The year 2020 comes with so many big realities of recognizing how drastically marketing is changing in the ever-growing world of the internet. What most businesses seem to be struggling with, that wasn’t already established before this massive change, is branding. There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings of what branding is and what it’s not. It is so important to understand this in order to grow your business and awareness of it. Once that core has been built and established, the brand is built off of it. Red Shark Digital is your branding agency in Raleigh, NC to help you with all brand-related struggles.

There are several hurdles that businesses have to overcome in order to achieve building your brand. Messaging is easy. Messaging to reach an audience that is the absolute best and will provide the biggest return, well, that isn’t so easy. Every person won’t be captured by your business, who you are, and what you do. The good news is, you don’t want every person. But, how do you talk to those that you DO want? The thing is, there is no right answer. Your audience may consist of several different audiences. In order to achieve your goal of reaching all, you come up with different messaging for each audience. You learn their likes, dislikes, what captures them, what turns them off, and you run with it. You may have four or more different versions of your messaging, and that’s okay. As long as you are seeing the results and building that brand the way you want it, whatever it takes!

Now that you’ve figured out your messaging, the next step is to determine how your logo is going to match that messaging. Same goes for your logo as does your messaging; you may have different versions that match the audience that you want to appeal to. As long as you have specific guidelines to stay within, create as many versions necessary to be successful. It may take some trial and error to determine the final versions needed. Just be careful that you don’t release anything that you can’t come back from. This is where trends come into play and why understanding trends is so incredibly important.

First of all, understand the current trends and do all that you can to understand what is popular, what is making its way out, and what is making its way in. You never want to come into a trend too late, but you’re more than likely ok coming into a trend too early. You’ll stand out and people will remember that you were one of the first that really implemented it. What are the trends we’re seeing? Well, this year so far we have seen a lot, but here is a sneak peek at some of it. We can’t reveal all of our secrets though, you’ll have to call us to find out the rest.

The No-Ad, Ads

People don’t like advertising anymore. So much so that they will PAY to not see ads. That is a big deal: people will pay to not see ads that you are paying for. Let that sink in. What that means is, you have to get really creative to get in front of people. We may be biased, but that’s what digital marketing is all about (hint, let us help you figure it out).

Social Responsibility

In our current climate, everyone is passionate about something. Be aware and sensitive to this. Collaborate with organizations or choose causes to give to. This really makes a difference in people’s perception of your business. You may not hit on every single person’s passion, but the effort shows them that you care and are willing to give back.

Include Your Customers

All companies can be found online, if you aren’t online, then you aren’t relevant anymore. Plain and simple. So, it isn’t just enough to be found online anymore. There is only so much that you can do to stand out by just having a website or social media pages. How do you include your customers? Online communities that make your customers feel like they are the VIP customers. All are welcome, but only some will join. Those that join will feel a certain allegiance to you, and that is how you create loyal customers. Include them in business decisions, show them that their voice and opinion matters. It isn’t difficult but can make a world of difference.

Visual is EVERYTHING

It’s a fact, people have become more and more visual these days. Everything is available in some sort of image, graphic, or visual component. Give the people what they want. This can tie in with no-ad ads; by branding images and graphics, you can capture attention without being so in their face and create an interest around your business. Outside of just pictures, think video. People love videos because they don’t have to put in much thought to watch them and they don’t have to read, but they can gain so much in a short period of time. We’d be here all day if we went into all of the ways that you can implement this tactic, so just keep visual in mind and understand its importance. We can help you with the specifics later.

Less Is More, Throw It Back

This one has two components. People have started to really like the ‘less is more’ theory. Simplify your brand and logo; it creates an easily recognizable company and provides you a blank slate to be creative. Think of all of the big, well-known companies. They’ve really created a simpler brand and it may not be widely spoken about, but it's widely recognized. This gives you a chance to throw it back to that nostalgic branding you’ve seen more and more being produced by companies. It brings your audience back and gets them in their feels. That’s the main goal: Make. Them. Feel.

While these aren’t all of the trends, not nearly, this gives you a small look into the future and present of advertising. Beware, this could all change tomorrow. You have to stay up to date on what’s going on because these trends could take a complete turn the opposite way at any second. One company could shake it up and change it for everyone. Your best bet? Hire an agency like Red Shark and let us help you with your branding and keeping up with the trends.

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