• Shannon Eastman

[GUIDE] Brand Building - Why is it important, what is it and how to do it

Updated: May 19

Brand Building is really about being seen by your ideal target market. It can fall into the bucket of PR and a little bit in the bucket of marketing.

Here's an easy way to separate the 3 parts of business development:

  1. PR - is about being seen. It's building your brands awareness and presence consistently over 16 consecutive weeks to go from inertia to momentum. This is the primary focus of this particular post. This lives very much at the top of your sales funnel. The brand building stuff - are like Feel Goods for your target market.

  2. Marketing - is about inviting a specific action. A call to action. It is an invitation to better understand how your thing solves their pain.

  3. Sales - is about the transaction. Sometimes we have pre-sales steps, transaction steps and then post sales steps. For most of us it's just the sale and maybe a kick-off call.

For the purpose of this post, we will use the label - Brand Building - to represent PR, Being Seen, and the stuff that goes into the top of your sales funnel.

What is Brand Building?

Brand Building is 1 of the 3 critical steps when it comes to generating revenue. This is you being seen by your specific target market in a meaningful way, over a set period of time, that does two things for the market:

  1. Education - to better understand their pain (situation) to the degree they can be more effective in their respective roles when it comes to resolving it.

  2. Inspiration - to know more about how your solution can directly effect positive change for them.

And two things for you:

  1. Presenting you at the right time, at the right place, with the right form of content that follows a natural progression of Know, Like, Trust.

  2. Facilitating meaningful action between your and your target market that weaves in a deliberate and specific call-to-action.


PR is about being seen (top of the funnel)

Marketing is about meaningful call-to-action (middle of the funnel)

Sales is about the transaction (bottom of the funnel). All three are important parts of moving a target market from cold to brand ambassador over a 16week period.

Why is brand building important?

Brand building, the first step of 3 critical steps is the part where you get; discovered, become acquainted with and go on to develop rapport, relationship, that all facilitates -

“I like you (because you are perfectly placed to solve my pain) , I trust you (I would enjoy working with you). - Yes - let’s do that thing (engage your call-to-action)."

What makes up an effective Brand Building Programme?

  1. Time: Being seen consistently, week in and week out, for 16 consecutive weeks using a system

  2. Content: Educate and Inspire for a specific target market

  3. Sales Funnel: Content for both Being Seen and then Call to Action.

  4. Target Market Access

What results can you expect from a Brand Building Campaign?

  1. Your target market becomes familiar and comfortable seeing you. They know what you're about before you walk in the door. They have been educated and inspired by your online presence. (Reach and Frequency)

  2. Influence the narrative

  3. Googleable Search results and rank for key words using video, visual, and text based media

  4. You are deemed relevant to the industry

  5. Perfectly set up the marketing efforts that invite a deliberate call-to-action. Not go in cold and have everyone feel like you're humping their leg to sell them something.

How can you optimise, maximise and leverage your business development efforts as a small business?

Collaborate with a brand or brands, already known, liked, and trusted by your ideal target market. Do a 16-week campaign with them. Maximum 3 brands at a time.

Engage a business development system and methodology that has a track record of success well inside 16 weeks.

You can find our entire system on our blog here.

Leverage efforts over each 4-week block to drive a meaningful commercial result - not a one off tactic. People who do use one-off tactics are usually the people who end up thinking marketing doesn't work.

If you're just starting out and wondering where to begin...this could help.

  1. Start with your commercials. How much revenue, which product and for which target market.

  2. Then become well acquainted with your Target Market

  3. Then resolve the messaging, insights and resources your ideal Target Market would value most.

  4. Create content

  5. Share that content on the platforms where your Target Market already hangs out in today.

  6. Commit to daily visibility over 16-weeks.

  7. Have a marketing layer mapped out. What is the call-to-action that would land best with your target market. I'm almost certain it is NOT a demo of your tool. Too soon for that.

And here's a detailed breakdown of Brand Building ideas, formats and size for the top of your funnel.

The Sales Strategy Blueprint:

  • Feel Goods: Brand Building

  • Free Goods: Marketing

  • Trial Goods: There's where your demo goes

  • Invest in Goods: Point of Transaction

Shannon Eastman, Growth Consultant

#PersonalGrowth #BusinessGrowth #GrowthHacking

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Shannon Eastman is a growth consultant, human behaviour expert, communications adviser, management consultant, mentor and business coach. Shannon is the Host of inside GROWTH, Founder of Funds Ireland MiniCon and an Advisor to starts ups in the Middle East.

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