Branding Your Unique Expertise For Knowledge Commerce: Guide

 

Your branding must resonate perfectly with your target audiences

Most entrepreneurs see their branding and their target audience choices as separate issues.

But think about this. What value does branding offer if it cannot help impact your target audiences?

What kind of superiority does your brand stand for? You, the entrepreneur, determine this initially. But over time, a brand’s superiority is what the customer sees as its value to him. This can expand and evolve into many facets of the brand's original promise.

 

 

Why brands and target audiences are symbiotic in relationship

What is a “brand”? Simply put, a “brand” reflects the superiority of your product and business. It defines your quality and the values you stand for. It has a distinct tone of voice in communications. It promises the solution to certain problems or routes to achieve certain dreams.

What is the “target audience”? It is the segment of people who are most likely to buy your products and services. These people have both ... the need for your products and the purchasing-power and inclination to spend on them.

Branding helps simplify buying for a customer. Branding is a kind of shorthand for your product quality and differentiation. Your target audiences must resonate with your branding. The net result should be greater bonding between target audiences and your brand. That will generate greater sales. It will also increase customer-loyalty retention.

 

3 questions to ask before determining your brand and its target audiences

There are 3 key questions that will help with both branding and target audience selection.

1. What customer problems can your brand solve? And do some people know they have this particular problem?

All brands exist to solve problems for their target audiences. Identifying these problems can help decide what qualities your brand should stand for. It will also help decide your ideal target audiences. Your potential customers also need to be aware that they have those problems. They need to be looking for solutions. If they come across your brand, they must feel it can offer the solution they seek. They must feel a perfect fit.

2. What kind of people are most likely to be suffering from these problems you have identified?

Try to build a list of the kind of people who may have the kind of problems your brand can help. You can then paint a picture of who these individuals are. Are they male or female? Do they have high or low incomes? What are their daily lives like? What are their goals and aspirations? All this can help determine what kind of brand appeal to build.

3. What are your competitors doing? Are they solving these same problems or other problems?

See if your market has a good number of competitors. A too-easy market may be an unprofitable one. What problem set is your competition solving, and which audiences they are targeting? Study their nuances of branding and how their audiences perceive their brand value. Find ways to separate yourself from your competition by offering "superior brand value” … in other words, value that is more deeply relevant to your target audiences.

 

Why naming your brand is among the most challenging phases your business

It’s actually something you can do only once, so you had better apply everything to get it right, the first time.

You need a name that’s not only appropriate, available, and appealing. It needs to be a name that can endure over time.

Think of this. You can change every other aspect of your business strategy. You can go in for makeovers of your logo, tagline or brand color scheme. Doing all this, you may face a few months of business wobble and not suffer too long. But from the day you announce your brand name, it gets all locked in with your business.

 

The 4 "content marketing" starter-blocks every brand needs to reach its target audiences

Most start-ups don’t like to spend on expensive advertising to get site visitors. Neither do they like to get into more elaborate forms of content ... like videos, webinars or podcasts. That is why it makes sense to start with “simple written content marketing”.

"Content marketing" is the exact opposite of writing sales-y product pitches and pushing these at customers. Instead you reach customers in a smarter way, by writing high-quality articles or blog posts. Ensure these posts lead people to want to check out your products or services.

For example, let's say you want to sell an ebook on “Healthy Recipes for Supermoms”. Write articles on fitness, nutrition and time management for busy moms. Write many different articles leading to this topic from different angles.

People coming across these articles may like your ideas and sign up for your newsletters. Or they may even be ready to buy your ebook of recipes. This indirect method of selling is powerful, because it educates as it sells. People first get sold on your great ideas and expertise, and thus buy your products.

For good content marketing of your knowledge brand, you need at least four core starter blocks. These include your website-cum-blog, an email marketing system, social media and your Knowledge Commerce “store”.

 

To learn even more of this topic, read on ...