Are You on the Right Path Toward Brand Growth?
A brand growth strategy is your long term plan to increase your brand equity and market share. Business owners have a hard enough time starting new businesses, but if you want a real chance at long-lasting success, you’ll need to grow your business rather than just maintain it. Your strategy will likely include trying to win over a larger percentage of your target audience, developing new products, and moving your existing products into new markets.
Of course, your brand isn’t just about your products and services. It’s also your overall company image and the credibility you build with customers. Your brand should be easily recognizable thanks to a sleek logo design, a consistent color pallet, and the kind of language you use to communicate your message and values to your customers. There’s so much involved that it may be difficult to determine if you’re going in the right direction to grow your brand. Consider these suggestions as you search for growth hacks to estimate how successful you’re likely to be.
Secure IPv4 addresses.
Every device that connects to the internet has a unique numerical identifier called an IP address. These numbers serve two main purposes: hosting web servers and identifying devices and locations. Your IP address is assigned to you by your ISP, which in turn gets their addresses from your local IP registry. These registries serve the world’s major geographic areas as follows.
ARIN: Serves the United States, Canada, Antarctica, and parts of the Caribbean.
APNIC: Serves East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania.
AFRINIC: Serves Africa.
LACNIC: Serves Latin America and part of Oceania.
RIPE NCC: Serves Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and West Asia.
Currently, most IPs are still created using IPv4. This generation of IP technology uses 32-bit numbers to generate addresses. The problem with this is that we’re simply running out of IPv4 address space. With the internet of things (IoT) and people all logging in using multiple devices, there aren’t enough IPv4 addresses to go around. The next version of IP technology, IPv6 is meant to address this problem by using 128-bit numbers, but the complexity of IPv6 still keeps most organizations from using it.
Every modern business relies on their websites for additional sales and to offer customer support. You may want to adopt IoT technology as you grow your brand as well. The best way to ensure you’re prepared for growth is to purchase IPv4 blocks during an IPv4 sale. Brokers sell IPv4 address blocks on secondary markets which can ensure that you have all the space you’ll need, regardless of your plans for brand growth. These blocks are also wiped clean before they’re sold. Unfortunately, many IPv4 addresses are blacklisted for various reasons such as spam or fraudulent activity. Through a reputable broker, you can ensure all of your addresses are clean, so you can maintain your business’s reputation and ensure that you’ll show in search engine results.
Stick with web design professionals.
Speaking of search engine results, no business can afford to ignore search engine optimization (SEO), especially when they’re trying to grow their brand. Building or improving your website isn’t really something you should tackle on your own, and there are plenty of benefits of hiring a professional web designer. You’ll, of course, save time compared to doing it yourself, and you know you’ll get quality work from a professional web design company. You’ll have an aesthetically pleasing website design that’s optimized for all devices, and just as importantly, a web design company can help you with SEO elements and best practices to ensure customers can find you in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Protect your legal rights.
It’s likely that you already had a lawyer go over your business plan and all other paperwork with you when you first established your small business. It’s crucial to keep attorneys on your side as you run your business, and especially as you look to grow your brand. You may be looking to buy out a partner or to acquire another company as you ramp up expansion, and you’ll certainly need reliable lawyers to ensure everything runs smoothly. You’ll also need an attorney to help with the purchase of real estate if you’re looking to open new locations.
You may even need a legal team to protect you from lawsuits or unfair practices from other businesses. Take Your Legal Rights Advocates, for example. These expert lawyers help protect consumers who are being unfairly pursued by debt collectors. If you believe that your business is being treated unjustly by a partner seeking financial gain, or you’re being harassed in any other way, they can help protect your organization so that your brand growth plans can continue uninhibited.
Try out some creative marketing.
You’ll never be able to grow your brand without effective marketing, and this goes well beyond traditional paid ads. SEO should always be important to a growth marketer, but there are other creative approaches to growth marketing as well. The social media age has changed marketing as we know it, and now it’s important for your brand to interact with your target audience. This can include engaging with reviews and answering questions online, and you can even collaborate with social media influencers. These are individuals who have large followings online, and they may be willing to review/advertise your products for a price.
You can take things into your own hands as well with content marketing. This is any original content that you create that showcases your products and services. Examples could include blog posts on popular sites in your niche, a podcast you host for enthusiasts, or video tutorials that establish your brand as an expert in your field. Video has quickly become the most popular form of web traffic, so consistently producing video content to host online is essential for any company trying to build its brand.
Finally, there are even some simple things you can do around the office to keep employees and customers happy. Any positive word about your brand can add up to significant growth. Even something as simple as keeping snacks and beverages available for employees and in waiting rooms for customers can make an impact. Consider water filter systems to provide pure drinking water that’s free of contaminants. This will remove any unpleasant tastes in your water and help you make higher quality ice cubes.
Ultimately, any positive action you take can put you on the right path towards brand growth. Taking these suggestions to heart will help you get well on your way.