;During brand development in Dubai, companies need to decide on specific strategies to communicate their core messages. And no, brand communication isn’t just a fancy term for a marketing strategy.
While it may have similarities with marketing, brand communication is something entirely different. It is more focused on not just speaking to the audience, but also listening to their responses.
In other words, it should:
- Help you understand your audience and position in the market to optimize marketing efforts and strategies.
- Support better product development through knowledge of your customer’s pain points.
- Guide you in choosing the most efficient marketing campaign and eliminate those that don’t work to reduce wasted resources.
Ready to create a brand communications strategy that works? Here are five tips our experts at Yellow Branding swear by:
1. Know your market.
Before you can start to write blogs and design service pages for your website, you must first know your target market. This is the distinct cluster of people that a brand intends to reach with your messages. It comprises individuals who are more likely to buy your product.
Instead of trying to catch everyone’s attention, having a target group to attract allows you to be more specific about your messaging. It also supports cost-efficient marketing by potentially reducing costs while increasing the chances of hitting the mark.
Below are several factors you can consider when defining your target market:
- Income/revenue
- Industry
- Location
- Educational level
- Age and gender
- Level of expertise
- Business size (for B2B)
You can use ranges to define your target market, such as:
- Beginner to intermediate (for expertise)
- 18 to 35 years old (for age)
- 50 to 100 employees (for business size)
2. Create a customer persona.
Sometimes, business owners think that defining a target market is enough. But if you truly want to develop an effective brand communication strategy, you need to be extra specific and define who exactly you’re talking to.
It’s time to create your customer persona.
A customer or buyer persona is a character that describes your target customer in greater detail beyond how they fit into your target market. It is a helpful tool that guides your brand personality and tone of voice in your marketing materials.
After all, what better way to figure out how to strike the right chord than to know who is listening?
You can consult some of your firm’s resources to determine who you’re catering to:
- Analyze your contacts database and check which channels customers and leads use to find your content.
- Use customer forms to gather important personal information.
- Ask your employees to describe the leads your firm interacts with most.
- Interview prospects to understand what they like about your offerings and the common challenges they face.
Using all these, you can create a brief persona description, like this: coffee-loving young millennials who like visuals and frequent social media.
You can even create an entire personal profile for your buyer persona, which can include:
- Name – fictitious but should sound like someone who would buy your product.
- Age – should be within your target market’s age range.
- Job description – a specific position in a company (e.g., CEO, supply officer, etc.).
- Financial situation – how much the individual can spend on your products or services, and includes a salary range, preferred mode of payment (e.g., cash or card), among others.
- Online behavior – preferred social media platforms and purposes for using the Internet (e.g., online shopping).
- Goals, hopes, and dreams – can be personal or professional.
- Worries and fears – pain points, both in the present and future.
- Brand affinities – helps determine the brand image they are drawn to (e.g. Starbucks).
3. Identify your unique selling proposition (USP).
Once you’ve created a clear persona for your buyers, it’s time to focus on your company’s unique selling proposition or USP.
A USP makes an offering better and more desirable than others in the market. It is the core solution or benefit that a product or service can provide customers that competitors don’t have.
It is what positions you as the best choice in the market.
You can design a USP whenever you offer a new product in the market, but it can also come in the form of lower prices for some of your best-sellers.
To develop your USP, answer the following questions:
- How can a product or service you offer solve customers’ challenges and pain points? How does it improve their situation?
- What are the benefits buyers can expect from your offering?
- Why should buyers choose your product over the competition? What makes you unique and better?
Of course, USPs don’t have to be too focused on your product or service. They can also be the following:
- Amazing customer service strategies and your proven track record of performance.
- A strong sense of corporate social responsibility reflected in your company’s projects.
- An eye for good talent and innovation.
- An inclusive company culture.
4. Develop and be consistent with your brand voice.
Once you’ve defined your buyer persona and USP, you can already make an informed decision about the brand personality you want to portray in front of your customers.
Are you a witty friend with fun solutions to their woes? Or are you that dependable older sibling who always has their back?
Once you have your brand personality (sometimes called “brand identity”), make sure it reflects across all consumer touchpoints. No matter what channel they are in, your target customers should be able to recognize your brand.
This will ensure that you connect with them on a deeper, more emotional level. More importantly, it is what fosters loyalty.
5. Choose the most appropriate channels for your messages.
You also need to choose the most appropriate channels for your brand communication. After all, what good is a well-crafted message if it doesn’t reach your intended recipients?
Since most businesses have gone digital, you have a wide range of viable choices. The key is to recognize the most valuable and high-paying channel for your brand.
Are you trying to reach youngsters who make shopping decisions based on what they see on social media? Or perhaps you’re a headhunting agency in search of the best talent?
For the former, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the prime channels, while the latter requires using a more professional environment like LinkedIn.
The key is to understand every aspect of your brand to craft the most effective communications strategy. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to seek out marketing and social media solutions in the UAE.
Make It Two-Way
Communication is a two-way street.
Because of this, effective brand communication must focus on understanding not only what your company can offer but also who your customers are and what they seek.
Use the tips listed here and send us a message if you need help in getting your customers to hear your message loud and clear.
Related Blogs
