5 Branding Tips For Your Startup

The startup ecosystem is highly competitive. With each day, numerous startups enter the market. Therefore, to stand out, Startup founders must have a distinct identity for their ventures. A properly thought-through branding exercise can help businesses make their niche place in the industry they operate in. Irrespective of the size and the stage of a company, branding is a crucial step to walk on your unique growth journey.

 Here are the five key things that can help with branding for startups. 

 

·         Define your startup: A well-defined service or feature is the core of your startup. It will help set your business apart from the others. Brands have a way of evolving and adapting to the ecosystem as time passes. However, it is crucial to have a definite framework in place, as it helps guide the startup growth in the desired direction.  

·         A visual identity: Elements like Logo, font, color combination give a personality to your startup. More than establishing a recall, it helps bring out the value and characteristics of the brand. 

·         Creating a website: In today’s day and age, when everything is taking a digital route, having a website is of apex importance when looking at branding for a startup. The most basic reason is to increase visibility through touchpoints. Your website is the guidebook for those looking to get more information on your business. The more informative, engaging, and user-friendly it is, the more queries and interest one gets through it. 

·         Know who you’re talking to: It is key to know your primary audience for both internal and external purposes. Internally, it helps give a sense of brand understanding, togetherness, and a sense of pride for the employees, and externally, it helps reach out to the right set of consumers ensuring the messaging strikes a connection. It is also crucial to understand for later stages what kind of media and influencers your startup wants to connect with. 

·         Evaluate your startup’s objective: Objectivity is a crucial factor when looking at branding for startups. It is imperative to have answers to 3 basic questions about your startup 1) What is it (What kind of a startup you are) 2) Why do I need it? / What services will it offer (Value it will add to your customers) 3) Who am I (Define your objectives clearly so consumers aren’t confused)

 

By focusing on a holistic startup branding model keeping in mind the above pointers, will help create a lasting impact on the minds of the customers and other stakeholders. At Genesis-BCW Step Up, we offer customizable branding solutions for startups aimed at helping brands scale up and create a positive identity for themselves. 

The future of PR relies more on the integrated communication approach

Like any form of marketing, PR for startups has also taken a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, part of which is because of the changing dynamics of the industry. Having to navigate through these tough times has brought on the understanding that now, more than ever, there is a need for traditional PR and digital PR to go hand in hand. 

The client partners are now looking to partner with those agencies who can guide them to reach their audience across communication channels. This means clear and consistent messaging across the platform and hence highlights the significant need for PR agency for startups to approach clients with an integrated communication offering. The agencies must offer 360 degree services inclusive of owned, earned, and paid media. 

The Digital PR agency for startups are also now trying to find a solution to incorporate both offline and online elements to gauge the interest of the clientele. While the tactics for them will vary, the intent will be the same and hence will help brands achieve the reach, both in numbers and quality. The larger objective of building reputation, credibility, and trust will eventually be achieved with a regular engagement.   

At Genesis BCW, we help in creating a smooth consistent channel of communication by offering integrated solutions and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders through online conversations. We provide end-to-end services, from traditional PR strategy to digital strategy, to influencer outreach, and building and managing communities on social media.

Why Startups in India Need Effective Public Relations

When an organization invests in a well thought-out, articulated and sustained PR effort, the return on investment can be incredibly valuable. For a startup, it is even more important to ensure the right reputation is established and putting a new venture on the map pays off. A well-structured PR strategy doesn’t only help in increasing visibility for the brand, but also attracts the right talent, helps in raising employee and investor morale which in-turn facilitates the process of fund raising.

Changing perceptions

There are many testimonials in the recent past like the success of Iroko TV, that prove how effective communication can completely transform a new inexperienced organization; into one of the most trusted and spoken about companies. This transformation is a result of the change in perception that a startup PR agency in India can bring about for a particular company.

It is thus important that every startup in India dedicates resources towards creating an effective public relation strategy. It is necessary to consider PR as an integral part of the business while formulating a startup idea.

Startups being beginners are considered to be learners and not a reliable source of information. But with the help of PR one can position the spokesperson as an industry thought leader, thus adding credibility the company.

Effective messaging

Again, to quote the example of Iroko TV, the PR strategy resulted to massive coverage in every major media brand including CNN, WSJ, Bloomberg and a host of others. As a result of this, the Iroko TV spokesperson was approached for expert opinion by most media organizations on the industry. This led to the transformation of consumer perception towards Iroko TV, from being apprehensive of purchasing it to considering it as an expert in TV technology. Effective messaging and perception, that is PR, also has a direct effect on the company sales. Being a startup, decent sale is one of the most important outcomes for a successful business model.

Start early 

This brings back focus on the fact that at the early stage itself, it is important to put heads together and dwell deeper into understanding how one wants their company to be perceived and scale it with time. This cannot be done without the help of experienced professionals who have been in the industry for a long duration and have been major contributors to the success of brands that once were startups. With perception, startups also need to clearly define the resources and time that can be delegated towards developing an effective communication model.