The New Year has come and many people are focused on meeting their 2016 goals and achieving their resolutions. However, some people have gotten off to a late start and haven’t begun to map out their 2016 brand goals. Luckily, it isn’t too late and we are here to help. In fact, as a business owner it is never too late to evaluate your company and set goals to help grow your business. One of the most important things that a business can posses in 2016 is a well-known, responsive, and positive brand. However, this is something that can often get overlooked while executing other day-to-day operations.

The idea of a brand has evolved a great deal since its inception. A brand means a lot more than the product or service that you are offering. A brand has become simply ‘what a prospective customer thinks when they see or hear your brand name.’ Add in the immediate nature of the web, and there are continuous conversations happening all the time relative to your brand, and your competitor’s brands.

Evaluating Your Brand

When evaluating your company’s brand, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

  • What is the state of your company’s brand?
  • Is it positive and customer friendly, or negative and non-responsive?
  • Are you active on social media and other review websites having conversations and responding to inquiries or complaints about your services?

If your business does not have a strategy for your brand online, it is never too late to develop one. Take the time to put a plan together and check it off your to-do list in 2016!

A Checklist for Your Brand Strategy

Your digital marketing presence and brand is extremely crucial for your business’s success in 2016 because it contains a large amount of moving parts. With the emergence of social media, email, and live chats with company representatives, your business’s brand is always under the public eye. Here are some recommendations for evaluating and improving the success of your brand that should be included in your strategy:

Consistency is Key

Make sure your social media channels have consistent imagery and messaging including a logo, tag line and contact information. In addition to this, assure there is a dedicated representative available to answer all social media questions and comments and represent your business accurately.

Provide the Correct Information

Verify that your website has consistent branding to match your social media channels and online profiles. In addition to this, make sure there is informative copy on your website so visitors can learn the 5 W’s of your business and any other pertinent information such as your company’s mission and vision statement.

Tighten Up Local Listings

Dedicate a few minutes to spend optimizing and creating local profiles for your business online where customers can find information about your company and leave reviews. These include but are not limited to Google+ and Bing.

Prepare Your Media Spokesperson

No matter what the size of your business is, it is a necessity to have a media spokesperson in 2016. If you are a small business this individual may be the President or CEO, if you are a large business this person may be a Media Correspondent or PR professional. Make sure this individual is well equipped with all of the resources necessary to talk to journalists and reporters about the current outlook of your company and the future of your company. This individual should be a trustworthy individual who you feel confident with representing your business.

Now that you have a strategy in place make sure to execute it to see the best results. At the end of the year take a few minutes to evaluate your brand and the way customers responded to your business. What were your strengths and weaknesses? This will help you to evaluate and revise future strategies accordingly.

When you begin seeing positive feedback from customers, you will be thankful that you achieved your 2016 resolution!