Answering the question, “How do I build my brand?”

May 2024

Where to start if you’ve ever asked, “How do I build my brand?”

I know it can be really scary in the beginning, so I hope this article helps you take the leap with a little more confidence.

More blog posts

Brand Strategy

Brand Voice

Visual Identity

Evaluate

A whopping 16 million people have started their own business since 2021.

Which means that the number of recorded small business applications in the United States has increased 85% in the past three years.

Those stats prove that 2024 is the year for you to do what you’ve been dreaming about and start your own business so you can finally experience the sweet freedom of self-employment.

But where should you start?

I mean, jumping off the deep end of small-business ownership can bring up a lot of doubts.

“Do I have what it takes?”

“Can I really be my own boss?”

And, of course…

“How do I build my brand for success?”

I know it can be really scary in the beginning, so I hope this article helps you take the leap with a little more confidence.

Branding is the foundation on which you’ll build your entire business.

What is “branding” anyways?

You don’t need to feel bad if you’ve followed up the thought, “How do I build my brand?” with, “And what is ‘branding’?”

This question comes up frequently for startup entrepreneurs because many people mistakenly refer to branding only when they’re talking about a cool logo, pretty color schemes, or signature fonts.

But the reality is that branding is the foundation on which you’ll build your entire business.

It’s a collective effort of design, language, and customer experience tied to customer perception and the emotional response people have to who you are and what you do.

Because of this, branding is something you can’t really afford to get wrong if you want to differentiate yourself properly.

And ultimately be successful.

So where do you start when you’re building your brand if there are so many moving pieces to the branding puzzle?

Build your brand strategy

A strong brand foundation is built on a strategy that answers questions related to the who, what, why, and how of things.

Simon Sinek famously said to start with why, so that’s what we’ll look at first.

WHY are you in this business?

This question can be tough to answer, so I typically recommend you start with who you are and what you want out of business ownership.

Your “why” is an important part of your story.

People want to buy from people they know, like, and trust (and it also helps when they can see themselves in you), so don’t be afraid to dig into the most authentic parts of yourself to help build that emotional connection.

WHO are you selling to?

Your target audience is a critical piece of the puzzle – you have to know who they are before you can build out the rest of your strategy. 

And it’s not enough to simply understand where your audience lives or the “demographics” they check off (like their gender, age, or income).

To really build a strong brand, you need to understand what drives your customers.

This means figuring out – and addressing – their habits, challenges, desires, and values.

WHAT is your mission and vision?

Your mission and vision help you understand what your purpose is and communicate that purpose to others (like your target audience).

A mission statement is your brand’s intent.

You can develop it by asking yourself:

  1. What do I do?
  2. Why do I do what I do?
  3. How do I do it?

And it doesn’t have to be complicated.

For example: TED’s mission statement is to “Spread ideas.”

Google’s slightly longer mission is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Your mission statement should be attainable and clear.

A vision statement expresses your brand’s future goals.

While your mission tells about your ongoing purpose, your vision statement is a high-level look into the future and what you hope to attain/achieve.

To develop your vision statement, consider the following questions:

  1. What am I working towards?
  2. What are my long-term goals?

Your vision statement might just be a statement of 1-2 sentences. Or you may decide to develop it into a comprehensive document. 

It’s entirely up to you.

For example: Amazon’s famous vision statement is, “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

HOW will you uphold your brand strategy?

How you develop and follow through on your short and long-term goals will fall largely on the values behind your brand.

Brand values are your guiding principles.

Because these form the foundation of everything else you do, having brand values will give you a North Star to work from.

Use these 5 questions to develop your brand values:

  1. How do you want your brand and business to be perceived?
  2. Who is your dream client, and what do they care most about?
  3. How do you want people to feel when they work with you?
  4. What do you want to be known for?
  5. What are your personal values?

For example: Canva’s brand values include inclusivity, communication, and empowerment.

If your brand were a person, who would they be?

Find your brand voice

If your brand were a person, who would they be?

That’s the question I want you to answer when you think about brand voice because that’s really what brand voice is – it’s the personality of your business.

And establishing your brand voice is connected to establishing trust and authority.

It’s about being consistent with the way your brand engages with your audience in every interaction, from social media to sales calls.

Now, if your voice is the overarching personality of your brand – who you are, which determines what you say – your tone is the way you say things.

To develop a clear brand tone, dig into what each characteristic of your brand means.

For example: Mailchimp is “funny” – this is a characteristic of their brand voice (their personality).

But their sense of humor is “dry” which means, when it comes to their tone, they’re “weird, but not inappropriate.” And “Smart, but not snobbish.”

You can start to see how the definitions of “funny,” “friendly,” or “professional,” which are all personality adjectives, are not enough to explain the way you say things.

You have to keep digging into your tone to establish those rules.

Pro Tip: Once you establish them, record your brand voice and tone in a Standard Operating Procedure document. Then, when you eventually outsource content or copy, your voice and tone will remain consistent.

Look for the commonalities in the things you’re attracted to, but remember the most important thing: Your brand needs to speak to your intended audience. It can’t just speak to you.

Gather inspiration for your visual identity

Before you go all-in on the “fun part” of branding and start establishing the visuals – logo, font, colors, etc – I highly recommend you create a moodboard.

This will be your visual reference point.

Creating a moodboard is one of the most important parts of my job as a brand designer. It helps me gather feedback from my clients and often sparks new ideas.

To start, gather inspiration from some of your favorite sources, like:

    • Books
    • Nature
    • Pinterest
    • Magazines

And so on.

Next, analyze your inspiration and ask what distinct point of view it’s pulling together. 

For example: Is your brand clever and playful? Or moody and romantic?

Look for the commonalities in the things you’re attracted to, but remember the most important thing: Your brand needs to speak to your intended audience. It can’t just speak to you.

Being forced to rebrand because you didn’t do it right the first time is much more expensive and time-consuming.

Successful brands don’t just build their brand and forget about it.

Evaluate your brand

Once you’ve answered the question, “How do I build my brand?” and followed through on all the steps to make your brand what you want it to be, you have just one more (ongoing) task: Evaluate it.

Successful brands don’t just build their brand and forget about it.

In fact, you can think of your brand as a living, breathing, ever-evolving part of your business.

Like I suggested above, you should document your strategy, voice, tone, and visual components and establish guidelines that you can refer to again and again. 

This is an important part of analyzing and evaluating how your brand is performing.

You also want to make sure you’re collecting feedback from your audience so you can act on that feedback. 

I strongly suggest you perform a brand evaluation every 6 months.

You can do this by interviewing your clients, leads, and prospects.

You might also consider sending out surveys via email or even a website pop-up.

And make sure you’re collecting testimonials and sending feedback forms to your clients.

The goal with all of this evaluation is to understand where you’re positioned in your market and what your unique selling point is from your target audience’s point of view.

That way, you can update and iterate your brand as needed.

And ultimately be a successful business owner.

If you want more guidance, let’s build your brand together! Book your branding consultation call here.