Getting Better at Brand Marketing: Three Key Aspects for Success

Anyone who is looking to start a brand or revitalize one should have marketing as one of their top priorities. No matter how great the product or service you’re selling is, without close attention to the way in which you try to sell it, you’ll very likely be missing huge sales opportunities. 

These days, there are a ton of different ways to market and just as many platforms to do it on. Given so, it’s understandable to be a bit overwhelmed by it all at times. 

In the beginning, it’s crucial to start with the core pillars that are universal to virtually anything you’re trying to sell. In this article, you’ll learn about three of them.

Knowing Your Target Audience Inside Out

Above all else, you must know what makes your audience tick – though this is easier said than done, of course. Any great marketing campaign seeks to sell to the individual: to make the product or service resonate with each person on a personal level. 

It’s important first to start building out customer profiles and demographics to identify the type of person you’re selling to, outlining what sort of personalities they have, what their values might be, their age, and so on (it may be that there are multiple types, but one or two usually stick out).

From here, you can start to map out their theoretical decision-making process. If you’ve plainly identified that this group need what you’re selling, why should they buy your product or service over the competitors? These sorts of questions, and the answers you generate, will get the ball rolling. 

Developing a Brand Narrative

Brand narrative is a commonly misunderstood part of marketing, and it’s difficult to get right. 

The reality is that people aren’t only buying your product or service, they’re buying into an idea and story you create around it. Developing a strong brand narrative involves reaching in to discover your potential customer’s values, dreams, and desires, and it’s here where you really start to hone the marketing into something viable. 

With the successful implementation of brand narrative, colors, themes, music, slogans, and more each combine to build an idea that speaks directly to your target audience and where they’re at in their lives. Authenticity is also very important here: testimonials, reviews, and proof of others benefiting from the product (as well as other pieces of information like scientific data if it’s relevant) work to establish trustworthiness.

The Role of Category Entry Points (CEPs)

Category Entry Points are often overlooked, but they represent a critically important part of brand marketing. 

They mark the mental triggers that cause a potential customer to think of the product and why they might want it. CEPs encompass a broad spectrum of different elements, but essentially, it’s the point at which the gears start turning in someone’s mind, and you have an opportunity to make a sale. 

Here are a few things to think about when considering CEPs:

Identifying the Relevant CEPs

CEPs are different for every industry, but they all comprise both practical needs and emotional triggers. For example, key CEPs for a sports drink would be health, taste, convenience, and brand recognition. 

Strategies for Your CEPs

Having identified your CEPs, it’s now your job to center your marketing around them. This is with the purpose of strongly linking your potential customer’s desires with your brand. 

Of course, there are many different ways to go about this: you should be utilizing social media, blogs, SEO, and as many possible outlets as possible. Leveraging the benefits of social media is particularly important in this day and age, so mastering the art of short-form video content for apps like Instagram and TikTok, and high-quality infographics for Facebook, will do a great deal for getting your brand into the minds of the public.

Memorability

One of the most crucial aspects is memorability: once a customer identifies a need, you want to ensure that through the use of your messaging, logo, slogan, and other brand elements they think of you before anyone else!

Wrapping Up

Brand marketing is hard work, make no mistake about it. You’ve got essentially be a hobbyist psychologist to effectively get into the mindset of your customers and put yourself in their shoes; you’ve also got to wear many hats, pulling many different elements together – from aesthetics to core message, and everything in between – to form a killer product or service.

Plan things out methodically, though, and take things one at a time, and your hard work will pay dividends!