When you’re the new kid on the block, it can be especially challenging to stand out. However, by integrating a brand strategy into your business plan, you can turn that challenge into an opportunity and create a sustainable platform for success. A brand is not just something that you slap on at the end of your marketing plan—it’s the foundation upon which everything else rests. A strong brand helps signal what sort of company you are and build trust with customers to secure recurring sales over time. Here are six pro tips for helping fitness companies build a brand from scratch:
1. Build from the ground up
One of the most important aspects of building a fitness brand is, to begin with, a solid strategy. This should be done before you start advertising, or have a business plan or marketing strategy. What does this strategy look like? Well, here are a few tips. First, you should determine your target market, and see who you’re trying to reach with your brand. Once you’ve got this figured out, you can start developing your strategy and figure out how much you’re willing to spend. Once you’ve got a strategy in place, it’s time to start building your brand. Be sure to include all of the components of a brand so that your company has an identifiable voice, appearance, and tone. These components include your logo, tagline, and other symbols, as well as marketing materials like brochures, websites, emails, and ads.
2. Think about who you’re trying to reach
Understanding who you’re trying to reach with your brand can help you build a stronger strategy around reaching that audience. Who are you trying to reach as a brand? What are they looking for? Who are they trying to solve a problem for? From these questions, you can better understand who your audience is and how to reach them. To do this, you’ll need to think about the various ways you can get your message out to your audience.
- Direct marketing: This is when you send out a product directly to your customers like letters or emails. You can also do this through social media.
- Public relations: With this, you’re trying to get your message out to a large audience via news media, blogs, or other platforms.
- Advertising: This is what most people think in terms of advertising—ads on TV, social media, billboards, etc.
- Guided learning: This is what happens when people receive content directly from your brand via emails, in-app messages, or online videos.
3. Be authentic and consistent
While it’s important to develop a strategy and brand for your company, it’s crucial to stay authentic and consistent as a brand. You’re the face of your business, after all, and if you don’t embody those principles, how can you expect anyone else to? Authenticity is what makes your business stand out—if customers feel it, they’ll go with it, and they’ll stick with you. Consistency is even more important because it helps reinforce your brand’s identity through repeated messaging. If your brand is consistent, customers will recognize your messaging and understand what your company stands for.
4. Design for motion/strong>
As you’re building your brand, you should take into account the various forms of branding that you’ll need.
- Logos: A logo is the face of your business, so it should be both memorable and consistent. It’s a visual representation of your brand, so it should be recognizable and iconic
- Slogans: Your catchphrases or slogans should be short and memorable, so they can help form the core message of your brand.
- Color palette: This can play a huge role in brand development, especially when it comes to app design. You want to pick colors that complement each other and help customers create associations with your brand.
- Typography: This can also play a big role in branding, as it can help customers understand your message and create a consistent look and feel with your brand.
- Badges: They are a great way to create an association with your brand.
- App design: Customers are more likely to return to your app once they’ve created an association with the look and feel of the app.
- Website design: Your website plays an important role in brand development. It’s where you should incorporate all of the branding elements, including images and videos
- Social media posts: They should also incorporate your branding elements, like logos and images.
- Business cards: They are becoming less and less important in the digital marketing world, but they still play a role in branding. They should be designed to both look professional and incorporate your branding elements.
- Other printed materials: The same applies to other printed materials like brochures or business cards—they should incorporate your branding elements.
5. Leverage well-known influencers
- When you’re trying to build a brand, sometimes the best way to reach your audience is to employ the help of well-known influencers. This can be some of your target markets, as they’re likely to appreciate the endorsement, or it can be outside experts like graphic designers or social media experts who can help you create a cohesive visual brand. When you’re looking to collaborate with an outside party, you should think carefully about who you choose. Many businesses choose to work with a local designer who’s a little closer, but you should always look to work with an expert who has the most experience and has worked with other brands in the industry. When choosing an influencer to collaborate with, you should think carefully about the following:
– How long has your brand been around? Is the influencer’s audience familiar with your company?
– What makes the influencer special and unique?
– What are their rates? Are they reasonable?
– What are their plans for the brand?
6. Track performance and measure outcomes
Brands are built on trust, and you need to build that trust with customers to sell their products, but also to convince them to become brand advocates and customers. Building a successful fitness brand requires a lot of work, but it also requires that you track performance and measure outcomes. Without metrics, you can’t know whether your brand strategy is working. You’ll need to track and report on everything from emails opened to click-through rates to sales. If you’re not tracking and reporting, you’re flying completely blind. Without metrics, you can’t tell if your brand strategy is working. You won’t be able to identify what’s not working, whether it’s your marketing strategy or your product itself.
Final Thoughts
With fitness companies, building a brand is crucial. However, it can be challenging to stand out from the crowd. A strong brand helps signal what sort of company you are, and it builds trust with customers to secure recurring sales over time. When implemented effectively, a branded strategy can turn fitness companies into standalone brands with unique personalities, service offerings, and target audiences.
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