8 Key Strategies to Build a Strong Brand and Stand Out

What makes a brand truly stand out?

In today’s fast-paced world, building a strong brand isn’t just about having a cool logo or catchy slogan — it’s about creating a lasting impression that connects with your audience on a deeper level.

Around 305 million startups are launched every year, and 90% of them fail. The ones that flourish are those that successfully connect with their target market on an emotional level.

That connection stems from a powerful brand identity — a combination of visual appeal, core values, and consistent messaging that resonates with your ideal customer and sets you apart.

In this guide, we’ll explore the essential strategies and tactics to build a brand that not only captures attention but cultivates lasting loyalty and brand awareness.

We’ll take you through the step-by-step process of building a strong brand — from defining your brand positioning and creating a consistent visual identity to crafting a compelling brand voice and building a strong online presence.

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear understanding of what makes a strong brand and how to build one that stands out, drives results, and truly represents your business.

Table Of Contents:

• What is a Brand and Why is it Important?
• Crafting a Brand Strategy
• 1. Define Your Brand
• 2. Establish a Strong Visual Identity
• 3. Craft a Compelling Brand Voice
• 4. Create Engaging Content
• 5. Build a Strong Online Presence
• 6. Leverage Social Media
• 7. Provide Stellar Customer Experiences
• 8. Measure and Optimize Your Brand
• FAQs: How to Build a Strong Brand
• Conclusion

What is a Brand and Why is it Important?

A brand is more than just a logo or a name; it’s the sum of all the experiences, perceptions, and interactions a customer has with your business. It’s the personality, values, and mission that set you apart from your competitors.

A strong brand is the foundation upon which a successful business is built, and it’s what drives customer loyalty, trust, and ultimately, revenue.

15 Benefits of Building a Strong Brand

With a strong brand, your business or organization can take advantage of:

1. Increased Recognition: As your business gains more recognition and awareness, customers are more inclined to remember you when they need your products or services.
2. Strong Differentiation: Building a strong brand sets your business apart from competitors, increasing the likelihood that customers will choose you over others.
3. Loyal Customer Base: A powerful brand fosters emotional connections with customers, leading to loyalty and repeat business.
4. Premium Pricing: With a reputable brand, you can command higher prices, as customers are often willing to pay more for products or services they trust.
5. Enhanced Trust: A well-established brand boosts customer trust, making them more likely to do business with you.
6. Improved Credibility: Strong branding enhances credibility with customers, partners, and investors, making it easier to attract new business and form partnerships.
7. Competitive Edge: A robust brand provides a sustainable competitive advantage, making it more difficult for competitors to match you.
8. More Website Traffic: A trusted and respected brand tends to drive more traffic to your website, as customers are more likely to search for and visit your site.
9. Higher Engagement: Customers are more likely to follow and interact with a brand they trust, leading to improved social media engagement.
10. Customer Advocacy: A strong brand can turn satisfied customers into advocates, who promote your business to others.
11. Better Employee Engagement: Employees often feel more proud to work for a company with a strong brand, which can lead to increased engagement.
12. Increased Business Value: A strong brand enhances the overall value of your business, making it more appealing to investors, partners, and potential buyers.
13. Improved Crisis Management: During a crisis, a trusted brand can help mitigate the impact, as customers are more forgiving toward a brand they respect.
14. Attractive Partnerships: A reputable brand attracts new partnerships and collaborations, as other businesses seek to associate with trustworthy brands.
15. Foundation for Long-Term Success: A strong brand lays the groundwork for long-term success, supporting sustainable growth and development.

Overall, building a strong brand is essential for any business or organization that wants to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.

Crafting a Brand Strategy

Your brand strategy serves as the blueprint for shaping how the public perceives your business. Without a defined brand strategy, it can be difficult to maintain brand consistency and create a lasting impression on your audience.

Think of this process as constructing a house. Before you can focus on paint colors and furniture (your brand’s visual identity), you need a strong foundation and well-defined structure.

How do you develop a successful strategy for building a strong brand?

1. Define Your Brand

First and foremost, let’s define your brand. This is the foundation of building a strong brand. It’s the process of identifying what makes your brand unique, what values you stand for, and what personality traits you want to convey to your target audience.

Identify Your Target Audience

Before launching any product or service, the crucial first step is to define your target audience. This aspect is important during the process of how to build a brand effectively.

Consider demographics such as age range, gender, location, and income level.

Delve deeper into their psychographics – understand their interests, values, pain points, aspirations, and the language they use.

What are their buying habits? Where do they spend their time online? This vital information guides every other branding decision you’ll make.

To gather intel on your audience, consider conducting surveys, running polls on social media, analyzing website analytics, and researching competitor demographics.

Creating a detailed buyer persona – a fictional representation of your ideal customer – will bring these insights to life, enabling you to tailor your messaging and brand personality for maximum impact.

Define Your Brand’s Personality and Tone

How would you describe your brand if it were a person? Would they be witty and irreverent, like Wendy’s on Twitter, or compassionate and informative, like Dove’s real beauty campaign?

Establishing a distinctive brand voice — the personality and tone you use in your communications — creates a more relatable and engaging brand identity. This ultimately increases customer loyalty.

A UK study revealed that 7 in 10 customers buy from brands they trust. A strong brand identity that is carried out across your website, content marketing, and social media posts breeds trust.

Outline Your Mission & Values

Customers today, particularly millennials and Gen Z, are drawn to brands that take a stand. A clearly defined mission statement detailing your company’s purpose and goals helps potential customers understand not only what you offer but why you offer it.

Complement this with a set of core values — guiding principles that shape your brand’s actions and culture.

These shouldn’t be just empty words on a page. Authentically weave them into your brand story and actions.

For example, Patagonia is renowned for its unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability. They donate 1% of sales to environmental organizations and advocate for responsible manufacturing practices. Their mission and values resonate powerfully with eco-conscious consumers, influencing purchasing decisions, and fostering deep brand loyalty.

Develop a Strong Value Proposition

What sets you apart in a sea of competitors? Why should customers choose your product or service over the countless alternatives?

This is where a compelling value proposition – a concise statement summarizing the unique benefits your brand offers — becomes crucial.

Go beyond listing features; emphasize the tangible ways you solve a specific problem or improve your target customer’s life.

For example, think about Domino’s Pizza’s initial promise of delivery in 30 minutes or less. They addressed a specific need (convenience) with a clear and memorable guarantee.

Similarly, if your company prioritizes eco-friendly products or sources its materials ethically, highlight that aspect of your production process to distinguish your brand and appeal to customers seeking environmentally conscious options.

Here at BrandWell, we have only one mission: to help you build lasting brand growth and bring real leads, not just clicks or empty traffic. That’s why we’ve built a powerful brand growth engine that automates your entire workflow so you can 25X your output without having to spend on additional resources.

No other tool out there offers a complete package like BrandWell where you get brand audits, keyword research, rank-worthy long-form content, topic clustering, automatic link building, generative AI assistance, content optimization, plagiarism checks, AI detection, website integration, and more — all your content marketing in one place, fully automated.

Now let’s start building your design assets.

2. Establish a Strong Visual Identity

Once you’ve defined your brand, it’s time to translate it into a captivating visual and verbal identity.

Think of this stage as bringing the blueprints to life. This is where your brand becomes tangible, relatable, and instantly recognizable to your target audience.

A consistent visual identity is crucial for building a strong brand. It helps to create recognition, trust, and professionalism, and it’s what sets you apart from your competitors.

Your brand’s visual identity acts as a powerful first impression. This goes beyond just having a good logo, although it’s a crucial aspect.

Consider incorporating some of these key visual elements into your brand style guide:

• Color Palette: Strategically selecting a color palette can evoke specific emotions and associations with your brand.
• Typography: Choosing the right fonts for your logo, website, and marketing materials can enhance brand recognition and convey your brand’s personality.
• Imagery & Graphics: Are you using professional photographs or illustrations? Does your brand utilize more abstract or geometric shapes?

All of these elements should tie into the brand image you want to build.

Design a Powerful Logo

Your logo is the face of your brand, and it’s often the first thing that customers notice. A well-designed logo can make a lasting impression and help to build brand recognition.

Here are some popular types of logos + examples:

Image Source: Looka

Keep these design principles in mind when creating your logo:

• Simple: A simple logo is easier to recognize and remember. Avoid clutter and keep your design clean.
• Scalable: Your brand logo should look good in various sizes and resolutions. Use vector graphics to ensure your logo is scalable and high-quality.
• Versatile: A good logo is versatile and works well in different contexts.
• Memorable: Your company logo should be easy to recall and memorable.

Test your logo with different audiences and refine it based on feedback.

Find out what makes Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and FedEx brand logos stand out.

Create a Catchy Slogan

In the digital landscape where countless messages compete for our attention, capturing the essence of your brand in a few memorable words can leave a lasting impression on your audience.

Consider the success of Nike’s simple yet motivational “Just Do It,” Apple’s “Think Different,” or BMW’s “The Ultimate Driving Machine.”

Crafting an effective slogan requires research and consideration of your brand’s personality, values, and unique selling proposition.

Check out 60+ of the most memorable brand slogans ever.

Choose a Color Palette and Typography That Reflects Your Brand

Your color palette and typography are essential elements of your visual identity. They help to create recognition, evoke emotions, and convey your brand’s personality and values.

For example, McDonald’s iconic red and yellow color scheme isn’t just a design choice; it’s rooted in psychology. Red is a stimulating color known to increase heart rate and appetite. Yellow, the most visible color in daylight, is associated with happiness and makes the McDonald’s logo instantly recognizable even in busy environments.

Read the full story behind McDonald’s red and yellow palette.

Make sure your brand colors and fonts have:

• Emotional Connection: Colors and fonts can evoke emotions and create an emotional connection with your target audience.
• Personality: Colors and fonts can reflect your brand’s personality and values.
• Readability: Your fonts should be readable and easy to understand.
• Consistency: Consistent use of colors and typography helps to build brand recognition.

By creating a consistent visual identity, you’ll be able to build recognition, trust, and professionalism, and differentiate your brand from competitors.

In the next section, we’ll explore how to craft a compelling brand voice that resonates with your target audience.

3. Craft a Compelling Brand Voice

Your brand voice is the tone, language, and personality you use to communicate with your target audience. It’s what sets you apart from your competitors and helps build a connection with your customers.

What tone of voice should you use when communicating with clients, partners, and employees?

To identify the human-like qualities that define your brand, ask yourself:

• If my brand were a person, what would its personality traits be? (e.g., friendly, sarcastic, professional)
• What values does my brand stand for? (e.g., honesty, creativity, innovation)
• How does my brand make people feel? (e.g., inspired, entertained, supported)

Think about some of your favorite brands. What comes to mind? Maybe you think about their awesome customer service or maybe it’s their funny social media presence. It’s probably not their logo or color scheme. Those things are important for brand recognition. But they don’t really make you feel something. Your brand’s tone of voice is what helps you connect with your audience on a deeper level.

What we mean by “tone” is how you come across to your audience. Are you formal or informal? Funny or serious? Friendly or professional? Conversational or instructional?

Every piece of content you create should reflect your brand’s personality.

Consistency is key here. If your brand voice is playful and fun on social media, but your website copy is stiff and corporate, it’s going to create a disconnect with your audience. They won’t know which version of your brand to believe.

Think about your brand’s personality. Are you the life of the party? The reliable friend? The straight-shooting expert? Once you know who you are, you can start injecting that personality into your content.

4. Create Engaging Content

Your content is what speaks to your target audience and helps to build a connection with them. It’s what educates, entertains, and inspires them to take action.

First, you need a strategy. What do you want to accomplish with your content?

Define your goals and objectives:

• Identify your target audience and their needs
• Determine your content goals (e.g., increase website traffic, generate leads, boost sales)
• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success

Then conduct a content audit: (you may skip this part if you don’t have a website yet)

• Analyze your existing content (blog posts, social media, videos, etc.)
• Identify gaps and opportunities in your content
• Determine what’s working and what’s not

Based on your topic research, identify your content pillars:

• Determine the core topics and themes that align with your content mission statement
• Develop a content framework that organizes your content pillars
• Identify the formats and channels that work best for each pillar

Now it’s time to create a publishing schedule:

• Plan your content in advance
• Organize and visualize your content on a content calendar
• Ensure consistency and frequency in your content publication

To keep everything organized, develop (and document) your content creation process:

• Identify the roles and responsibilities of your content team
• Determine the content creation workflow and approval process
• Establish a process for content review, editing, and optimization

So how do you get your message to your audience? Choose your content distribution channels:

• Identify the channels that your target audience uses most
• Determine the best channels for each content format (e.g., blog posts, videos, social media)
• Develop a distribution strategy that maximizes your content’s reach and engagement

Build Brand Loyalty Through Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful way to connect with your target audience and create a deeper and more meaningful relationship with them. Here are some ways to build brand loyalty through storytelling:

1. Create an Emotional Connection

Use stories to evoke emotions in your audience. Share stories that highlight your brand’s values, mission, and purpose. This helps customers connect with your brand on a deeper level, fostering loyalty and advocacy.

2. Be Authentic and Transparent

Share authentic stories that showcase your brand’s personality and values. Transparency builds trust, and trust is a key component of brand loyalty.

3. Make it Personal

Share stories about your employees, founders, or customers to create a personal connection with your audience.

4. Use Customer Stories

Share stories of your customers’ experiences with your brand. This helps create a sense of community and social proof, encouraging others to become loyal customers.

5. Highlight Your Brand’s Heritage

Share stories about your brand’s history, milestones, and achievements. This helps create a sense of nostalgia and tradition, fostering loyalty and admiration.

6. Use Storytelling to Educate

Stories are also great for educating your audience about your products or services in a more engaging manner.

7. Make It Visual

Use images, videos, and other visual elements to tell your brand’s story. Visual storytelling is a powerful way to evoke emotions and create a lasting impression.

8. Use Storytelling to Create Anticipation

Use stories to create anticipation and excitement around new products or services. This encourages customers to become brand advocates.

By incorporating these storytelling strategies into your marketing efforts, you can build strong brand loyalty and create a loyal customer base.

Check out these six brands that are killing it with storytelling genius.

Ensure Consistent Messaging

A strong brand identity maintains consistency across all customer touchpoints.

Consistency builds brand recognition and trust, which ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.

When a potential customer stumbles across your content on social media and then visits your website or receives an email from your brand, they should be greeted with the same distinct tone of voice, visual style, and messaging.

For instance, McDonald’s uses consistent branding globally, ensuring that no matter where a customer encounters their golden arches or signature red and yellow color scheme, they know precisely what to expect.

5. Build a Strong Online Presence

Your online presence is a critical component of your brand’s overall identity. It’s what helps to create a consistent and cohesive brand experience across all digital touchpoints.

Establishing a strong online presence starts with your company website.

Your website is often the first point of contact between your brand and your target audience. It’s also a critical component of the conversion process, helping to turn visitors into customers.

Design a website that offers:

• Value: Create high-quality, engaging content that resonates with your target audience.
• Amazing User Experience: Design a website that provides a positive user experience, with clear navigation and easy-to-find information.
• Consistency: Ensure your website is consistent with your brand’s overall identity.

Think of your website as your brand’s online home. You want it to be inviting and easy to get around. That’s where user experience (UX) comes in.

A good UX keeps people on your site longer. They might even tell their friends about it! This can lead to more recognition for your brand.

How can you make your website’s UX better? It starts with understanding your audience. What are they looking for? What would make their visit enjoyable? This will help you create content that is not only relevant but also engaging.

Next, think about how people use your website. Is the navigation straightforward? Can visitors find what they need quickly? A confusing website can be frustrating. People might just give up and go somewhere else. A well-organized site shows you care about your visitors.

Don’t forget about mobile users! These days, lots of people browse the web on their phones. Your website should look good and work well on any screen size. This means using a responsive design that adapts to different devices.

Forbes shares 11 of the best-designed websites of 2024.

6. Leverage Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for building brand awareness, engaging with your target audience, and driving website traffic.

It’s tough to make social media content that grabs people’s attention. But it’s super important for building a strong brand.

Think about it this way: your social media is like the storefront of your business. It’s often the first thing people see. If it’s sad and boring, they’ll keep scrolling.

You want something that makes them stop and say, “Hey, what’s that?”

So, how do you do that? First, you have to know who you’re talking to. Figure out who your ideal audience is. What do they like? What problems do they have?

Once you know who you’re talking to, you can start making content that speaks directly to them.

Don’t just talk about yourself and your products all the time. Nobody likes that. Instead, share helpful tips, ask interesting questions, and get people talking.

Videos tend to do really well on social media but don’t be afraid to experiment with other formats too, like stories, podcasts, and even live streams.

Here are 19 examples of the best brands on social media.

7. Provide Stellar Customer Experiences

Brand loyalty often hinges on the quality of a customer’s experience, especially given the ease with which consumers can share feedback (positive and negative) online.

Research from Zippia indicates that 72% of consumers who have positive experiences tend to share them with at least six other people.

Conversely, negative experiences can swiftly go viral, eroding trust and brand reputation.

Strive to create exceptional experiences that inspire your customers to not only return but to spread the word to their network. This will increase brand awareness through authentic word-of-mouth marketing.

8. Measure and Optimize Your Brand

Measuring and optimizing your brand’s performance is crucial to understanding what’s working and what’s not, and making data-driven decisions to improve your brand’s overall health and success.

Setting Brand Metrics and KPIs

Setting brand metrics and KPIs helps you to measure your brand’s performance and track progress towards your goals.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Website Traffic: Measure website traffic to understand engagement and interest in your brand.
• Social Media Engagement: Measure social media engagement to understand brand awareness and reach.
• Customer Acquisition: Measure customer acquisition to understand the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
• Customer Retention: Measure customer retention to understand customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Brand Metrics

• Brand Awareness: Measure brand awareness through surveys, focus groups, or social media listening.
• Brand Perception: Measure brand perception through customer feedback, reviews, and ratings.
• Brand Loyalty: Measure brand loyalty through customer retention rates and repeat business.

Conduct Regular Brand Audits

Conducting regular brand audits helps you to identify areas for improvement and optimize your brand’s performance.

Identifying Areas for Improvement

• Brand Consistency: Identify areas where your brand’s messaging, visual identity, and tone may be confusing and alienating your target audience. Review all marketing materials, website content, and social media posts to ensure a unified message.
• Brand Relevance: Identify areas where your brand may be losing relevance to your audience’s needs, values, and preferences. Regularly survey and interview your customers, monitor industry developments, and respond to changes in the market by adapting your products, services, and messaging. 
• Brand Differentiation: Identify areas where your brand may be losing its unique value proposition due to commoditization or price wars. A perfect example is how we rebranded from Content at Scale to BrandWell. Read our story here.

By measuring and optimizing your brand’s performance, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions to improve your brand’s overall health and success and drive business growth and revenue.

FAQs: How to Build a Strong Brand

What are the 7 steps to create a strong brand?

The seven essential steps to cultivate a strong brand identity are:

1. Understanding your target audience.
2. Establishing your brand’s personality and voice.
3. Crafting your brand story.
4. Choosing a company name, domain name, and logo that reflects your brand’s identity.
5. Maintaining brand consistency across platforms and communications.
6. Providing stellar customer experiences at every opportunity.
7. Measuring results regularly to adapt your brand strategy as needed.

These interconnected steps work together to create an impactful and memorable brand presence. 

What are the 4 elements of a strong brand?

The four crucial elements of brand positioning are:

1. Clarity (defining your target audience and the problems you solve).
2. Consistency (in your brand’s messaging, voice, and visuals across platforms).
3. Commitment (consistently delivering on your promises).
4. Competitiveness (clearly defining and communicating your unique value proposition compared to your rivals) to ensure your brand stands out.

What makes a brand stronger?

While there are numerous factors, here’s what strengthens a brand in 2024:

• Prioritize authenticity and transparency in all your communications. A 2021 study by Stackla revealed that 88% of consumers value authenticity above other factors when determining brand trust.
• Foster a strong sense of community among your customers.
• Create shareable content that resonates with them on an emotional level.
• Leverage social proof such as user-generated content.
• Provide exceptional customer service that solves problems quickly.
• Actively listen to and respond to customer feedback.
• Stay relevant by adapting to evolving consumer preferences while remaining true to your core brand identity.

Conclusion

Building a strong brand is a crucial component of any successful business. It’s what sets you apart from your competitors, builds trust and loyalty with your customers, and drives business growth and revenue. 

It takes time, effort, and dedication to create a brand that truly resonates with your target audience but the payoff is well worth it.

As we’ve seen throughout this post, building a strong brand requires a deep understanding of your target audience, a clear brand positioning, a consistent visual identity, a compelling brand voice, and a strong online presence. It’s a lot to manage, but the good news is that you don’t have to do it alone.

That’s where BrandWell comes in — the ultimate brand growth engine. With BrandWell, you’ll have access to a comprehensive suite of tools and resources designed to help you build, manage, and grow your brand. From website audits to content creation, BrandWell has everything you need to take your brand to the next level.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up for BrandWell today and start building your brand the right way.