It is getting harder for businesses to differentiate their brand from competitors due to the intense competition in both domestic and global marketplaces. No matter how much money you have to spend on marketing or how big your company is, branding may help you attract and engage your target audience while offering a tailored experience. It can give you a competitive advantage in the market by encouraging potential customers to choose your brand over rivals.

Many companies don’t realize that branding is one of the most distinctive ways to boost sales for your company and that there is a clear correlation between branding and sales. Customers typically discover that the allure of the brand transcends the price of the good or service by a particular brand.

In essence, branding is how you define your company to your consumers, stakeholders, and yourself. Giving your organization a distinct identity that goes well beyond just displaying your name and emblem is known as branding. Your company’s brand identity outlines its core values and how it adds value for customers. It’s clear that a solid and authentic brand identity is necessary as consumers are becoming astute enough to spot phony marketing tactics.

Businesses can increase sales by investing in branding because it fosters an emotional connection between the brand and its customers when the brand personalizes their experience. Strong brand identification fosters consumer loyalty, which boosts revenue for your company.

The following are some original strategies for using branding to boost sales.

1. Branding Sets Your Business Apart

The way you brand your business can set it apart from others in the same niche. If you’re familiar with ride-sharing apps, you’ve probably noticed the difference between how Uber and Lyft brand themselves.

Uber launched as a more affordable alternative to hiring a private driver. Though the initial name was UberCab, the company was more like a hybrid between a taxi service and having a chauffeur. Its logo represented this—hard edges of white on a black background.

When Lyft came onto the scene, its offerings weren’t remarkably different, but the brand was.  The company appealed to customers’ emotions by distinguishing itself as being fun and friendly. Cars had pink mustaches and passengers were encouraged to sit in the front seat so they could easily chat with drivers. It worked. Uber has repeatedly rebranded itself in an attempt to be perceived as more friendly, down to overhauling the logo to give it soft edges and updating its offerings. When we place this in the context of today’s crowded marketplace, in which consumers see 10,000 ads per day, it’s easy to see how good branding pays off.

2. It Creates Trust Through Consistency

Pause for just a moment and picture a Ferrari in your mind. Think it through. What color is it? Chances are, you pictured a red car. Silver, black, or white might also have been in the minds of a small portion of readers. There’s one color nobody familiar with the brand likely pictured—pink. Ferrari doesn’t allow it.

“It just doesn’t fit into our whole ethos, to be honest,” the company CEO explained to news outlets a while back. “It’s a brand rule. No Pink. No Pokémon Ferraris!”

While businesses don’t need to take branding to this level, it’s a clear example of the impact of consistent branding. Ferrari has stringent standards designed to protect the integrity of its brand. Consumers know what to expect. They know the prestige of owning a Ferrari isn’t going to diminish. It’s also one of the many reasons the brand can command higher prices. Your organization may not be dedicated to selling $300,000+ cars, but the concept translates to all types of businesses.

3. Consumers Buy Based on Trust

Research from Edelman shows 53 percent of consumers will buy first from a company they trust, while 51 percent will advocate on behalf of the company, and 43 percent will defend it.

Presenting your company as a trustworthy brand isn’t enough, though. As explained in “Why Branding is More Important than SEO,” your branding must be authentic too. Whatever your brand signals are, be it promises of value, customer satisfaction, social responsibility, or something else entirely, you must embody those values to build the trust that comes with them.

4. Branding Impacts First Impressions

There are several ways to look at first impressions and branding. To start, the first impression must match up with what the customer experiences. If there’s a disconnect between the two, you’ll lose customers as soon as you pick them up.

The second component of this is that customers won’t just leave. Just as customers who trust you will defend you and advocate for your brand, those who become disenchanted will often become detractors, leaving negative reviews that create a poor perception of your brand for future customers.

Lastly, there’s the Colgate dinners phenomenon. Images of TV dinners, sometimes lasagna or “Kitchen Entrees,” began popping up a few years back. If you saw them, you no doubt pondered why a toothpaste company would ever think making food was a good idea. There’s some debate as to whether the infamous TV dinner ever existed, as Harry Harris explains in Prospect, but the ad images are typically used as an example of poor marketing or bad business ideas. They’re not, though. It’s a branding issue. The brand represents minty oral health, and the company has done an excellent job of differentiating itself as such.

Read Also: Why Branding is Crucial in Digital Marketing

All these things demonstrate the same things. Your brand identity is a major deciding factor in whether a person is even open to hearing your marketing message. Furthermore, your first impression sets the tone and serves as a promise to the customer. Honoring the promises you make is essential to building a healthy business.

5. Good Branding Builds and Maintains Customer Loyalty

When branding is done right and it genuinely represents how your company and employees behave, the trust that’s built develops into greater loyalty too. Naturally, that means companies see a big boost in loyalty-related behaviors as a result. As the Edelman survey notes, customers who fall into this bracket are more likely to:

• Choose your products or services over others.
• Overlook it when another company is outperforming yours in reviews.
• Continue buying from you when another company becomes trendier.
• Stick with you even when something goes wrong with your products or services.
• Continue buying from you even if others boycott your company.
• Pay more for your products or services.

In other words, good branding almost makes your company bulletproof.

6. Brand Loyalty Improves Engagement and Customer Acquisition

Research from Accenture backs up the earlier points, noting that 43 percent of consumers increase the amount of business they do with companies they love. But, it’s important to note they don’t simply thank you with their patronage. More than half show loyalty by recommending companies to their family and friends. In other words, branding creates loyal advocates who not only stay with you and purchase from you but grow your business exponentially by bringing others with them.

7. Branding Inspires Action

The buyer’s journey is not what it once was. Customers don’t simply rely on a single TV spot or publication placement to determine where their dollars are spent. Again, they’re met with up to 10,000 ads per day on Facebook, Twitter, and email marketing from products and services that are seemingly interchangeable at a glance. If something piques their interest, they’re going to research it. Nearly 90 percent do, according to the latest B2C Ecommerce Report.

Savvy brands know this, and so they pepper the customer’s path with branded materials to help them decide in the company’s favor. You’ll see blog content that offers solutions to the customer’s problems, case studies to prove the company can help, and special offers and gifts to eliminate any final barriers. They also continue their messaging after the sale with referral and testimonial requests and valuable content that demonstrates their credibility and the value they’re bringing to the table.

5 Effective Ways to Use Branding to Increase Your Sales

Following are some unique ways to increase sales with the help of branding.

1. Creating Brand Identity with a Distinct Story

Creating a brand identity is very important for brand awareness marketing. Brand identity is more than just coming up with a catchy name or an appealing logo for your business. In order to have a strong branding strategy to attract customers, you should be bold with your storytelling.

Your brand story should highlight your values and mission, and your customer service, and focus on creating goodwill for your business. You can use your company’s website to narrate a distinct story about your brand. Alternatively, you can do so through advertising. An advertising message that is unique, different from that of your competitor’s advertisements, and bold can have a strong impact on the purchase decision of your prospects.

2. Finding a Niche or Hyper-Focused Audience

Most companies spend too much on showing who they are and what kind of products and services they deliver to their customers. While this is an important aspect of marketing, it is important to figure out who you are trying to sell your product to.

Finding a niche or hyper-focused audience that is willing to listen to your marketing message and who is interested in buying the products that you offer makes it easier for your business to attract the audience to your sales funnel. Knowing your target market can help you design personalized strategies and use retargeting to build a strong brand image for your prospects. This can help you increase your sales substantially with fewer efforts.

3. Leveraging Consistent and Clear Messages on All Marketing Platforms

Trust is a very important factor in marketing and sales. Customers are more likely to buy a product and recommend it to others if they trust the brand. Trust is built with the consistency and clarity of your marketing message. To make your brand stand out among others, your brand awareness marketing should be clear and consistent on all marketing platforms.

Whether you are using social media marketing, TV advertisements, billboards, or any other type of marketing, each message should be clear and must align with other advertisements on different platforms. Your branding strategy should be able to build credibility for your business which can help in increasing sales.

For example, Nike is a renowned sports brand that has a consistent tagline of “Just do it” across all marketing channels. It defines their value of confidence and determination to take action without hesitation in sports. This has helped Nike all through the years to create a distinct brand to attract customers.

4. Using Visually-Appealing Branding Techniques

Another unique way to increase sales is to use visually appealing marketing for your brand. Colors and visuals have a great impact on how well viewers will respond to your advertisements. It helps the customers retain a unique brand image in their memory about your business. A brand design has various important components like brand color palettes, fonts, logos, animation, etc.

Using the same color theme throughout your advertisements is a very effective way of helping customers remember your brand. It gives your business a unique visual identity that makes the customer recall your brand just at the mere sight of the color theme of your brand design.

5. Use of Retargeting and AdSense Auto Ads

The entire point of branding is to make your customers think about your brand at the time of making a purchase decision. Retargeting and paid ads are great ways to make your brand appear in front of your target customers again and again. Google’s AdSense Auto ad shows marketers the right place to publish their ads online. Google algorithms and machine learning technology help in automatically placing advertisements on websites that are best for increasing awareness. This makes your online ads reach your target audience providing your business with greater ROI.

Brand positioning in the market is significant in increasing the awareness and visibility of your brand. It makes your business stand out in the competition and makes it unique and memorable for your customers. Customer appeal increases when you conduct analytics of your leads’ information – it becomes easy with Salesforce integration to get insights on your buyer personas. This helps your business in increasing sales and getting greater returns on investment. If your business is able to create a desired brand perception in the minds of your target customers, it is able to draw more customers to the sales funnel.