Brand building is a big deal. Forbes' "Why Brand Building Is Important" puts it this way: "Brands do better in tough times compared to unbranded products. Brands outlive product cycles ... No branding, no differentiation. No differentiation, no long-term profitability. People don't have relationships with products, they are loyal to brands."
Understanding the importance of brand building, however, does not necessarily help you to get the job done. Effective brand building involves using a variety of marketing tools and strategies. It is by no means a one-step process.
The Basics of Brand Building
There are some essential foundational steps a company must take to begin building a strong brand. Entrepreneur 's "6 Tips on How to Build Your Startup's Brand from Scratch" identifies some of them as:
- Identifying your target market.
- Familiarizing yourself with the brands of your competitors.
- Identifying the things which differentiate you from your competitors.
- Giving your brand "personality."
While these steps help you determine what your brand will be, they do not fully address how to convey your brand message and make it instantly recognizable to your target audience. This is where the appropriate use of content marketing tools comes into play.
Using Content Marketing Tools to Grow Your Brand
As defined by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), content marketing is "a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience - and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action."
Quality content infuses every part of your inbound marketing strategy including: blog creation, social media marketing, SEO strategies, and even PPC. Done well, each piece of content should bolster your brand, educating your audience about your brand message at every turn.
Here, then, are some tools you can use to make your content stand out from the competition and keep your brand on the top of the heap:
Quora: You are familiar with this tool as the popular question and answer platform for a variety of topics. However, you may not have considered that it is an excellent tool for brand building online. Providing high-quality answers to questions in your chosen field helps to establish your brand's authority. It is also a great place to find out what types of questions and problems your target audience is having.
SlideShare: One of the challenges of content marketing is keeping your content fresh. SlideShare can help you re-purpose great content in a different format, sometimes appealing to a broader base than your original content.
NinjaOutreach: B2C's "25 Content Marketing Tools to Grow Your Brand" says of NinjaOutreach: "Finding the right influencers who want to share your content with their followers is a great way to both build an audience and become "known" in your niche as well. NinjaOutreach is the perfect tool to find and connect with other influencers easily."
HootSuite: HootSuite helps you manage your social media accounts more smoothly. With this tool, you can connect over two dozen social media accounts and distribute your brand message easily to all of them.
Google Analytics: No brand building strategy would be complete without a way to measure its success. Google analytics helps you see how your content is performing and where your efforts need a boost.
Using All Your Content Marketing Tools
How is your current content marketing strategy working? To get the most from the multitude of available content marketing tools, you can partner with an inbound marketing agency with strong expertise in using these tools. Request an assessment to see where you currently stand, and let us help you make the most of the marketing tools at your disposal today.
Written By: David Carpenter
