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. 

How Digital Marketing Agency for Startups adds Value to Branding for Startups

A startup is the brain-child of a visionary at heart and an entrepreneur in mind. It is built from the ground up with immense amount of passion and belief. In the face of a highly competent and cluttered market, shining out seems like a herculean task. This is where communication steps in and creates a pathway for awareness, recall and trust.

With the birth of a new idea, a new business model emerges and it is important to understand how communication can fundamentally affect the success of a startup. To avoid remaining unknown and unrecognised, a startup should invest in a proper Digital Marketing Agency for Startups with proven communication strategy, as it creates the image, controls the reputation and helps in brand building.

PR provides the correct platforms to tell your story

During the initial phase of a startup, a good PR strategy can be really beneficial. It can provide the opportunity to connect with the target audience through the help of the media. PR can help in mapping the right opportunities that would help the startup achieve its goals. An effective PR strategy is essential for a startup given that often it could get lost in the chaos of the very busy Indian startup ecosystem. PR has the ability to impact the company’s perception, and as a consequence, its revenue and the investor opportunities that it is looking for.

Positive PR and media relations can have a remarkable effect on the acceptance of a startup along with consistent efforts and creativity. To back the communication there must be leverage in terms of quality products and adhering to promises from the company’s side.

PR should be integrated into the daily routine of a startup. There must be a pro-active approach in place with short-term tactics and a long-term strategy. It will help in building a deeper relationship with the media, which is a key influencer for the people. This enhances the brand and its image, while constantly keeping the audience updated on the company’s proceedings. PR holds the consumer’s interest together with creative campaigns and ideas that maintain their engagement with the company.

PR helps build Credibility

Being a small pawn in the mammoth business means that the consumers are most likely to be unaware of the company. Today, consumers are smart and like to stay informed. With the ease of access, they dwell into research before associating with a brand. This is where news coverage in the leading and reputed publication plays an important role in molding the decision of the consumer. It provides the much-needed credibility to the services and products, given that the company is relatively new.

PR establishes the founder as a thought Leader

In order to achieve the status of an established and trusted company, not only do the products and services have to be excellent, but also the founders have to be established as thought leaders and knowledge experts in the field.

PR makes this real by crafting opinion pieces by the founder, landing comments in business articles and targeting the correct media for the optimum results. This brings in recognition and recall in the consumers’ mind which in turn positions the founder as a thought leader. Building thought leadership is a gradual process, which brings us back to point that PR needs to be integrated into a startup’s daily routine.

PR is the best platform for creative storytelling

Storytelling is essential for startups as it assists in building the brand. With the ongoing digital wave, it is the responsibility of the brands to creatively and tactfully craft their key messages which when conveyed directly interests the target audience.

Communication puts in a constant effort to actively tell a startup’s story. The persistent reiteration of who the company and its founders are, help in driving home this agenda. It emphasizes on the key messages that the company stands for and wants to be recognised for to its consumers. The compelling stories emotionally connect and engage the target audience that in turn builds brand loyalty.

PR crafts the perfect narrative

A solid message sets the foundation for any communication that follows. The key message needs to be well-crafted, clear, crisp and strong. This message is consistently put out across all forms of communication. With this repeated exposure, the narrative starts seeping into the consumers’ mind which helps them understand the company and its positioning much better. Developing a clear and concise messaging platform that resonates with the key target audience is essential to a successful startup’s identity in the marketplace.

Having a message strategy puts everyone on the same page as far as understanding the startup, what its value proposition is and its story.

Source: https://step-up.in/how-communication-adds-value-to-startups-in-their-entrepreneurial-journey/

How to choose a Digital Marketing Agency for your Startup?

Most startups today are tech-driven in one way or another. One can easily say that it is the need of the hour. While startups do realise the importance of technology in businesses, many still neglect the significance of digital marketing. However, for startups to make the cut amidst tight competition, employing digital marketing strategies is important, or rather, essential. 

This is where digital marketing agency for startups has a role to play. While many believe in in-house marketing, it is safe to say that the job should rather be given to a group of dedicated digital marketing professionals who know their job best. 

But how does one choose a digital marketing agency for their startup? Here are some tips: 

1. Know your Goals

A startup needs to understand their communication goals, both long term, and short term. This goal should match the strengths of the chosen digital marketing agency for the desired outcome. 

2. The Agency’s Experience in the Startup Industry 

While streamlining an agency for your startup, you must analyse whether startups are the agency’s foray at all. Have they dealt with startups before? Do they understand the startup ecosystem? If they do, do they have relevant experience in the industry your startup belongs to? These are some questions you must address internally before reaching out. 

3. Industry Reputation

One would only want to be associated with a digital marketing agency that has a strong industry reputation. A digital marketing agency for startups must carefully be chosen basis the clients that the agency has had in the past. 

4. Team Members 

While this one might be difficult to assess in the first go, team members of the agency and the company must have a similar work ethic or culture. This will ensure efficiency in work and a long-term relationship for the future. 

Genesis BCW’s Step Up is an agency dedicated to achieving communication goals for startups. With considerable work experience in the startup ecosystem, the team at Step Up helps clients in finding the right digital marketing strategies for their business. 

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.

Few Amazing Successful Startup Traits you must know

Here, we are representing few traits especially for startups that you can adapt for your business.

1. Know your Business: The more you know about your industry, the more advantage you will have for your business startup idea.

2. Self – Motivated: An entrepreneur should be self-motivated so that you can always be determined even if no one else bothers about your success.

3. Know the competition: There is always a competition. And this is something one cannot miss.
4. Leadership: It shows how passionate one is as an organization to solve the pain points of audiences.

5. Follow Latest Trends: It is important for a startup to analyze which is the most trending story in the industry.

Website: http://step-up.in/

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.