Thanks to our previous two posts in our branding series, you’re no doubt starting to get a good idea of what goes into branding and strategies that will work for your company. In this article, we’re going to wrap up our three-part series with some last factors and pieces of advice to keep in mind when creating and developing your business’s brand.

Explore Mediums. These are many ways to get your brand out there and interact with your audience. Some college students prefer reading, some like videos, some like pictures, and other like multiple mediums. Don’t feel like you need to stick to one type of content in order to stay “on-brand.” Your brand can consist of different forms of content and still be furthering your mission of brand recognition. Exploring mediums also goes for different websites, types of advertising, etc. Try different things to see which are the best fits for your company so you don’t waste time or resources on a medium that isn’t resonating with your consumer base.

Integrate Your Efforts. Branding goes beyond marketing; it’s intrinsic to your company culture. That means integrating your brand is key to its success. The more you can integrate your branding strategies and efforts into social media, communications, etc., the more on-target your brand will be. This also ties in to earlier points mentioned about being consistent and relevant.

Don’t Be Random. Again, consistency is key! Plan ahead so your marketing doesn’t appear random and instead well thought out and strategized. This will allow your marketing effort to be more brand-worthy and further your brand the right way. Additionally, when it comes to your marketing efforts, don’t cheat or veer from your brand guidelines as this will appear random to your consumers. Part of building your brand means carefully creating a guide to your brand and implements them across the board. You don’t want to then stray from those guidelines a few months later because you suddenly want to use a color that’s not part of your brand’s palette or post something that’s not in your brand’s voice. Doing this will weaken your brand recognition and dilute your brand overall, especially if you do it multiple times, so it’s better to not be random but instead stay “on-brand.”

Get Feedback. A great way to help develop your brand or make sure it’s successful down the road is to get feedback. Ask clients, employees, friends, etc., what they think of your brand and to choose a few words to describe it. If what they think of your brand is way off from what your brand is trying to convey and stand for, you may need to spend time doing some further development and tweaking to make sure your business’s brand is doing what you want and need it to do.

Thanks for sticking with us and reading this three-part series — hopefully, you’ve learned some key factors of branding and gained some insight into how to better brand your business to appeal to college students! Brand away!

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