When you hear the word branding, what comes to mind? A lot of people would automatically think about a logo, brand color, and the business name. If you only focus on these elements, then your startup branding is bound to fail.

Business branding is more than a logo and a catchy tagline. Branding is so much more than that; it defines your product, your target market, and your business as a whole. To start off, let’s define branding and why it is essential for startups.

Brand refers to your business identity. It is how your customers recognize you and your business experience. Take for example, Apple and Samsung. These are the top brands that have been dominating the technology industry. When you hear these names, you will automatically think of cellphones since it is their most popular product branding.

Since your brand resonates with the business, we can assume that your branding is your promise to your clients on what they should expect.

Branding approach for startups

There are so many tips for startup branding, but the countless possibilities are making it hard for startup entrepreneurs to decide on a branding strategy. To help you with that, here are startup branding basics for you to start on.

Identify your market

Your market is your basis for branding. You can’t simply create a strong brand without your ideal market in mind. Before you start planning your branding strategy, identify your customers, current marketplace, and how your product differs from your competitors.

When identifying a target market, never say everyone. Targeting people in the whole world would be very ambitious but a recipe for failure. As a startup, you need to focus on a niche. Once you’ve found a niche, find out more details about them such as their age, their current trend, how they speak, and what they like and dislike.

Competitor analysis

Now, you’ve found out your ideal customer. Are you ready to introduce your startup?

Hold your horses. There is still so much to know. Before you start introducing yourself, try to find your edge among your competitors. It doesn’t matter how incredible your product is if another company is already doing the same thing. You’ll end up branded as a copy of your competitor.

In order to prevent this, always do a competitor analysis. List down every feature, marketing strategy, and product they have introduced in the market. Then, compare them to your products. In this way, you’ll know how to angle your branding to focus on your significant advantage compared to your competitors.

Choose a name

Your startup name is one of the most notable features of company branding. It is what people will recommend and what they’ll remember. If you already have a name in mind, don’t instantly jump the gun. What you think is excellent does not automatically mean excellent for everyone.

If you have a co-founder, discuss the naming of your startup. Brainstorm everything and weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Is there a similar business with the same brand name? If there is, what is their niche industry? What is the first impression of people when they hear your brand name? These are the questions you need to consider before finalizing your brand name.

Also, you can ask the members of your startup on their opinion of your name, or even your close families. However, never let your startup members or your family join the brainstorming. Yes, they can share their thoughts and opinions, but involving too many people in decision making makes it more chaotic. Instead of having a quick naming process, you’ll end up having an extended session.

Image

People are visual creatures. They mostly remember things that they see are good-looking, ugly, or reasonably unique. The bottom line, your image speaks a lot about your startup.

Once you’ve done all your branding research, it is time to apply them to your image. Choose a fitting image for your website, logo, and materials to spread all over the media. The conventions of your images should differ according to these platforms.

Brand narrative

The abovementioned tips are focused on introducing your startup brand. The next step is to give more context to your branding.

People want a brand that can relate to their daily lives. So how can you convey your brand to people that they can find your brand relatable? You can start by telling your story.

Startup’s brand is a reflection of every founder, its principles, values, and beliefs. In your brand narrative, tell the story of how you built your startup. In arranging your narration, it is better to go straight to the point by stating the problem. Then, be direct on being the solution to the problem.

Be memorable

Your business will be just another startup if you don’t do something that will make you stand out. A lot of companies apply gimmicks and other actions that will make their brand memorable.

One of the most successful branding strategies is Cards Against Humanity. The game became memorable in their Black Friday stints. They went from raising their prices, selling bull poop, and giving 99% off sale. Their love-hate relationship with Black Friday made them memorable among customers that they now anticipate what CAH has in store every Black Friday.

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Maximize visibility

Your branding is nothing if it is not visible. Once you’ve created a logo, name, and memorable startup story, it is time to spread these all over digital channels and perfectly integrate them into your marketing campaigns.

Take advantage of social media. Use the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to spread the word of your startup to a large number of people.

Create posts that are irresistibly shareable among people. Use visuals to reinforce your brand. Remember your target market, edge against competitors, and brand story. Base your posts from these and incorporate your logo and name.

Get help

Not everyone is an expert in marketing, what more in ways how to brand your startup. However, don’t let inexperience get to you. If you are struggling to accomplish your startup brand, it is time to get some help.

There are a lot of businesses that offer affordable branding services. If your startup does not have a talented graphic artist to stitch up your logo, then hire a visual artist. If you lack an exemplary content writer to create an outstanding brand story and copies for marketing, then hire a content writer. If you need a developer to build your website, what else should you do? Find a developer and utilize them to create your website.

As an early-age startup, you will need all the help you can get. You can’t have all this in-house and lose a lot of money. You can always hire them outside of your company to help you grow.

Speaking of getting help, one company is an expert in helping startups grow their business from the ground up. If you are in need of a team to help you in your startup branding, all you need is to get help from Full Scale.

Full Scale houses the most considerable talents when it comes to software and web development, project management, graphic design, and content writing. The two founders of the company are successful entrepreneurs themselves. On their journey to building and scaling their business, they saw and experienced the struggles that startup founders encounter as they make their company from the ground.

They saw the problem and built a solution, affordable services to help startups scale up. Are you ready to begin your startup branding? Talk to us, schedule an appointment now.