How to Build a Successful Brand From Scratch in 8 Steps

Building a successful brand is something that every new company needs to consider as they enter new markets. The right personality and branding decisions can build trust with your target audience, create a lasting reputation for your firm, and symbolize the value that customers can expect.

 

You may have questions like, how do you get started building a successful brand? What are the benchmarks for reaching your goals? With our decades of experience building brands from scratch, AVINTIV has created a list of 8 steps to help any new venture create a brand that resonates with its audience and provides the foundation for its long-term success.

What is a Brand?

Many people incorrectly assume that a brand is as simple as a logo, a typeface, and some color choices. However, nailing down precisely what a brand is is much more complex.

 

There are a lot of definitions for the term “brand,” but one of the simplest ways to think about a brand is how people perceive your company. These perceptions can come from factors like customer service, product quality, and reputation in your industry. Additionally, they can also come from factors you have no control over, like personal tastes and biases.

 

Our definition of a successful brand is one that can be authentically themselves while providing superior service and value to their customers – without cutting corners.

 

This definition of a successful brand does not focus on profits – just because a company is performing well does not mean it has a brand that consumers trust. However, suppose a company can offer incredible value to its customers and cultivate a reputation of trust and authenticity. In that case, this brand will naturally serve as the foundation for long-term success and profitability.

Step 1: Perform Market Research

Market research is like having a compass when lost in the wilderness. Just like a compass helps you find your way, market research helps businesses navigate the crowded marketplace and create a brand that resonates with their target audience. By getting to know your customers intimately and understanding their preferences and pain points, you can create a brand that speaks to their needs.

 

You also need to conduct market research to understand the major players in your industry, what the “rules of engagement” are, and what solutions currently exist for your ideal customer. Through this research, you can discover what makes your brand unique, differentiate your firm from competitors, and build a strong brand identity that customers will remember and trust.

 

Comprehensive market research provides the specific insights you need to make data-driven decisions and build a brand that stands out.

Step 2: Decide on a Brand Name

As the foundation of your brand identity, choosing a brand name takes a lot of thought and research. There is a reason that step #1 in our process is to perform comprehensive research. Until that step is done, it’s impossible to focus on choosing a brand name, logo, or personality, without knowing who your ideal customers are and what is currently in the market.

 

Some of the factors to consider when choosing a brand name are:

 

  • Memorable and Easy to Pronounce: If your name is long or has a complicated pronunciation, it will be harder for customers to remember.
  • Unique: If you choose a brand name only one or two letters off from an existing brand, especially one in your industry, it could confuse your customers and make your brand seem inauthentic.
  • Legally Available: The name of your brand has to be available for your use. Make sure to verify that there are no copyrights or trademarks currently in use that could lead to legal issues in the future.
  • Globally Conscious: If you are considering entering the global market, do the due diligence to have the name translated and localized for any languages you wish to do business in. This will ensure that the name is not insensitive, derogatory, or possesses otherwise negative connotations.
  • In-Line with your Personality: This will be explored further in the next step, but you want to ensure that your brand name matches your chosen personality. If your brand is playful and energetic, then you don’t want a name that sounds formal or rigid.

Step 3: Choose a Brand Personality

The days of rushing to slap together a logo to identify your business are gone. Today, there are so many options to infuse personality into your brand through animated logos, website functionality, content, copy, graphics, and visual art.

 

Before you explore how to infuse this personality, you need to decide what that personality should be. Should your brand be wise and trustworthy, like an older family member you turn to for advice? Or is your brand vibrant and innovative, always at the forefront of what’s new and cutting edge?

 

Like every step on this list, this decision should follow your market research. Some industries may have specific expectations that you need to consider. For example, a “casual and laidback” brand personality could be detrimental in the legal industry, where customers expect a level of professionalism. Otherwise, ask yourself: how can my brand personality help me connect to my ideal customer?

Step 4: Decide Who You Want to Be and Who You Don’t Want to Be

“Who you want to be” can be an extension of your brand personality combined with your mission and long-term goals. Is your goal to be the number one service provider in the United States? Or, is your goal to offer curated, unmatched, white-glove services in your local community? These goals will have very different impacts on how you position your brand.

 

One tip for deciding who you would like to be is to look at other brands within your industry and identify which aspects you would like to emulate in your brand. For example, are there others that exude the authenticity that you want for your brand? Are there others with sleek designs and personalities that you admire? How can you use this information to inform your own branding decisions?

 

Just as important as who you want to be, is who you don’t want to be. Answering this question can help you avoid making decisions that do not serve your mission and act as a guiding policy for further branding exercises.

Step 5: Decide on Products/Services 

It may seem counterintuitive to decide on products and services at this point in the branding process. Still, many entrepreneurs would agree that it is impossible to decide on a product or service without first knowing what needs you are solving for your ideal customer.

 

Surveys, trade shows, industry publications, focus groups, and historical sales data can help brands better understand what customers are looking for and what solutions need to be improved. Then, you can determine which products best fit your key competencies and what gaps your firm can most readily fill.

 

If you already have your products and services chosen, in step 5, you can work on refining those products and services based on your market research and the due diligence you’ve done up to this point.

Step 6: Create a Logo

Designing a unique logo is crucial for any brand as it visually represents its identity and values. When you think of brands that have built reputations for their respective reliability, service, and trustworthiness, some of the first that come to mind are the Nike “swoosh,” the Starbucks mermaid, and Audi’s four rings.

 

When designing your logo, it should be simple and easy to recognize. With simplicity in mind, a logo is more memorable and recognizable, even when viewed from a distance or a small size. A logo that looks great on a website may not translate well to a business card or a billboard, so the logo should also be scalable and adaptable to different formats and sizes.

 

Most importantly, your logo should match your brand’s values and personality. Like the logos above, yours should convey your mission and brand personality and give customers an idea of what they can expect.

Step 7: Create a Style Guide, Color Scheme, and Typography

A style guide for a brand is a unified document that provides guidelines on how a brand presents itself to the world, including how it presents itself across different mediums like websites, social media, and print materials.

 

Here are some key elements that are typically included in a style guide:

 

  • Brand Colors: The style guide should specify all the colors that represent the brand, including when and where you should use each when.
  • Typography: Typography guidelines specify the font families and sizes that should be used for headlines, subheadings, and body copy.
  • Logo Usage: The style guide should include guidelines on how the logo should be used, such as minimum size, clear space requirements, and approved color variations.
  • Imagery: The style guide may include guidelines on the types of imagery that should be used to represent the brand, such as photographs or illustrations.
  • Voice and Tone: Approved messaging and language, including tone and brand voice, are often included in the style guideline to ensure consistency across communications.

 

As you create your brand’s style guidelines, remember all the work done up to this point. From your answers regarding who you want to be, your brand personality, and your ideal customer, you can use all this information to choose the proper color palette and typography that represents your identity.

Step 8: Applying Your Brand Across Your Business

You have done all the work to research your brand and decide how you want it represented. Now, it’s time to implement your newly designed brand and share it with the world. After creating a detailed and thorough brand style guide, you will have all the assets you need to apply your brand across new print collateral, social channels, website, PR, and events.

 

When you launch your brand, ensuring that the brand looks consistent across all assets and all representatives is crucial. This consistency helps with brand recognition and helps ensure that the brand is always represented in the best light, regardless of which representative of the firm is distributing messaging. A successful launch plan will require buy-in from every department in your organization.

 

Part of applying your brand also includes a well-planned launch strategy. As you plan to bring your brand to the masses, you need to consider:

 

  • Develop a Content Strategy: Develop a plan for creating and distributing content that captivates your target audience and builds brand awareness. This can range from blogs to social content, webinars, whitepapers, and more.
  • Develop a Marketing Mix: Develop a marketing strategy that includes advertising, organic search, public relations, social media, and other tactics to reach your target audience where they are. Some of this information should be made clear based on your market research but may require some trial and error to fine-tune its success.
  • Outline Timing and Responsibilities: Develop a detailed plan of action for launching the brand, including timelines, budgets, and responsibilities.
  • Measure Your Success and Adjust as Needed: Outline the KPIs (key performance indicators) you will use to measure the success of your launch and make adjustments as needed to ensure that the brand resonates with the target audience.

The Journey is Just Beginning

Hooray! You’ve successfully read ‘How to Build a Successful Brand From Scratch in 8 Steps’! If you’re like many other entrepreneurs, you’re leaving excited and motivated, while also a bit fearful with lots of questions.

 

In this article, we gave a high level overview of the eight steps to build a successful brand from scratch. If you’re stuck with questions and/or realize that your level of genius is operations or building out the company and it’s not branding, feel free to reach out.

 

AVINTIV is one of the only agencies in the country with a trademark pending system and process for how it successfully builds and grows brands.

 

The AVINTIV WAY is a proprietary 5-step process that marries consulting, branding, and marketing to allow us to successfully build/rebuild, launch, and grow any type of brand in any type of industry, no matter the size. 

 

With over 12+ years of experience building and growing 400+ brands to date, we’re able to see businesses and industries like the matrix. To us, we see blueprints and a series of steps that need to happen in order for ample amounts of success to be reached.

 

The AVINTIV WAY is broken up into 5 steps: Brand Workshop, Brand Naming, Brand Identity, Branding Collateral, and Website. Once the AVINTIV WAY is complete, we have an entire growth division of our company that can help any client become an industry leader going head to head against the competition, no matter the size.

 

If you’d like to build a successful brand, reach out and we’d be happy to chat.

The Ultimate Guide to Building a Strong Brand Identity

A solid brand identity is essential for long-term success in today’s competitive business landscape. A unique brand identity helps differentiate you from competitors, builds customer loyalty, and ensures a lasting impression. 

 

This detailed guide will take you through the essential steps for building a strong brand identity that engages your target audience and sets up your business for success.

Define Your Brand Strategy 

Before exploring your brand’s visual elements, it’s crucial to define your brand strategy. Start by clearly articulating your mission, values, and unique selling proposition. Understand your target audience and determine what sets your business apart from competitors. This foundation will act as a guiding principle throughout the brand identity development process.

Develop a Distinctive Brand Personality

Each successful brand has a distinct personality that reflects its values and resonates with its customers. Think about the emotions and traits you want your brand to convey. Is your brand playful and lighthearted, or sophisticated and professional? Craft a brand personality that matches the preferences and aspirations of your target audience.

Create a Memorable Brand Name and Logo 

Choosing the right brand name and designing an impactful logo is critical to brand identity. Your brand name should be easy to remember, pronounce, and spell. It should also convey the essence of your brand. Similarly, your logo should be visually appealing, distinctive, and reflect your brand’s personality. Contact one of our award-winning designers to ensure a polished and cohesive visual representation.

Craft a Consistent Visual Identity 

Maintaining consistency is crucial for establishing a solid brand identity. To make your brand stand out, develop a visual identity system with a color palette, typography, and visual elements such as icons or patterns. These elements should be consistently used across all brand touchpoints, including your website, social media profiles, packaging, and marketing materials. This consistency helps build recognition and strengthens your brand’s presence with your audience.

Define Brand Voice and Messaging

Your brand’s voice and messaging are crucial in shaping perceptions and connecting with your audience. Determine the tone of voice that aligns with your brand personality and resonates with your target customers. Develop clear brand messaging guidelines, including key phrases, taglines, and storytelling techniques. Ensure that your messaging is consistent across all communication channels.

Build Brand Awareness Through Content Marketing

Content marketing is an effective tool for enhancing brand visibility and positioning your brand as an industry leader. Develop valuable, high-quality content for your audience, including blog posts, videos, infographics, and social media updates. Consistently share this content across relevant channels to increase brand visibility and engage with your target customers.

Foster Brand Advocacy and Engagement

Building a solid brand identity goes beyond visuals and messaging. It involves cultivating meaningful relationships with your customers. To cultivate brand loyalty, actively seek customer feedback, promptly respond to questions, and offer exceptional service. By exceeding customer expectations, you can encourage them to share their positive experiences with others. Harness the power of social media and online communities to build and maintain a dedicated customer base.

Building a Strong Brand Identity the Award-Winning Way

Building a solid brand identity is a multifaceted process that demands careful planning and consistent execution. Following this guide, you can craft a brand that connects with your audience, differentiates you from competitors, and fosters long-term customer loyalty. 

 

Investing the time and effort into building a solid brand identity will set your business up for success in the dynamic marketplace. We are here to help and guide you through, contact our award-winning design team to ensure you’re set up for success. 

Crafting an Industry Dominating SEO Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide

In the fast-paced realm of digital marketing, crafting a powerful industry-dominating SEO strategy is crucial for propelling your brand to the top of search results. SEO enables businesses to rise above the noise, attract qualified traffic, and dominate their industry. As the online landscape evolves rapidly, companies must remain at the forefront of industry trends by implementing robust SEO strategies that adapt to changing algorithms and consumer behaviors.

At the cornerstone of digital marketing, you’ll find Search Engine Optimization (SEO), ensuring that your website gains prominence in search engine results and attracts organic traffic. By optimizing your website’s content, structure, and performance, you can enhance its visibility and relevance, making it easy for potential customers to find you online.

In this step-by-step guide, we will dive into the knowledge and techniques needed to formulate and implement a strategic SEO plan that boosts your online visibility and cements your brand as a leader in your industry, leaving your competitors behind.

Step 1: Define Your Objectives

Crafting an industry-dominating SEO strategy begins with a clear definition of your objectives. Your objectives act as the guiding star, directing every aspect of your SEO endeavors toward achieving tangible outcomes that resonate with your broader business aspirations.

By articulating clear objectives, you provide a concrete framework for your SEO strategy, ensuring that every tactic and initiative is purposeful and aligned with your brand’s overarching goals. This clarity empowers you to prioritize and allocate resources effectively, maximizing the impact of your SEO endeavors.

Whether you aim to boost website traffic, improve conversion rates, or enhance brand visibility, defining your objectives sets the stage for a dynamic and results-driven SEO campaign that propels your brand toward success.

Step 2: Conduct Keyword Research

Keywords are the foundation of SEO, bridging your website with potential customers searching for products or services like yours. Conducting comprehensive keyword research is crucial for pinpointing the precise terms and phrases utilized by your target audience during online searches. By gaining insights into their language and terminology, you can optimize your website’s content to align seamlessly with their search intent.

It’s crucial to explore both long-tail keywords and niche-specific queries. Although these longer, more specific phrases may have a lower search volume, they often indicate higher intent and conversion potential. By targeting a blend of broad and long-tail keywords, you can capture a more comprehensive range of search queries and attract highly qualified traffic to your website.

In the dynamic digital landscape, it is vital to adapt your keyword strategy to reflect shifts in consumer behaviors, industry trends, and search engine algorithms. Stay proactive and dynamic in your approach to keyword research to ensure your SEO strategy remains effective and competitive.

Step 3: Audit Your Website

Conducting a thorough website audit is critical in crafting an industry-dominating SEO strategy. This process involves evaluating every nook and cranny of your website to recognize strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. 

Start by examining your website’s technical aspects, such as site speed, mobile responsiveness, and crawlability. Ensure your site loads quickly and functions smoothly across all devices, as user experience plays a significant role in SEO. Attend to any technical issues that could be negatively impacting your site’s performance, as these can harm your search visibility.

Next, evaluate the quality and relevance of your website’s content. Assess the comprehensiveness and optimization of your content, ensuring it is both informative and engaging while incorporating relevant keywords. Identify any content gaps and devise a strategy to fill them with compelling, audience-centric content. 

A comprehensive website audit is the foundation for refining your site’s SEO performance and driving organic traffic.

Step 4: Optimize On-Page Elements

Optimizing on-page elements is essential for boosting your website’s presence and relevance in search engine results. Imagine each webpage as a canvas awaiting the precise brushstrokes of optimization. By strategically refining meta tags, including captivating titles and engaging meta descriptions infused with relevant keywords, you create enticing previews that entice users to delve deeper into your content.

Optimize other on-page elements, such as heading tags, image alt attributes, and internal linking structures. Ensure each element reinforces your target keywords and contributes to a seamless user experience. By organizing your content clearly and hierarchically, you improve readability and signal to search engines your website’s relevance and structure.

Remember, every element on your webpage is an opportunity to enhance your SEO performance solidify your brand as a reputable authority in your niche.

Step 5: Create High-Quality Content

Top-notch content lies at the heart of every successful SEO strategy. In today’s digital landscape, having high-quality content isn’t just important— it’s the driving force behind user engagement, brand authority, and search engine rankings.

Whether it’s informative blog posts, engaging videos, or interactive infographics, creating content that resonates with your audience is paramount. Begin by comprehending the needs, preferences, and pain points of your target audience, then customize your content to effectively address them.

Focus on delivering valuable, insightful, and actionable content that educates, inspires, or entertains your audience. Aim to become a go-to resource in your industry by providing in-depth analysis, expert opinions, and practical solutions to common challenges. Integrate relevant keywords throughout your content to improve its visibility in search engine results.

Step 6: Build Quality Backlinks

Developing high-quality backlinks is a crucial component of your off-page SEO in creating a dominant SEO strategy within your industry. Backlinks, also called inbound links, are hyperlinks from external websites that point to your site. 

To build backlinks effectively, create high-quality, engaging content that naturally attracts attention and earns links from other websites. The more quality backlinks your site has, the more trustworthy and relevant it appears to search engines, boosting its visibility and organic traffic.

Quality backlinks must be considered in establishing your digital dominance within your industry. Each backlink represents a validation of your content by authoritative sources, reinforcing your position as a thought leader. As search engines like Google prefer websites with a strong backlink profile, cultivating these digital endorsements becomes essential for positioning your site at the forefront and outshining competitors.

Imagine you run a cutting-edge tech blog seeking to redefine industry discourse. By securing backlinks from renowned tech forums, influential bloggers, and leading publications, you enhance your website’s visibility and establish its authority in the tech domain.

Step 7: Optimize for Local SEO

Optimizing for local SEO is essential for businesses aiming to enhance their visibility in location-based searches, a crucial strategy for targeting specific geographic markets effectively. This approach is particularly vital for brick-and-mortar stores, service-based businesses, and regional enterprises looking to attract local customers.

To kickstart your local SEO efforts, prioritize claiming and optimizing your Google My Business profile. It’s vital to ensure that all information, from your business name to your phone number and address, remains accurate and consistent across all online platforms. 

Additionally, focus on building citations, which refer to mentions of your business name, address, and phone number on various websites. Consistency and citation accuracy across reputable sources can significantly bolster your local SEO rankings.

By implementing these techniques, businesses can elevate their visibility in local searches and attract a steady stream of nearby customers.

Step 8: Track Your Performance

Tracking your performance is pivotal to refining and optimizing your SEO strategy for maximum impact and effectiveness. By regularly monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs), you gain valuable insights into your SEO efforts’ success and identify areas for improvement.

Tracking your performance provides invaluable insights into your SEO endeavors’ effectiveness. From the number of website visitors to conversion rates and keyword rankings, monitoring key metrics empowers you to assess the impact of your strategies and make informed decisions to drive continuous improvement.

To track your SEO performance effectively, leverage a combination of cutting-edge tools and analytics platforms tailored to your specific needs. Platforms like Google Analytics offer a treasure trove of data on user behavior and website traffic. At the same time, specialized SEO tools such as SEMrush provide in-depth insights into keyword performance and competitor analysis.

Incorporating a comprehensive tracking system into your SEO strategy helps quantify achievements. It provides the flexibility to adapt and innovate in a rapidly evolving digital environment, ensuring your brand maintains its position as an industry leader.

Step 9: Monitor and Adapt

Monitoring and adapting your SEO strategy goes beyond simply tracking performance metrics. It involves actively assessing the effectiveness of your tactics, staying informed about industry trends, and remaining flexible in response to changing algorithms and consumer behaviors. Constant monitoring allows you to stay ahead of the curve, identifying emerging trends and shifts in user behavior that may impact your SEO efforts.

By staying informed and proactive, you can capitalize on new opportunities and mitigate potential challenges before they affect your rankings and visibility. As search engine algorithms evolve and consumer preferences shift, it’s essential to adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.

This may involve refining keyword targeting, optimizing content for new trends, or revising your website’s technical aspects to align with best practices. Embracing flexibility and agility ensures that your SEO strategy remains effective and resilient in the face of change.

Conclusion

In the dynamic world of digital marketing, mastering SEO is the key to propelling your brand to the forefront of industry competition. SEO enables businesses to rise above the noise, attract qualified traffic, and dominate their industry. 

As the online landscape evolves rapidly, businesses must stay ahead by implementing robust SEO strategies that adapt to changing algorithms and consumer behaviors.

At AVINTIV, we understand SEO‘s critical role in driving online success for businesses of all sizes. Combining decades of experience in search engine optimization and content creation, we are dedicated to assisting our clients navigate the digital landscape’s complexities and achieve their marketing objectives.

If you are ready to elevate your business to new heights and exceed your goals, our team of strategists is here to help. Reach out to us today, and let’s collaborate to drive innovation, growth, and success for your brand in the fast-paced and ever-evolving world of digital marketing.

After all, brands choose to partner with AVINTIV when they want to do one thing: GROW!