This article was contributed by Janil Jean.

As of 2019, there are over 30 million small businesses in the US. This does not take middle and large size companies into account – otherwise, this list would be even more significant! Regardless, with there being such a large number of brands, the market is quite competitive.

All of these companies use advertising to draw the attention of their target audience; that’s why you need to build a brand that stands out. No matter what you sell or how unique your product is, you will still face a lot of competition. In this guide, you’ll learn the best strategies that will help your brand stand out.

1. Know Your Target Audience

Most of the articles about brands on the Internet start with the section about “Knowing Your Target Audience”. This is a crucial step in building your brand voice and personality.

1. Focus on the message that you are trying to convey.
2. Be specific: find out the details about your consumers’ behaviors and lifestyles.
3. Don’t get into the trap of targeting anyone who has already bought something from you.
4. Narrow down your target audience: know their age, location, gender, interests, income level, occupation, and education.

2. Provide Value to Your Customers

Think about how you can provide more value to your customers. It could be done in many different ways, and you can start by giving a better product and better customer service than your competitors. Try to not only meet but exceed your clients’ needs.

A perfect example of a brand that provides value is Amazon. It’s a huge company that sells everything from computers, to books and socks. They provide value to their clients by creating different programs, like Amazon Prime, which gives you fast and unlimited shipping. Additionally, Amazon Smile donates a percentage of your purchase to certain non-profits.

Image: Amazon Prime

You can start with small steps, such as making your product’s packaging beautiful, providing fast shipping, and incorporating useful checklists that tell your customers about how to care about the product. If you sell services, you can provide value by creating powerful customer support.

For example, PNC Bank took its customer support to a whole new level by creating a separate Twitter account – PNC Bank Help – that quickly solves customer support issues.

3. Show Real Humans

People enjoy seeing some “behind the scenes” content about your brand. Remind your potential consumers that real people created your company; it will definitely enable the connection between your brand and customers.

“When dealing with people, let us remember that we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotions.”

– Dale Carnegie

For most brands, the “About Us” page is one of the most visited ones. Show your visitors that the people who work for your company are the same human beings who breathe and eat.

See how Ahrefs improved their author bio section on their blog

Ahrefs allowed their team members to express their personality and used these excellent portraits instead of the usual corporate headshots.

Another great example is in a study done by MarketingExperiments which showed that conversion rates started to grow when they replaced a regular stock photo on one website for a picture of a founder. In fact, they got a 35% increase in signups.

4. Tell Your Story

Make sure to tell your story if you want your brand to stand out. People are interested in how you got to the point where you are at today, what path you went through, and what the core principles of your work are.

Image Airbnb

For instance, Airbnb even wrote a book telling their story: The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions, and Created Plenty of Controversies. This is a remarkable behind the scenes story about the creation and growth of Airbnb, the largest provider of accommodations in the world.

5. Work with Influencers

One of the best ways to get brand awareness is through word of mouth. Working with influencers in your niche is a common practice for businesses these days. Bloggers from Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook influence millions of people around the world, and they can make or break your brand with just a few words.

Nike is a well-known brand of athletic and sports shoes and have endorsed former NBA champion, Michael Jordan, for their marketing campaign for well over a decade. Can you imagine another popular athletic shoe besides the Air Jordan?

Image: Nike

According to BrightLocal, consumers believe online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That’s why it’s essential to add a few testimonials on your homepage.

6. Make Your Brand Stand Out on Social Media

Social media network users reached 2.77 billion active users in 2019. Social media can help any business reach their audience online, find new clients, and build brand awareness.

Image: Logo Design

There are a few simple ways to make your brand stand out on social media:

1. Amazing Account Theme: This approach will successfully work for Instagram. See here for how to get to 10k followers. Having an account theme means that you use the same filters, colors, or images to create a one-style unique Instagram feed. Take a look at the example below:

Image The Preview App

It will set a particular mood for your followers, make your brand memorable, and reflect your brand’s voice.

2. Write Captions: Many people don’t bother with writing captions on Instagram, but that’s a huge mistake. Having a fantastic theme, beautiful images, and captions can help you to tell your brand’s story and get you closer to your clients.

3. Share photos of clients with testimonials. If you promote your product, (whether it be a shampoo or hand-made chocolate) Instagram is a great way to gain a loyal audience quickly.

Image Love Hair Instagram

Share images of people using your product and write in the caption about how happy they are with it. This is called UGC (user-generated content). Ask clients to mention your Instagram via @ or by using your hashtags like #bestchocolate. By doing this, you’ll quickly find people who share photos of your product on Instagram.

4. Tell everyone that you are on social media. It is primarily concerned with the website and your other social media accounts. You need to link them together. For example, if you send an email to your subscribers, you can write something like, “Follow me on Instagram” toward the end.

This can be done with an email signature. Use one of the free online tools to add an email signature, like the one from Hubspot.

Image HubSpot

5. Fill out your Facebook page. Facebook pages allow you to input so many details and so much information that some businesses have begun using them as their main website. To increase your chances of getting as many followers as possible, you need to fill out the following fields of your profile the most carefully:

• URL
• Brand logo and cover photo
• Introductory information
• Long description and mission
• Your location
• Phone number and email address
• A few new updates to make your page looks complete

A quick tip: For increasing followers on Facebook, use a photo edited cover with the proper size. In 2019, the Facebook cover photo size is 820px by 340px.

Conclusion

Define your business to the market and clients with branding. For those of you who are just starting, these strategies will guide you on how you can make your brand stand out. For existing brands, you can consider rebranding. At the very least, don’t hesitate to audit your brand and think about how you can improve it.

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About the author: Janil Jean is Director of Overseas Operations at Logo Design, a DIY logo design software. She loves to write about branding, small business management, and digital marketing. Connect with her via LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.