A Step-by-Step Guide to Branding Your Business

Building a brand as an agent or broker is your footprint in the market to your consumer. Think about your company and what makes it unique. Is it your level of customer service? Your family roots? Flex into these unique aspects to make your brand feel fresh and new.

Branding is an aspect of your business that should be moving with the pace of your business to allow your voice to be heard in more ways than just text. Stuck at home quarantining? Here are our tips to help you continue to build your branding strategy (and here's the best part—you don't have to be at the office to do it!).

What Is Branding?

Branding is defined as the process of giving a meaning to a specific organization, company, product or service by creating and shaping a brand in consumers' minds. The goal of branding your business is allowing your consumer to see a piece of marketing, a color, or shape and automatically think of your brand. Think of brands you know simply from seeing a color scheme! Your business' personal branding should be a reflection of everything that makes up your brand, including your foundation, your values, and your service.

Identify Your Audience

Who are you speaking to as a brand? If you are just starting as a broker or agent, you may need to map out your target audience—or the consumer you are trying to serve. Some factors to consider when determining your target audience may include:

• Age range/generational group (Gen X, Millennial)
• Occupation or level of income
• Location or residency
• Marriage status

If you already have an established brand out there, you likely have an audience you are already reaching. Analyze similarities in the clients you are servicing by (e.g., do they all have kids? Do they all gravitate towards the same neighborhood, etc.). Knowing your consumer is the first step in determining your branding strategy.

Determine Unique Brand Attributes

There are a lot of brands out there, what makes yours the best? Consider all aspects of what your brand is built on, including:

• What service or product are you providing?
• How are you providing this product? Digitally? In person?
• What are your values as a company?
• Who is working for your company?

One way to help develop who you are as a brand is by publishing a mission statement. A mission statement is defined as a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization or individual. You can often find mission statements featured on a company's homepage or the "About Me" page of their website. Once you know who your target audience is, and what your mission is as a company, you can start the branding process.

What's Your Brand Voice and Look?

Now that you know who your audience is and what your goals are, what do you want that to sound like? One easy way to do this is to think of a list of adjectives that define your brand. For example, if you are a broker or agent who focuses on downtown properties in upcoming neighborhoods, you may consider:

• Urban
• Trendy
• Bold
• Youthful
• Professional

These words will help directly impact your visual and written voice in your marketing strategy. When you look at your list of adjectives, begin to hear and visualize it. What does the word urban make you think of? Brick buildings, dark neutral colors, metal textures, loud and in your face noises.

It may help to make a side-by-side list of your adjectives and their associated descriptive words. If professionalism is a word you would use to describe your brand, consider what that would sound like in an email or an Instagram caption. It likely wouldn't start with "Hi Guys!" or "What's Up?" Instead, you'd address your audience as you would in a formal email or a corporate meeting with "Good Evening."

Get Visual

Now that you have the foundation of your brand strategy nailed down, it's time for the fun stuff. It's time to start picking colors, fonts, textures, sounds and other aspects you will use in marketing content.

When thinking color, reference back to that list of adjectives and do a little research. Certain colors resonate with certain emotions. A quick example of the psychology of colors can be found below. If you're an agent focusing on properties on large acres of land or out in rural areas, then green may be a great option for you. Focusing on an urban location or working primarily with high income professionals? Black may be a good fit. We recommend focusing on about three colors. One or two primary colors with one to two supporting colors.

Now that you have your color palette landed, it's time to think about fonts. One of the very first steps in choosing a font is if you want a serif or sans-serif look. See the below visual to help differentiate the two. Serif normally resonates more formal or traditional, while sans-serif reads a bit more modern and casual.

Now that you have a color and font direction, you can map out your logo. This can be done through graphics applications like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. We recommend sourcing a great graphic designer, as your logo will be used on almost all items associated to your business, and you want it to look as perfect as possible.

You now have the foundation to build a great brand. Make sure to save all of your lists, brainstorming documents, mood boards and other documents to keep yourself on-brand when creating great content. We recommend putting together a brand guide that includes company colors, fonts, and other visual aspects.

To view the original article, visit the MoveEasy blog.