Standing out isn’t about being the loudest – it’s not about increasing your marketing budget to ensure you’re everywhere a customer looks. Finding success in a time like this will depend on your branding.
Why branding is not just important, but crucial
Millennial and Gen-Z buyers, who are quickly becoming the big players in the market, look at things a bit differently than previous generations. Brands that are household names today, like Amazon, Google, and Apple, have cottoned onto this. These younger consumers put your brand at the front and center of their decision-making process. They’re searching for brands that ooze authenticity, trustworthiness, and ethics, with a positive and supportive culture. These traits should be felt by your customers when they visit your website, social media platforms, see your advertising and interact with your team.
If your brand doesn’t have these qualities, people are going to go elsewhere. They want to feel that they are working with a company that cares and that they can evangelize in return. So, how can you ensure your brand has all these qualities? Let’s dive into six ways you can supercharge your branding.
6 Ways to Supercharge Your Branding for a Shifting Market
- Authenticity is King: Show real photos of your buyers, employees, and events. Ditch the stock images when possible and let your brand shine through. Don’t worry about imperfection – people connect with “realness”, so don’t worry about getting your professional photographer in just to take a quick snap for a social media update.
- Wear Your Values on Your Sleeve: Make sure your values are front and center on your website and social media – especially in unspoken ways. Living your values will foster trust and loyalty with your customers, so if you say you value community, show your team working together or the community outreach you’re doing.
- Video Reviews Tell It All: Sometimes you have to bribe offer incentives to people to encourage them to do it, but video reviews from past buyers can be a powerful tool for connecting with future buyers. Video reviews remove uncertainty – people can read body language, see the smiles, and hear the tone of voice of the reviewer. It reassures them that they are real people and are offering honest feedback on what they experienced.
- Consistency is Key: Make sure your brand is easily recognizable visually and through tone. From colors and fonts to graphics and the style of photos, consistency is key to making a lasting impression. Don’t forget the branding that comes through the way you speak and act – inconsistency throughout your branding will make you feel unpredictable and untrustworthy.
- Tap into Emotions: Those picture-perfect home photos may have a place in your marketing, but don’t forget to have pictures that show the kind of life one could lead in your home. Remember, people aren’t just buying a home, they’re buying a lifestyle.
- Show Your Human Side: People want to connect with people, not faceless companies. Let your brand’s personality shine through the people behind the scenes – this is where your OSC can really shine for you, being the face (or one of the faces) of your brand.
In this fast-paced world, with constantly changing consumer expectations, solid branding is critical. It’s not just about selling a product or a service – it’s about creating an experience, building trust, and fostering lasting relationships. And that’s exactly what a strong brand can do.
Here at Shared Drive, we have a deep understanding of the importance of branding. We provide online sales concierge (OSC) services and digital marketing solutions to the home building industry, so if you need help building your brand from a company that understands your industry inside out, we’re here to help. Click here to learn more about our branding solutions.
