwing things at a wall to see what sticks. Successfully creating a branding and marketing strategy for your company requires time and research—and plenty of both.

If this sounds confusing or overwhelming, let yourself take a breath. LA Creative Marketing is here to help. Our personalized services allow us to glean what makes your company truly unique, knowledge which we, in turn, share with your target audiences. Plus, with offerings including branding, email marketing, social media and web design, we can ensure that your company will get the customer attention and engagement it needs to grow and succeed. 

What Is Branding?

In a nutshell, branding is the process of creating a unique identity for your business. This is achieved through the development of your brand’s story, mission and values, as well as assets such as your logo, color palette, font and brand voice. The stronger and more consistent your brand identity, the easier it may be for audiences to associate your brand with your products and services. Why? Because if they have similar beliefs or values, your brand allows them to choose products or services that meet both their preferences and needs. As an added benefit, consistent use of brand assets may help to display your reliability, encouraging audiences to have more faith in your company.

Some types of branding which may prove useful for your business include:

• Corporate branding: As the name suggests, this strategy involves creating a cohesive brand identity that incorporates every aspect of your business. From your offerings to your website and ads, everything should be reflective of your company values and created with the intention of selling your business to customers.
• Product branding: The process of creating a product which will stand out in the current digital marketplace and meet customer needs. 
• Service branding: Like product branding, service branding focuses on one part of your business—the services you offer—rather than the business in its entirety. Unlike product branding, you are selling an experience rather than a physical object. 

What Is Marketing?

While branding is the process of developing a strong, cohesive brand identity, marketing is what allows you to truly sell that identity to customers. But marketing is about more than just driving traffic to your website and making as many sales as possible. It gives you the chance to create relationships with prospective and existing customers alike, to the benefit of both parties. Audiences, for example, feel that you are working for and with them, while businesses gain the honest feedback and loyalty of their customers. This, in turn, provides you with the information you need to improve your products, services and marketing strategies. 

When it comes to marketing, there is a wide range of methods for business owners to take advantage of, including:

• Business to consumer (B2C) marketing: The process of promoting and selling your products and services to consumers. 
• Business to business (B2B) marketing: The process of advertising and selling your products and services to other companies. 
• Digital marketing: Any marketing strategy which is implemented through digital channels. This includes social media posts, videos, and content such as blogs and emails.
• Traditional marketing: As the name suggests, this marketing method utilizes traditional media, such as physical mail, billboards and phone calls, to advertise and sell products and services.

Creating a Winning Branding and Marketing Strategy

A strong brand strategy utilizes these branding and marketing tools and techniques in order to drive sales, guide decision-making and position your brand competitively in the digital marketplace. The specifics of your strategy will depend on your audience and business needs, but in general, a good branding and marketing strategy includes:

1. Understanding your brand purpose and positioning

Before you can tell audiences who you are, you need to understand it yourself. Define your brand—its personality, voice, mission and values—and the purpose you created it to serve. What do you stand for, and whose needs are you trying to meet? What niche are you trying to fill, and why should your audience trust you? Once you are able to answer these questions, you will be better able to tell your audience why your company is the solution they are looking for. 

2. Determine your branding and marketing goals

When setting your goals, focus first on what you’re looking for in the present. Your goals can change over time, and setting objectives which are too broad may make it difficult to make smart decisions in the short-term. Instead, consider your immediate concerns, such as boosting brand awareness, increasing website traffic or improving sales. Then, decide how to measure your success when it comes to achieving them. 

3. Conducting market research

Look at aspects of the market including your competitors, gaps you can fill and the audience(s) you want to speak to. This will help you make strategic decisions including product and service design, marketing tactics and other methods for differentiating your brand from the competition. Additionally, identifying your target audience—including their demographics, wants and needs—allows you to determine how best to speak to them and solve their problems. It can also give you an idea of how and where they interact with brands, such as through email marketing or different social media platforms.

4. Developing your messaging

Consider your brand voice, as well as what makes your business truly unique and valuable. Determine what questions and concerns your target audiences would most like addressed, as well as what type of content they will best respond to. And think about how you can both build an emotional connection with customers as well as boost their perceptions of your expertise and credibility. In short, develop content which shows audiences the time and research you have put into building your brand, as well as your creativity and flexibility when it comes to your marketing efforts.

5. Choosing your marketing channels

In other words, determine where you will speak to your audience. This is where target audience research comes in handy. Consider what platforms they use most often, as well as how they consume media. Do they prefer watching television to videos on their phone? What about their preferences for traditional radio versus podcasts, or blogs versus social media posts? In the end, the choices you make should come down to where you are most likely to get their attention.

6. Tracking strategy performance

One of the most important parts of your branding and marketing strategy is tracking its performance once implemented. Key performance indicators can tell you where you’re succeeding, as well as what areas need improvement. Additionally, by conducting research and engaging with audiences you can make changes based on information including customer feedback and industry developments as quickly as possible. 

Boost Your Brand Performance with LA Creative Marketing

A winning branding and marketing strategy is a critical part of boosting business growth and success. Today’s digital marketplace is full of competitors, from up-and-coming small businesses to large corporations which have dominated the industry for decades. As such, standing out can be difficult—but never impossible. It just requires time, research, and a strong understanding of both your brand and audience.
When it comes to developing and launching a branding and marketing strategy, using all of the tools at your disposal can make an enormous difference in regards to your success. This is where our team at LA Creative Marketing comes in. With a range of branding tools and a personalized, integrated marketing approach, we can help your business proudly display what makes it unique and able to resonate with your target audience. So if you’re ready to create a winning branding and marketing strategy with the help of an industry expert, just give us a call or send us a message to schedule a consultation today.