Do you need a bandage or a Band-Aid for a scraped knee? Companies such as Coca-Cola and Band-Aid that are successful have a common element: an effective strategy for branding. The names of their companies have become common terms applied to all comparable products in their area of specialization.
Every business that seeks prosperity must have a good brand positioning approach; and the figures back it up. Brands that present themselves in a consistent manner usually experience a 10-20% rise in revenue. Successful branding produces several perks, including enhancing customer dedication, constructing a better reputation, and developing an identifiable identity that makes you stand out from other companies.
In this post, you’ll be shown the structure for successfully placing a company within your desired target audience. Below are the main points we’ll be discussing — but rest assured, we’ll get into much greater detail so you gain a thorough comprehension of how to promote your brand.
What is Brand Positioning?
Placing your brand in the thought process of your clients is the action of brand positioning. Brand positioning is a plan used to make your business stand out from the competition, alleviating the necessity of a tagline or logo.
Successful branding comes about when the customer sees the brand as beneficial, worthwhile, and credible. The combination of those three elements becomes distinct to your business, and thus your patrons create a place for you in their memories.
It is crucial to be distinctive from competitors in order to succeed in the market. According to Will Barron at Salesman.org, you won’t be able to position your brand until you create something extraordinary. Anything else and it’s just comparison.”
Importance of Social Media Positioning for Your Brand
Big brands spend heavily on building their brand identity. Consider McDonald’s and you will specially recognize the yellow capital ‘M’ and the slogan ‘I’m lovin’ it.’ This is a result of the marketing department’s hard work to form such ties with the company.
Some brands were unable to form this kind of relationship for an extended period of time. Brand positioning is not a one-time effort. It is an ongoing process. Statistics indicate that businesses which invest in their positioning typically experience an increase in sales of between 10-20%.
If you are the proprietor of a company, it is essential that you have an approach for determining how your brand is portrayed on social media. Before taking the next step, here are some things that need to be taken into account.
- Build trust: As salt is to food, so is trusting for your brand positioning. It would be best if you projected how your brand is unique from others, what best you are giving to your customers and why people should buy from you. Trust helps you in building a solid social media positioning for your brand.
- Grow business: People have certain expectations for every product, and when your brand clearly understands them and projects the brand as giving them what they are actually looking for in your products. How well you position your brand converts your prospects into repetitive clients.
- Evoke the correct emotions: Every brand has goals and marketing tactics. You can decide what emotions you want to evoke to sell your product or service. It can be fear, joy, or anything that makes the prospect feel needy about buying it.
How to Create a Brand Positioning Strategy
1. Determine your current brand positioning.
Are you advertising your product or service as just one more thing to buy, or are you promoting it as a unique item? The brand positioning you have now provides you with useful knowledge about where to move ahead. In order to gain a clear perspective on your rivals, it is essential to comprehend your current status.
Begin by thinking about your intended end user and figuring out their identity. Work out what your mission, core values, and unique qualities are that set you apart from other competitors. Evaluate your advantages and benefits, as well as your current brand character and language.
Matylda Chmielewska from the LiveChat Partner Program has remarked that we generally enjoy interacting with companies that seem genuine. Rather than using language that is too complicated for people to grasp, just communicate with words that everyone can understand. Begin by investigating the demographics of your target audience (both ideal and current) and speak to them using the language they use.
2. Create a brand essence chart.
Once you’ve established the position of your brand in the market, it is now time to figure out the specifics of what your brand means to customers. A brand essence diagram can be beneficial in order to group ideas so that they are expressed succinctly. This chart can be utilized for both copywriting and design motivation.
The brand essence chart is made up of seven components:
Attributes: Think of these as features. It could be simpler to think up ideas for a physical item compared to a software-as-a-service or a tech product.
What advantages do customers receive from the characteristics of your product or service?
Personality: These adjectives describe characteristics of your brand. Do not hesitate to utilize a thesaurus for this portion. It is important for your brand to have a unique personality that sets it apart from competitors.
What is the basis for your brand’s authority and backing? It could be a tradition of proficiency in the field, awards and acknowledgments by regulatory organizations related to your area, scientific investigations, or even positive customer service in the form of ratings and declarations.
What does your brand tell us about the person you wish to target? What kind of person do your brand’s elements reflect? Draw upon ideas from the character traits part to fill in the blanks in this segment.
What are some expressions your ideal clients might use to portray the emotions they experience when engaging with your business? This part of the brand personality graph will assist you in locating a specialized approach for your brand communication.
Develop a concise expression that outlines what the consumer should recall when they think of your brand.
3. Identify your competitors.
Examining your rivals is essential to do after assessing yourself; this is known as a competitive analysis. Why? It is necessary to identify your rivals in order to carry out competitor research. The research you conduct will give you key information to help you improve your approach and gain an advantage.
There are different methods for determining your competition, including:
- Conducting market research: Ask your sales team what competitors come up during the sales process, or do a quick search using a market keyword and see which companies are listed.
- Use customer feedback: Ask your customers which businesses or products they were considering before choosing yours.
- Use social media: Quora offers a platform where consumers can ask questions about products and services. Search these forums to discover competitors in your niche.
4. Conduct competitor research.
After you have figured out who your rivals are, it is time to do a thorough investigation into them. You must evaluate the way your rivals are showcasing their brand in order to remain competitive. At its simplest, your research should include:
- What products or services your competitors offer
- What their strengths and weaknesses are
- What marketing strategies they’re using successfully
- What their position is in the current market
5. Identify your unique value proposition.
Creating a distinct identity is all about determining what differentiates you and what performs best for your company. Chmielewska advises to begin by figuring out the true definition of “effective” for your brand, and afterwards create its impressions based on that.
After you look into your competitors, it is likely that you will begin to notice similarities. Certain firms may demonstrate similar assets and flaws. When you look at your product or service in comparison to theirs, you might find that one of their weaknesses is your area of expertise.
This is what sets your brand apart from others – it’s the perfect starting place for positioning your brand within the marketplace. Pay attention to what makes you special as you analyze and make sure to determine what you do better than anyone else.
6. Build a brand positioning framework.
Figuring out how to place a brand can be a difficult task at first — because there are so many channels and platforms to consider, it can be tricky to decide on the main message to communicate. This framework can be useful in developing your brand positioning strategy.
This strategy follows an approach from the general concept to the specifics, beginning with a large idea and finishing with practical details like social media captions, blog article titles and advertising messages. Check out the articles below for step-by-step instructions for each section of this brand positioning framework:
7. Remain aligned with the current market trends and influencers.
It is absolutely essential to stay up-to-date with the most current fashions in order to create an influential social media presence. Adding hashtags that are currently popular will likely increase engagement. When you employ prominent micro-influencers on social media, your business will become more widely-known and create a strong reputation.
8. Build brand community.
A well-built community of a brand reflects customers’ loyalty. When individuals come across a situation where they are surrounded by people who think similarly, they will rapidly develop friendships and start exchanging useful information. The online presence of the brand is seen as having a positive impact on social media.
Through communities, you can learn more about your customers. Figuring out what your clients want will aid you in making useful material and drawing in more prospective customers.
9. Choose a practical pricing module.
Comparing the cost of your products to those of your rivals can be a great way to create appeal and establish your brand’s identity on social media. Let us discuss the two major companies in the soda industry- Pepsi and Coca-Cola. They both adopted pricing strategies to beat each other.
Coca-Cola has outlined its pricing approach to demonstrate the worth it brings to its customers in numerous scenarios. The communication conveys the idea that Coca-Cola has maintained an image of affordability, despite being distinct from other players in the market in terms of pricing.
Pepsi has a slight advantage in its pricing methodology with its slogan ‘Hybrid Everyday Value.’ This indicates that they offer several sizes and cans; one can purchase them at any time without expecting reduced prices.
Be smart in choosing your pricing approach to distinguish yourself from other companies and construct a powerful presence on social media platforms.
10. Evaluate whether your positioning statement works.
It is important to devote effort to establish your business in a way that will draw in the desired demographic, but that is only the initial step. Once you have formulated your positioning statement, you must attempt it, explore it, and request input from customers as to if your positioning fulfills its purpose.
Per Ryan Robinson of Close.io, dedicating energy and resources to formulating your brand to engage with a certain sector, consumer, or demographic is only part of the conflict.
It is essential to analyze, try out, and get direct responses from your intended audiences about whether your positioning is producing the outcome you wanted.
“We’ve doubled down on our positioning by consistently asking for (and listening to) feedback from new customers when they join, and it’s clear that both our content and its delivery style remain a key asset for our brand.”
11. Establish an emotional connection with prospects and customers.
Establishing a strong relationship with those you are seeking to sell to prior to making an aggressive attempt to sell boosts faith, which helps your potential customer have an agreeable encounter with your firm’s identity. At the start of the sales process, representatives should spend a good amount of time becoming familiar with their prospective customers and the issue they are hoping to tackle with your product.
12. Stick to your brand values even in difficult times.
Your brand has a specific target audience. The ways you stay up to date with the latest news and events on various websites helps make your business stand out in a competitive social media landscape.
Your reputation as being one-of-a-kind is damaged when you say things that go against your beliefs or join in on fashionable topics that don’t have anything to do with your brand. For instance, if you are an established company that is known for supplying fresh ideas, it is not suitable to mention violence, even though it is being widely reported.
In order to establish your brand as reliable and trustworthy, it is essential to continue following your core values and fulfill the promises made to your target audience. The actions you take, not the core values outlined in your branding statement, dictate your place in the social media landscape.
13. Keep reviewing and updating social media positioning.
According to marketers, brand positioning remains the same. This is applicable only to company logos, colors, and style of communication. If businesses want to be successful with their social media marketing efforts, they need to be aware of current trends and pay attention to shifts in their target audience.
By examining your brand perceptions and current conditions frequently, you can stay up to date with a revised brand positioning structure. The aim is to modify your brand’s image to stay in line with changing customer desires.
How to measure ROI for social media positioning activities?
Digital marketing agencies who are responsible for numerous accounts must determine and give the return on investment report to their customers. Here are some easy ways to do it.
- Calculate ROI on your social media spending
The costs of massive social media post scheduling incorporate designing graphics, creating videos, carrying out advertisements, and collaborating with influencers. By dividing the total costs taken out of the increase in sales by the amount of money spent on marketing, the business should be able to calculate an expected return on investment.
- Monitor brand sentiments across multiple platforms
ROI will give results in terms of money. It is critical to evaluate brand involvement using either favorable or unfavorable feelings. Implementing brand tracking on social media will help determine the potency of your social media strategy.
Conclusion
Continuing to focus on social media is necessary if you wish to create a unique identity that stands out from other companies. The most beneficial approach to strengthen your brand’s standing is to devise a marketing plan that facilitates the succeeding positioning of your brand. Regularly posting on appropriate websites will better attract attention and generate more visits.
