Branding your business is like putting your signature on it. Unless you properly brand and market that brand, you’ll have a hard time winning over loyal customers. While it does involve a lot of work initially, you’ll find that the benefits outweigh any of the potential problems. Here are five ways to stand above the competition.

Design a Great Logo

The first and most basic step to branding is getting a logo. Most of the top companies are known by nothing more than their logo. Unless you are proficient with graphic design, you should hire a designer to make one for you. Place that logo on everything. Promotional marketing is incredibly effective because it allows you to easily spread your branding. Think of ways to help your customers recognize your logo, like getting custom plastic bags with your logo and tagline.

Develop a Tagline

Speaking of tagline, this is another step to effectively branding your company. This should be a short and memorable message that symbolizes your brand. Some great taglines are: “Just do it,” “The World Runs on Dunkin” and “Got Milk?” An effective tagline is short and memorable, and it conveys who you are. Another great example is “RedBull gives you wings”. Customers can quickly associate the tagline with the product and what it does for them.

Create a Voice

How does your company sound? It is soft and friendly, or elite and ritzy? Your voice will largely depend on your main demographic. If you’re targeting middle-class people, then a friendly and inclusive tone is typically the best. If you’re targeting upper-class professionals, then you’ll want to be formal and very dependable. Use your company’s voice when answering phones, writing marketing materials and whenever your employees speak with customers.

Packaging and Dressing

This applies to both employees and products. Use a consistent color scheme, logo placement and overall design with your products, employee uniforms and anything else that is connected to your company. You might change the overall packaging design with each new package, but you should still include the same colors, logo placement and other essential elements so that people know you developed it. A good branding will not attempt to copy another brand, like the Microsoft stores imitated Apple. Instead it will highlight unique values of the products, and fit the culture of the customers.

Consistency

The best way to effectively brand your business is consistency. Don’t change your logo every week, and don’t use different taglines for your offline and online operations. Keep everything consistent so that people have a chance to become acquainted with your brand.

You should update some aspects of your branding every now and then, like the logo and tagline, but remember that the mere fact that your logo is old does not necessitate change. Even iconic brands like Coca-Cola and Apple have updated their logos over time, but this should be a strategic process, and not a routine action. In fact, the change in a logo or tagline is a great way to bring attention to your brand. The whole process should be a well publicized event so that people know that you are changing.

Conclusion

Branding your business is one of the best ways to improve customer loyalty and overall sales because people will better remember your company and what it offers. Recognition will lead to better sales if you can maintain a high level of quality.