6 Branding Tools For Tech Companies
In a world of increasingly competitive technologies, there is the utmost need to stand out. Millions of promising tech companies are birthed every single year but very few scratch the surface of ultimate success.
One obvious reason for this situation is the application of poor branding strategies. Even after creating disruptive and innovative solutions many companies still do not know how to use the right branding tools to scale their businesses.
Everything about a business spells out its brand, right from the company name, to the color mix, down to product packaging and customer relations. They all contribute to the central theme called a brand.
What is a brand?
Whenever the concept ‘brand’ is mentioned, we are often tempted to think of an exciting logo, or we picture a cool business name like Amazon, Stripe, or Uber.
Well, branding is all that and more. A Brand is the general image or perception of a business in the minds of its customers. It relates directly to the reputation of a business to its audience.
While business branding is the process of intentionally building the image of a company to potential customers. Branding starts with a great business name, customer care, and support plus everything in-between.
Note that, business branding does not try to appeal to everybody at the same time, it is mostly focused on attracting the targeted audience. Depending on who their products are for, some brands are centered on capturing the big spenders while there are branding strategies targeted at lower-income class people.
Why is branding a big deal for tech companies?
Strategic brand building for companies in the tech space has to be the most underrated tool for growth acceleration. These days, your target customers receive thousands of brand messages daily from your competitors, so it is important to brand your company in a way that stands you out from the crowd.
Also, a strong brand will sell your products faster than your marketing budget does. To build one, you simply need to apply smart branding tools.
Remember, the goal is to build a great reputation as well as maintain customer loyalty, especially in the face of market competition. In this article are some of the best branding tools for tech companies.
6 branding tools any tech company can leverage to build a great business
Here are branding tools to use:
1. Start with a central brand message you want to convey to your audience
Branding is basically about passing a clear message about what your business is about to a target audience. Therefore, before employing any marketing strategy, you have to sit down with your team and answer the following questions:
- How do you want your target market to feel or think whenever they come across your logo, product design, or service system?
- What lasting impressions do you want your brand to leave on the minds of your audience?
- What values and core principles does your brand represent?
- What do you do and why do you do it?
- What deeper meaning do you want associated with your brand?
After determining what your company image represents, you can then move on to work on other details.
2. Build a strong digital presence
This is the age of fast-growing internet companies where even traditional firms are converting to ‘technology-based businesses’. Having an online presence is like the official stamp of approval into the big-league business.
Here are some ways to build a strong digital presence:
- Content marketing: There are many creative ways to communicate your company’s values, mission, and vision to your audience without spending so much.
The easiest is through content marketing. Content marketing is the release of helpful and relevant information that builds a solid relationship with your target customer over time.
Amongst the things you can share are topics like what your brand represents, the future you envision, who your business primarily serves, common problems faced by customers in your niche, and offer possible solutions to them.
Content marketing channels are a High-value company newsletter, blog, website, engaging social media posts, YouTube, and other networking platforms.
The key to building a strong online brand is to be consistent and share valuable information.
- Digital marketing: Invest in top-notch online marketing strategies like sales promos, referral programs, and other juicy packages.
You can organize social media publicity campaigns, Publish testimonials especially those from public figures, on your dashboards and Facebook profile.
Go all out on leveraging social media to boost your company’s image. - Customer feedback: Take user reviews seriously on all channels. If you have an app or software, try incorporating automated bot responses with real-time customer support.
3. Email marketing
Employing an email marketing tool means taking your content game several steps further. This is one tool for differentiating your business and at the same time gaining visibility, by sending powerful emails to a targeted customer segment.
The best feature of this service is that the audience is streamlined to only those who showed interest in your content posts by engaging in one way or the other. What this means is, that you have been granted direct marketing access to your target customer as against sending cold emails to random people who will most likely trash your offer before the next edition arrives.
Email marketing when done well always converts prospects into sales. Automated email tools like Constant Contact and Mailchimp, help make bulk messaging a seamless process.
4. Go hard on your special uniqueness
A strong brand is all about distinguishing the products and services of one company from another.
Tech companies can leverage their unique advantage in a competitive industry to build a user-friendly brand.
What makes company A different from company ABC though they offer similar products, is called their individual unique selling point. Branding here provides answers to questions like: What unique feature do you add to your products? Why are you different from others in the market? Why should customers choose you? How does your solution benefits users uniquely?
5. Have a well-planned visual branding kit
- Use a blend of bright colors for your brand: Colors are often associated with feelings, for example, purple represents creativity and royalty, white for purity and equity, yellow signifies warmth and friendliness, and so on.
Ensure you properly research on colors and their purported emotional meanings before using them. The right color blend will pass the right brand message and also build an emotional connection with your audience.
Imagine achieving all that with only a careful choice from a color palette! - Invest in a professional logo design: A logo is an official symbol that distinguishes your business from competitors.
When designing your business logo keep it simple, unique, focused around what your business is about, and customer-centric. - Company slogan: A company slogan is a simple phrase that summarizes what you do to improve people’s lives and can be used to represent your business anywhere. Just like saying, ‘a one-stop hub for all things fashion’.
- Develop your message tone and writing style: A part of brand building determines how your business speaks target audience. Your message tone can be anything from friendly, professional, to helpful or polite, but should never lack empathy or appear plain rude.
- Others include customized stationery, branded office furniture, product packaging, business card design, and so on.
6. Take the lead in events and research surrounding your industry
As a tech firm, there are always grey areas in your area of work that nobody is interested in; make it a duty to actively seek out these projects and engage in them.
By so doing you are establishing yourself firmly as an expert in that field as well as carving your name on the halls of fame in your industry over time. Sooner or later, upcoming firms will see you as an authority and consider your professional advice and collaboration before taking a step.
When branding as a tech company always be inventive, innovative, and be resilient in your beliefs. The only limitations are those in your mind.