[Republished] Branding 101: How to Build a Strong Brand in the Digital Age

I've just launched a new YouTube channel!! The concept? I take real businesses struggling to stand the f*ck out, provide my positioning/branding/lead gen help, and record it all for YouTube. The first mini-series features three freelance marketers (copywriter Rob, ecommerce designer Laura, and non-fiction book coach Vicky).

I hope you'll set aside half an hour to watch it through. Maybe with your morning coffee? Or lunch break? Or evening onion soup? And then, the usual "Subscribe, Like, Share" would go a long, long way too.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdNXaHHVnVntg5gpveB-5_Q

***

Some companies seem to have the magic touch.

On the other hand, many startups struggle for years to gain traction in their market.

Why do some companies capture the attention of an audience while others get dismissed?

That’s right — it all comes down to building a phenomenal brand.

But before we get into that, let’s talk about what it actually means to build a brand in the first place.

Branding is a word that gets tossed around a lot in the marketing industry.

The only problem?

Nobody can seem to define what a brand is.

Let’s clear up the misconceptions.

Branding is an emotional feeling about a company that makes them seem like the better choice against their competition.

OK, I know what you’re probably thinking. “That sounds really vague. How can we turn momentary sentiment into something tangible?”

That’s what I set out to learn when I interviewed senior marketing and brand expert Bernie Schroeder.

He’s the author of Brands and Bullshit: Excel at the Former and Avoid the Latter and has a marketing background that includes launching strategies for major companies like Apple, Amazon, Yahoo! and Adobe.

I invited Bernie to speak on the Everyone Hates Marketers podcast to discuss:

• Why branding matters in business
• The mistakes companies make with branding
• What happens when you ignore branding
• How to build a brand that attracts customers

Why Is Branding In The Digital Age Important?

Companies who ONLY focus on marketing tactics without a branding strategy become a commodity in the marketplace.

Without a brand-building system in place, you’re unable to differentiate yourself from every other business that offers a similar product or service.

This means any new company can pop up, copy your business model, and do it at a lower price than you.

Do you see where we’re going with this?

If you listen to my podcast, you already know that I like to challenge my guests to break their methodology down so you can walk away from each interview with a practical step-by-step.

What follows is the specific approach Bernie Schroeder uses to build a brand identity — whether you want to leverage the benefits for a brand you already have or you’re starting from the very beginning.

Let’s dive into his step-by-step guide.

5 Steps to Build a Strong Brand

Step 1: Find Out How Your Company is Perceived

The first step in branding according to Bernie Schroeder is to figure out how your company is perceived in the marketplace.

Where should you look in order to learn this?

Go to your customers.

Bernie recommends getting a list of the top 100 customers and reaching out to some of them.

Here’s why: Whether you're working for an agency client or you're an entrepreneur running your own business, you need to take a step back from what you THINK you already know about your customers’ perspective.

We’re too close to our own business to see it the way our customers do.

Talking to your customers is important. While they don't always know what they want, they can tell you what they don’t want.

In addition to that, customers can tell you what problems they’re suffering from and describe how it affects their own personal situation.

This circles back to the #1 rule of good marketing: Treat people like humans.

Business is about solving problems for your customers [problems that are a real pain point].

According to a study ran by CBInsights, 42% of businesses fail because there’s no market need for what they’re selling.

Talk to your customers.

Research the customer journey from their p...