Branding isn’t just about recognizable labels or Superbowl commercials or even popularity. Every company that exists has a brand identity. 

Simply put, brand identity is how your consumers view your company or product. A business’ personality, values, marketing techniques and aesthetic all contribute to its unique brand identity. 

Some small businesses and new businesses might operate under the misconception that they need to be well-established or famous to have a company “brand image,” but that isn’t the case. 

It isn’t a question of whether or not your company has a brand identity, but whether you are harnessing the power of your brand. Branding is an important marketing tool that can be used to increase leads, improve sales, create a company reputation and strengthen customer loyalty. 

To further clarify, here is a short list of what brand identity isn’t: 

1. Your logo and tagline. Branding is much more than your company’s logo and tagline, or even your company aesthetic. Branding requires defining a clear message and tone and staying consistent across all your social media platforms, written content and marketing materials. 
2. Expensive. Creating a brand identity doesn’t have to be an expensive process. Even with a small marketing budget, you can develop a solid brand through identifying a niche market, appealing to your audience’s values, and being consistent in your marketing and customer service efforts. 
3. Permanent. Branding and brand image can be changed over time through a process called rebranding. If you don’t like the way your company is received by the public, you always have time to change. Major companies that have successfully gone through a rebranding process include Old Spice (which used to be known as a hygiene product line for older generations) and McDonald’s (which has shifted to be more health-focused in recent years). 
4. A one-time effort. Maintaining a strong brand identity requires regular upkeep. Consistency and continuity are key. By creating a consistent look, feel, voice and message for your brand and then regularly presenting the brand to your audience across a range of platforms, you will establish a credible and likeable brand image. 

ATX Web Designs offers branding strategy and digital brand development services. For more information, drop us a line! 

Millennials, Generation Y, The Facebook Generation, Echo Boomers. No matter what you call them, adults ages 23 to 38 make up a large proportion of the U.S. population—about 25 percent—and their spending power is growing daily. Millennial purchasing power is expected to reach $1.4 trillion by 2020, making them the perfect target demographic.

However, millennials also consume mass amounts of media—potentially more than 70 hours a week—and are flooded by advertisements and marketing campaigns. Social media in particular has become a platform for attempting to catch the attention of this influential consumer demographic. Personalization, direct engagement and responsiveness in social media posts are three ways a company can stand out from the pack when engaging with Generation Y. 

• Personalize it

Millennial consumers may dismiss traditional advertising or social media content that feels too much like a sales pitch. Millennials are drawn to brands that feel personal, creative or that match their own values. In a Boston Consulting Group survey, 59 percent of millennials reported that their favorite brands were a reflection of their style and personality, and 40 percent said they were willing to pay more for a brand that matched what they wished to convey about themselves. 

Easy ways to personalize your social media posts include:

• Posting “behind the scenes” content, such as a spotlights on staff or members
• Adopting a friendly, relaxed attitude when responding to comments and questions
• Showcasing your brand’s unique style or voice
• Following and engaging with current pop culture trends  

2. Engage directly 

Social media accounts aren’t just a place to promote your product, they are a channel for direct communication with clients and future clients as well as a tool for building brand trust. Millennials favor businesses and brands that promote a two-way, mutual relationship with their client base. A Sprout Social survey found that 76% of respondents were more likely to purchase a brand they felt connected to on social media than they were to purchase from a competitor. Directly engaging with followers by answering questions, commenting on posts or asking for feedback can build trust and credibility among potential millennial customers. 

3. Respond quickly
   When it comes to social media responsiveness, speed matters. A 2016 study found that more than 80 percent of customers expect a response within 24 hours of posting on social media and more recent research indicates customers look for a response in as little as 30 minutes or one hour. According to a Twitter study, quick responses were linked to higher customer satisfaction, willingness to recommend the brand, and revenue potential. The study found that customers were willing to pay almost $20 more for an airline ticket when an airline responded to a customer’s Tweet in fewer than six minutes. Answering questions and addressing concerns in a timely manner on social media can help retain and build your millennial customer base. 

Is your company maximizing the potential of its digital presence to win over millennials? ATX Web Designs can perform a website and mobile app audit to help you improve your web presence and also offers website and app development services. 

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools available, but to fully harness its potential, businesses need to establish a consistent brand.

Why is consistent branding important?

Staying “on brand” within and across social media platforms is crucial for creating brand recognition, credibility and loyalty. It signals to both potential and existing customers that your brand is established, dependable, trustworthy and engaged.

Social media is a fast-paced world that thrives on novelty, but studies have shown that consumers are also affected by familiarity bias, which means they favor the consistent and the familiar. Successful brands need to both keep their content fresh and engaging and create enough continuity in their messaging to give users the feeling of dependability and familiarity.

So what is the most effective way for a company to develop a strong brand and continue to stay on brand through growth and transition? The secret boils down to one word:

Strategy.

In an article featured in Small Business Trends, ATX Web Designs founder and CEO Daniel Griggs advised businesses to create a strategy and system for their social media posts.

While it can be time-consuming and even tedious at times to plan and schedule social media posts, this process will give you the most return on your investment. Creating a strategy and schedule for your social media posts allows you to think about the content you want to present, cross-promote, synchronize posts and make sure each piece of content matches with your brand and company vision.

Developing brand guidelines and a style guide is a must for maintaining brand consistency. There are many aspects beyond the actual content to consider when establishing these guidelines, such as

• Tone and personality
• Visual design
• Multimedia
• Font and color scheme
• Logo
• Offline and internal marketing

Utilizing a content calendar and post scheduler will help ensure that all these aspects of your social media content represent a consistent brand and are in line with your company’s greater vision.

There is no shortcut to creating and maintaining a cohesive online brand and presence. It requires pre-planning, strategy and commitment. Most of all it takes time. Building trust with your consumer base requires patience and consistent effort but the results will boost your credibility as well as your bottom line.

If you’d like to develop more brand cohesion throughout your website and mobile app, ATX Web Designs offers design and development services customized for your business.

Everyone wants the entrepreneur life. Wear hoodies to the office (when you go to the office), which will be equipped with game rooms and cafeterias that serve ice cream and churros (mmm). Your work isn’t for a punch clock or manager, or even a paycheck. You set your hours. You assemble your team. You work really hard on something you love and ultimately build a company that changes the world. Then, you just live on top of the world getting profiled by magazines, signing book deals, getting paid enormous amounts for speaking engagements, and maybe best of all, living it up on your private island with former presidents. Hell yes. Entrepreneurship is good.

Except when it’s not. Companies–most of them–collapse. Money is lost, sometimes millions (sometimes more). Years are lost. After years of devotion to an idea, you have nothing to show for it. Or, your company does great! It’s top of the world–and then the iPhone comes along.

But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Most entrepreneurs aren’t Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg. Most entrepreneurs run much smaller businesses. You may not be dealing deals worth hundreds of millions or the collapse of enormous companies, but you will still experience the same hardships, setbacks, wins, and losses.

It’s the entrepreneur life.

The Good.

Do we need to talk about the good? Setting your own schedule. Owning an island and starting your day kitesurfing. Traveling to 20 countries a year. Wearing hoodies (or shirts made just for you). Being the youngest self-made female billionaire in America. The excitement, challenge, and satisfaction of growing your own company. There is no ceiling to what you can do.

The Bad.

Stress. You basically die to everything else in your life so that you can devote all your time energy and focus to building this business. Fear. Oh the fear. The cost to personal relationships. Failure.

The Ugly

The highs and lows of entrepreneurship are greater than with any other job. The ugly parts are uglier, too. Tim Ferriss has talked about his struggles with depression, suicide and burnout.

The ugliest thing, though, may be just the intensity of the scary feelings. Not having a boss means you’re not responsible to anyone–except your entire company, which can include the board, the shareholders, investors, and not just employees but the family who depend on them. The stakes are so high. It’s wonderful when it goes well, and utterly brutal when it doesn’t.

Even if you don’t have a board and investors to think about, it’s your company. It’s an extension of you, and you have people counting on you to succeed. You’re counting on you to succeed. You’ll work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life and your body and mind pay the price.

As an entrepreneur, you’ve got to be prepared to experience all the good, the bad, and the ugly. Success demands dedication to your work, and all the good and bad that comes with that. You know you’re up for the good, but there’s a hell of a lot of bad and ugly that comes with it. Are you up for it?

Read two more takes on the good, the bad and the ugly of entrepreneurship here and here.