Branding for beginners: 4 tips for a stronger image

Every entrepreneur knows that you need a name and logo to put yourself on the market. Because without a strong image, nobody knows who you are and what you stand for. But branding goes much further than simply stamping your logo on every business asset and mail item. Four tips to strengthen your company image.

What is an image? The image that your customers have of you. And that can be quite different from your actual identity. Due to the influence of media and especially social media, it becomes increasingly difficult to fully control your image and reputation. But while as a company you always run the risk of becoming the target of someone's New Year's Eve conference (Youp van 't Hek about Buckler beer) or negative reporting ("Press much more negative about banks"), you certainly also have influence.

4 tips for a better company image

1. Who are you and what do you do? Some advertisements don't tell you anything. And with other expressions you really don't know anymore who it came from. What do you stand for? This is also a continuous issue for Bloeise. Communication agency? Ghostwriter? Facebook specialist? Only when you have this clear for yourself can you communicate that clearly. Bonus tip for networks: tell why you do what you do. That always makes your story interesting, even if you do insurance or administration.
2. Consistent in everything. It should not matter who is being helped by that supplier, wholesaler or showroom, but that is often the case. The same applies to the expressions, and that is not only because the story is adapted to the channel. Consistency means that you communicate your story in the same way, with the same house style colors, tone (you or you?), Visual material, storylines. And if you change something, do it completely and everywhere. Therefore this tip: keep your house style and story in a document (a house style handbook) that you easily have in hand when making a statement.
3. Think from your client. Followed on every site you visit by those red shoes that you viewed at Wehkamp that were not in your size. Annoying scream advertisement from Zalando. Well-known examples of famous brands. But also standard confirmation emails from MailChimp can be annoyed by incorrect translations. Just like unnecessary advertising. This way you load your brand with a negative sentiment. Think from the experience of your customer. That means that you 'design' and consider how your brand comes across. And you can only do that if you look at every contact you have with a customer: via every channel (online, offline) and every employee. So also the colleague of administration who calls on that unpaid invoice for branding. Because barking someone never comes across well, especially if it is caused by a death in the family, for example. Tip: play your own customer and go through the entire process of becoming a customer and staying a customer. What could be better? No-brainers are you business card, you business account and you printed matter.
4. Be generous. Not only is getting something nice, it also triggers it reciprocity principle making customers feel 'obliged' to give something back. As a content marketer, I would of course like to point out that sharing your knowledge via blogs and whitepapers helps you thought leadership and leads results, but of course you can also give offline. For example, take a look at the office in your kitchen cupboard: which coffee mugs did you get? Because what does it feel like when you drink from that one cool coffee mug? Good tip for promotional gifts Premiumgids.nl.

And as a last tip: do not take yourself so seriously. It's just work. By that I mean that you can safely show a personal side, like Coolblue does. Show that the company consists of people who carry out their work with passion.