With so many emerging technology brands, it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. Your brand’s identity is crucial to setting yourself apart from your competitors. Here are a few unique ways to build your tech company’s brand identity.
Pinpoint Your Ideal Customer
Pinpointing your ideal customer can help you create a brand voice and, ultimately, identity. Try to get as specific as possible when establishing your target customer. Consider things like:
- Age
- Gender
- Education
- Marital status
- Career
- Income
- Common problems
- Buying habits
- Tech savvy skills
Sometimes, creating customer profiles can help you get more specific. Create one or two ideal customer profiles, giving them a name, location, and common problems. This can help you and your coworkers better understand the person, which can guide content and marketing efforts to best reach them.
Find Your Brand’s Voice
A key element of building your brand’s identity is finding its voice. In order to stand out from your competitors, you’ll need to establish your brand’s personality. This involves:
- Establishing your brand’s values
- Listing your guiding principles
- Creating a mission statement
- Fine-tuning your overall message
You can also use your target customer to create a brand voice. Consider the voice that best appeals to that customer, and then begin shaping your ads, blogs, emails, and other marketing content around that voice.
Establishing how technical you want your brand voice to be is also important when it comes to emerging tech companies. Customers tend to have a wide range of experience and knowledge with different types of technology.
Compare and Contrast Against Competitors
It’s important to consider how your brand is different from your competitors. Why should customers trust your tech company over other companies? Pinpoint out what makes you unique and better than the other company. This step can also help with determining how you may work with others in your industry who aren’t direct competitors.
Define Your Unique Selling Proposition
A unique selling proposition (UPS) is the single thing that makes you better than your competitors. Since, in the previous step, you compared and contrasted your tech company against your competitors, you should now have a good idea of what makes you unique. This is your UPS that should guide all content and marketing efforts going forward.
You may even use your USP in your professional branding materials. Incorporating what makes your company unique can help your brand outperform your competitors.
Determine Your Brand’s Promotional Strategy
Once you have a good idea of your brand’s voice and UPS, you can begin creating a promotional marketing strategy that uses your identity. You have a lot of options available, including content marketing, pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), and social media marketing.
Establishing specific goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) can help you narrow down your marketing options. For example, you might focus on an SEO strategy if you want to increase your digital footprint and drive customers to your tech website. If your goal is to increase brand awareness in your own community, company-branded items may be the way to go.
Local marketing through sponsoring events and gifting branded materials can be an extremely effective strategy. Try choosing items that potential customers will keep on them and use frequently. Custom twist pens with your company name offer value to the customer while also increasing the brand awareness of each person who uses them. Order branded pens in bulk and disperse them among previous customers, employees, family members, and friends for a simple and cost-effective strategy.
Establish Authority and Trust
After narrowing down your brand’s identity, it’s time to establish some authority and earn customer trust. Studies show that customers who trust a brand are much more likely to purchase from them. There are a number of ways you can establish authority and earn trust for your tech business.
One effective strategy is to become a trusted source of information in the technology industry. Host or join podcasts discussing trending technology topics, like artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning. Publish well-researched, well-written articles and blogs on similar topics. These strategies allow you to capture customers when they’re in the research phase of buying. Even if they’re not yet ready to buy or use your product, they’re more likely to come to you for information and service if they know they can trust you.
Technology is an emerging field with the potential for exponential growth and success. However, smaller tech companies may find it difficult to establish their identity and distinguish themselves from other tech companies. Determining your brand’s voice, values, and USP can help you create an identity that consumers trust and turn to for reliable service, which can then turn into sales.
