Getting clear about your business strengths and consistently delivering that message is key to effective branding. This article offers do-able ways to clarify and enhance your brand.

Repetition in some contexts can be boring. Not so with your brand.

Repeating core attributes or strengths of what you offer is a necessity. Those core strengths are what create your brand. They help your prospective clients and customers to recognize you.

Your brand distinguishes you, sets you apart. The process of creating a brand is getting really clear about your or your business’ strengths, and repeating that message, over and over.

The more consistent you are, the more easily recognizable your brand becomes over time.

I know I used to be afraid of repeating myself too much. What if my prospective clients think I have nothing new to say, that I’m being boring, or that I am hammering a point to death. You might feel the same way!

In reality, people do not hang on every word that you say or write. Not surprising, right? People tune in for a bit, then go off to other things before (hopefully) coming back. When you offer great information, they’ll be back.

And each time they do come back, by repeating yourself, you increase the likelihood that they will hear the key points you want to make about the value that you offer.

We all learn by repetition. Marketing your product or service really is a form of teaching. It’s teaching clients and prospective clients or customers about the value of what you offer.

So going over the same point in different ways, over time, makes a significant impression. You want your message to stay with people, so you can deliver the awesome service or product that you are making available.

Repetition serves an additional purpose. It provides stability through consistency. People know what to expect from you, and that helps support them in making a buying decision.

Not only does repetition strengthen your branding message, it makes you more likeable to those automated search engine algorithms that determine your ranking in online searches.

Here’s an easy way to approach this whole branding idea: think of 5 words or phrases that highlight your best traits, your biggest strengths. Work from the perspective of your business offerings: what is the best of what you offer? These strengths form the core attributes of your brand.

Repeating those strengths will reinforce in people’s minds the essence of what you do, the heart of it.

So, on your website, include those keywords or phrases in the website copy, preferably in the titles as well as the text.

You can expand this key strength branding into other areas of your outreach.

When participating in social media, use your 5 core strengths repeatedly. Mention them in your profile/bio, your posts, and even in comments that you make on other people’s pages or profiles.

For example, in LinkedIn, you can reinforce your message and build up your brand by including your core strengths in your summary, your experience descriptions, your endorsements, and in any content that you add.

A big opportunity for brand-supporting repetition lies in any new content you produce, like blog posts. This content can be put to advantage by reusing and repurposing it for press releases or social media outlets. That also adds to your message consistency.

For example, take a sentence or two from a blog post and include it as a Facebook status update, or a Twitter tweet. That repetition helps put the key messages from your article out beyond the blogosphere into a bigger realm.

Leverage opportunities to reinforce your brand by making best use of what’s available.

One example: you get limited space to create your bio/profile in most social media tools. Use all of it! Repeating your core strengths in different ways will bring your message home.

Another option: in LinkedIn, you can expand your experience descriptions beyond the rote job title approach. Instead, break down your experience by the key strengths you’ve identified, or the functions that relate directly to them.

By repeating the essence of what you offer, your core strengths, you’re doing your clients, customers, and prospects an enormous favor. Make it easy on them. While they’ve been off doing other things, you can consistently create multiple opportunities for them to hear you.

And with all you have to offer, what a gift!

A brand is a perception associated with a business’s service or product. This perception cuts across the whole spectrum of the business. It extends to customer service, customer experience, visuals, values, mission statement and feelings or emotions derived from using a service. A good brand enjoys customer loyalty. It enjoys repeat sales and has a good relationship with customers.

One unique feature of a brand is that whether created intentionally or not, every business possesses one. Some small businesses and start-ups pay little or no attention to their brand, while others take their destiny into their own hands. Consequently, big companies work very hard to edge their brand into the minds of customers.

Rather than leave your brand to the mercy of the market, why not take action to position your business today? Here are 5 branding tips to help you do exactly that.

Brand identity

Brand identity is associating a startup or small business with a particular image that becomes the face of the business. The logo does a good job at this and so do tag lines. Whatever the image of choice, it should appear on all your products. Newsletter, letterhead, banners, business cards, and promotional items like pens, t-shirts and mugs should all carry the image.

Deliver on promise

Customers place high demands on brands. They expect businesses, small business and start-ups to deliver on value. If for instance, customer refund is one of your values and you fail to honour that promise, you are damaging your brand and you are hurting your reputation. And in this day of social media, it wouldn’t take long before a ‘#hashtag’ is created. It wouldn’t take long before one little bad seed pollutes the rest of your harvest.

Care for your customers

Care for your customers because care breeds loyalty. Once you have repeat purchases, create a system that rewards loyalty. Provide some kind of incentive for introducing new customers. Introduce offers for first time buyers. If a customer does not get the required attention from you, they would go next door. Treat them well. Honour your word. Be quick to accept responsibility. Calm agitated customers down. Be nice to them and you would be on your way to creating a good brand. After all, branding revolves around perception.

Go the extra mile

If you are a small business or most probably a start-up business, and it’s within your means, throw in that extra gift. Meet customers halfway, stay the extra five minutes to accommodate their schedule. Give customers an experience they would cherish. An experience they would find hard to get somewhere else, one that would differentiate your product, and one that would trigger repeat service or sale.

Conduct a survey

Conduct a survey to find out what customers think of your business. You don’t have to make the research formal but be honest with yourself. Put in place measures to correct defects. Reward those who bothered to comply with the research. Use the intelligence gathered to make strategic decisions that would take your start-up or small business forward.