Think about companies with strong brand identities, and it won’t be long before a few pop into your mind. You might not know exactly what the phrase “brand identity” means or what it takes to build one, but you know what those companies are about and how they make you feel.
Airbnb gives you the feel of exploration. Dropbox and Evernote make you feel organized and on top of the world. The Walt Disney Co. makes you feel nostalgic and creative.
Brand identity is the essence of a business. It tells the world what makes that company unique, what it values, what it produces, and what it strives to make customers feel.
Building and maintaining a brand identity is no easy task, but it’s at the core of every business. Whether you’re part of a 100-person marketing team at a large corporation or a one-man band trying to get your business off the ground, a well-crafted brand identity will help a business stand out from the noise.
One key element of a brand identity is the value proposition. This proposition tells customers what you have to offer, what problems you can solve, and why they should choose you over the competition.
Your value proposition should be at the center of everything you do, including the content you produce. But what makes a good value proposition, and how do you communicate it effectively once you have one? Let’s start from the beginning and explore how you can use content marketing to establish your value proposition and build your brand.
To put it simply, a value proposition tells customers why they should do business with you instead of someone else. It goes beyond a tagline or slogan and tells customers what problems they can solve by joining your team.
No matter how complicated your product or service is, a value proposition needs to be simple and concise. You can get all kinds of complicated once you form a relationship with the customer.
Some companies have multiple propositions if they target more than one audience. Uber, for example, markets to both passengers and drivers. They need different messaging, so each group knows what it’s getting out of doing business with Uber. Good thing too, otherwise, it would be a very confusing ride for everyone.
When people read your value proposition, they should say, “Oh, I get it, they do _____.” That person should have all the information they need at that moment to decide if they want to move forward with your business.
So, how exactly does a business condense their entire operation into a few captivating sentences to attract customers?
1. Know who you’re talking to
You can’t speak effectively to an audience if you don’t know who they are. If you think your business caters to young females under the age of 30, but it’s really catching the attention of males over the age of 50, you have a problem.
Use surveys, reviews, CRMs, social media, email marketing, etc. to get to know your customer base. Do your best to understand who they are, why they do business with you, and why they aren’t doing business with your competitors.
Knowing what problems customers face and what value you provide to them will help you craft the perfect value proposition.
2. Know what makes you a unicorn
Customers encounter hundreds of brands every day, most of which they forget immediately. Your value proposition needs to paint you as the unicorn you are, telling customers why you are so unique.
This should be fairly simple for you to identify. You went into business because you believe your company offers something others cannot. What is that thing, and how can it help solve someone’s problem?
3. Know who else is on the block
Not that we doubt you, but you should survey your competition to make sure that you are indeed as unique as you think you are. Familiarize yourself with their products and services, their mission, and their customers.
You may be in the same industry, working to solve the same problem, but have very different solutions. That’s OK, there’s plenty of room for everyone! But knowing your unique identifier is a must before you go sharing it with the world.
4. Know what you care about and why
Your value proposition should tell customers what you care about as a company and what values you operate by every day. This will resonate with customers who want to support your purpose. People identify with brands that care about something and have a vision on how to accomplish that thing. Make sure people know what it is up front.
5. How to tell the world about it
As we said before, your value proposition should be at the core of everything you do. It’s the foundation of your brand identity. This includes the content you’re creating as part of your inbound marketing strategy.
Once you have your value proposition, use it to decide on your brand voice and personality. Are you a very fancy company that writes formally and uses simple graphics? Or are you a very relaxed company that writes in a laid-back tone and uses bold colors in their graphic elements?
These questions will mostly be answered by understanding your customers and target audience. Your brand identity should be shaped partially by their interests and needs and partly by what you value as a company.
Whatever brand personality you choose, keep it consistent across all of the content you produce. The language, graphics, sense of humor, and tone should be similar in videos, blogs, social media posts, website content, and emails.
Every interaction with a brand is a chance for someone to become a customer or for a customer to become an ambassador. When customers know what they’re getting every time they do business with a company, it builds trust. It increases the chance of that customer coming back again and spreading the word to others.
Doing business these days is about more than just a financial transaction. Customers demand a real connection with brands, something that tells them they are being heard.
Establishing your brand identity allows you to explore content that connects with customers on an emotional level. You know who you are as a company, and you can help solve people’s problems in creative ways.
A great way to do this is by telling customer stories and sharing testimonials. It’s one thing to watch an ad produced by the corporate office, but it’s a completely different thing to watch an ad about a customer whose life was changed by choosing this brand. That creates a much more powerful connection with people by leaving them with a lasting memory.
Your value proposition is just a small window into your larger brand identity. It’s the elevator pitch that gets people in the door to experience the solutions and the content you have to offer. A well-crafted value proposition is the building block for a well-built brand that takes care of customers and fosters loyalty for the long haul.
If you could use some guidance on how to create content that reflects your value proposition and brand identity, put some bacon on it! ContentBacon can help you build a brand with tasty content that is designed with your customers in mind. Contact us today to get started.