Are you planning to start a new business? Congratulations! This is an exciting albeit challenging process. Getting everything up and running can be a difficult task if you are entering the challenge unprepared. However, If you follow these tips to launch your brand, you can anticipate a few of the common road bumps along the way and start getting your name and services out to the right customers effectively.
Contents
- Naming your business and selecting a website URL
- Reserving your social media handles
- Developing your branding
- Setting up your email hosting
- Building your website
- Showing up on Google
- Developing a marketing plan
- Networking online and offline
#1 Settled on a company name? Make sure the website URL is available.
The first of our tips to launch your brand fast is one of the very first steps when you begin brainstorming your business idea. When you’re starting a new business, coming up with the perfect name is often the first big challenge. Having that “lightbulb-moment” when you suddenly think of the ideal name for your business and then discovering the website URL has already been taken by another company is not uncommon. It’s tempting to reserve less popular variants of a .com URL – for example, .biz, .net, .jp etc. but it’s important to make sure a competitor isn’t already online with an existing website to steal all your traffic!
Be prepared to go back to the drawing board if a well-established company already has your dream name – you will have a lot more work cut out for you trying to compete for their traffic on google, plus there are copyright considerations to take on board.
Check https://domains.google.com/ for available options and pricing.
#2 Reserve your social media handles.
Once you have secured your URL, another of our easy tips to launch your brand is to set up social media accounts. It is recommended to try to use the same handle across all social media platforms because it will be more memorable for customers. As an added bonus, it’s much easier to display a unified handle across all platforms in print media.
Even if you currently have no plan to manage any social media channels, it’s an excellent idea to secure these accounts for the future. If your new business sees a lot of growth, savvy Internet denizens may snatch up the best social media handles related to your business in the hopes they can sell it back to you for a handsome profit.
Setting up your social media accounts is fast, free, and easy.
A service such as https://www.namecheckr.com/ will quickly scan if the social media handles you would like to use are available across a broad range of networks.
#3 Develop Your Branding
When starting a new business it’s important to create a clear blueprint for your brand. This will make managing your future marketing far more consistent.
One of the first steps in Brand Development will be addressing the “Why” of your service or product. Why do people need what you offer? Why should they choose you? Why is now the time they need what you provide? You will need to perform competitor and market analysis to position yourself effectively and define your Unique Selling Proposition or “X-factor”. Developing a compelling Brand Story and Voice will also be beneficial in any competitive market.
Once you’ve defined who your audience is, why they need you, and what makes you shine, you can begin developing the visual elements which will represent your brand. These may include a logo mark to represent your business, a branding guide to ensure your brand is visually consistent across all mediums, messaging and catch-copy which resonates with your audience effectively, an Identity Package including business cards, email signatures, letterheads, quote and invoice forms, signage, and more. These will ensure you are presenting yourself consistently across all mediums which will make your brand both memorable and respected as a legitimate candidate in your field.
Contact Genki Graphic using the form below if you would like assistance developing your branding.
#4 Set Up Your Website and Email Hosting
While finalising your branding, be sure to set up your web hosting and email. Your email and website information will be reflected in printed materials such as Business Cards and advertising, therefore, it is important to secure these early in your brand building and marketing efforts. If you rush into advertising without first establishing a professional-looking URL and email address, there is a high chance you will need to pay for further printing in the future to update old, unprofessional looking data.
For reference, domains and email addresses that might be perceived as unprofessional could include the below:
Any URL which shows the name of a free hosting service. e.g. jaron.wixsite.com/genkigraphic rather than www.genkigraphic.com.
Paying for your own custom domain and hosting demonstrates that you take your business seriously.
Any hotmail or gmail email addresses (especially if the address has no resemblance of the service you offer). Would you trust [email protected] with your $40,000 rebranding budget, or [email protected]?
Hint: contact us with your next project!
Website and Email Hosting prices and plans will vary a great deal depending on the scale of your project or business.
Web projects with Genki Graphic will include hosting recommendations to help find the best option for your needs.
#5 Build Your Website – Tips to Launch Your Brand
Here is one of our favourite tips to launch your brand. Your website is one of the most powerful tools for starting a new business; the experience a user enjoys while interacting with your site can mean the difference between making sales, or hundreds of bounced sessions and lost leads.
You may need a single landing page to ensure an online presence and contact funnel are available, or you may require a comprehensive, bespoke website compatible with a wide range of back-end services.
Developing a great website requires three essential ingredients; in-depth UX research to ensure you are offering the most efficient online experience for your ideal customers. Intuitive UI to wow visitors and make interacting with your website a pleasant experience. Finally, a well-optimised back-end to promise fast loading times and user-friendly CMS.
Your website is also the platform for all of your SEO content, which is one of your most powerful tools for sharing your services with the whole world. It is also the portal through which you should aim to build a mailing list filled with customers happily engaged with the content and information you provide.
Hint: the power of good SEO and building your mailing list can not be overstated enough. Developing a marketing plan which is backed by well-researched SEO , and a consistent mailing calendar is one of your most powerful tools for attracting and retaining customers without spending a cent on advertising.
At Genki Graphic, web development solutions are provided which carry the strong branding ethic already established and translate this into an intuitive, user-friendly experience that will guide your customers to the “Goal” as effectively as possible. All of our web solutions take into consideration how you need to be seen on google, and what your potential customers are typing into search engines to find your service.
#6 Register Your Business With Google.
Google is the leading Online Search Platform in the West, and registering with Google My Business will result in well-optimised organic search results on both Google Search and Google Maps.
Customers will be able to locate your office and contact information far easier and leave reviews for other customers. Reviews are incredibly valuable because community endorsements are well respected compared to promises or proclamations made by the business. You should always endeavour to leave an excellent impression on your customers because they will rarely be compelled to make the effort to write a review unless they were very impressed or very disappointed. Take the time to respond and thank anyone who leaves a review online, and be sure to address the concerns of any negative reviews – your approach to negative reviews can make or break your reputation.
Setting up a My Business account is another free and easy step. It may take a few weeks for Google to process your listing as they often send a physical letter to your address to confirm.
Register with Google My Business here https://www.google.com/business/
#7 Create a Marketing Plan.
Plan the next year of marketing from launch through to your ideal goal. Using knowledge of your customers from the branding discovery phase, identify important days, weeks, and months of the calendar year to leverage your messaging.
Create a content road map so you can have SEO charged articles and videos online in time for critical milestones.
If you are running promotions, create a checklist of tasks that need to be completed. An example may look like the below:
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Assign budget
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Create an online landing page to act as the marketing funnel
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Write press release
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Plan and design print advertising in advance of promo launch
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Set up Google Search ads
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Set up Facebook Retargeting ads
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Send EDM to a mailing list
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Measure results and feedback with sales teams after X days
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Adjust digital advertising if needed
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Final reporting and identifying points of strength and weakness in the campaign through marketing analysis and customer feedback
Ensure responsibilities are well understood amongst your marketing team and strong ongoing communication takes place throughout the campaign.
Remember, there is no defined “meta” for perfect marketing. It is an ever-changing landscape that requires constant observation and tweaking as user habits evolve, and new technologies and trends pop up. Effectively keeping up with marketing trends and performing ongoing management and reporting of your efforts is usually a challenging team effort for any business.
One of the most effective ways to allow your brand to grow through marketing is to already have your Brand Story and USP defined and focus your messaging around these. These are the two “constants” which make your brand stand out from the competition and will prevent your purpose from becoming confused. If you were to ask three customers and three staff “what makes your Brand special” and you receive half a dozen different answers, then your messaging probably needs to be more focused. This is a common issue with rudderless marketing and can be solved with the help of a Brand Consultation or even a complete Rebrand.
#8 Network Online and Offline – Tips to Launch Your Brand
Once you’ve performed the previous steps, there are a number of ways to stay proactive with your marketing efforts.
Using Customer Personas developed during the Branding stage, find out where your customers congregate or research information before buying. Take part in or sponsor events they attend – go there in person and start shaking hands and handing out business cards with your finely tuned elevator pitch. Online, you can provide valuable information and answers to questions your customers are frequently searching for with informative articles, videos, and social media content. If you can offer solutions before the customer even needs to make a payment, then you are already building a positive relationship and securing your brand in their mind as memorable and reliable.
Let us know if these tips to launch your brand were helpful. Remember; when starting a new business, keep your eyes and ears open, be quick to offer useful advice, and let people know what you do and why you do it well.
Looking for assistance with your branding and marketing? Send us a message in the contact form below!
