Why Your Business Hinges on Having a Solid Brand
When it comes to business, many people miss the forest for the trees. We’re repeatedly told how effective it is to email marketing campaigns, flood the net with content, and use PPC but what we’re not told nearly so often is just how important it is to have a strong brand and a real purpose for existing.
You’re not stupid. You know the difference between a spam site and a site that offers real value.
And you also know that the sites that offer real value are the ones that do the best on Google. Big sites like The Verge, IGN, Mashable, Buzzfeed, Forbes, and The New York Times… aren’t spam areas that flood the web with content and keywords. These are big brands that provide real value and that have absolute authority.
If you want to get to that point, you need to create a brand of your own that is similarly high quality and can gain your audience’s trust and Google.
Where Do Brands Start?
This begins by understanding where a brand begins. A brand is not a logo, and a brand is not a website. Your brand is your ‘mission statement’ and your ‘value proposition.’ A brand is a commitment to a certain standard and a reason for existing.
Your brand needs to be unique, and it needs to be exciting and cohesive. If you get this right, it will make all the difference in your marketing.
Think about something like The Art of Manliness. This website has an apparent reason to exist that is communicated very loudly and effectively throughout the entire site.
It’s not just there to make money; it’s there to preach a message and help modern men feel more manly and capable.
This then informs every more minor decision across the site. Everything from the logo to the content is selling the same dream, profoundly affecting visitors.
Know Your Audience
What effect is that? Simple: it immediately communicates to the visitor whether they want to be there or not.
If you search for ‘How to Raise Testosterone, ‘How to be More Alert,’ or ‘How to Smoke a Pipe’ and find The Art of Manliness, you instantly know what the site is about and what kind of content you can expect from it. That single difference then means that you will be considerably more likely to sign up if it’s something that you’re interested in.
Moreover, you’ll know there aren’t many sites like this one. It’s a rare and exciting topic for the right visitor to have an instant appeal.
The power of a strong brand goes well beyond that, though. It will help you be more recognizable across different social media platforms, make your visitors more loyal (they’ll feel like they’re joining a movement), and mean that potential partners take your brand more seriously.