Once you've nailed your idea, having a focus on building your new tech brand is just as important as ensuring that people actually want to purchase what you're offering.
We’ve worked with some incredible up-and-coming (and rapidly growing!) tech businesses to refine their brands, establish marketing strategies and transform websites. (shout out to our clients Kani, VEO and MedPoint!)
It’s given us the opportunity to look at what makes them successful, so here are our top tips for those looking to build or grow a tech brand of your own.
1. Know your audience
At this point, we’re assuming you already know exactly what your product (software, service etc.) is and who it’s for. But do you really know your audience? A useful exercise to help you get into the minds of your clients is to create customer personas for each segment of your target audience. Ask questions like… What’s their name? What’s their background? Where do they work? What are their pain points? What do they do in their spare time?
Then you can map out the best channels to reach them on, and create compelling key messages that tell them exactly why they can’t possibly live without your product!
As part of this process, remember to include company messaging i.e. why you are doing what you are doing, and what your core values are. We typically kick off projects with a discovery workshop where one of the activities is to create detailed personas. You can find out a bit more about our process here.
2. Find a way to set your tech brand apart
According to data from Companies House, the number of new tech companies that launched in the UK last year rose by 14%. And we’re sure that growth will have increased again this year! The UK tech sector also enjoyed a record-breaking 12 months from the perspective of investment, and the industry is one of the most exciting emerging markets.
So you get where we’re going with this – it’s a competitive industry! It means you need to set yourself apart however you can and focus on the key differentiators and unique selling points of your products or services.
Figure out what your differentiators are, and shout about them!
3. Personality goes a long way
One way to help set your business apart from competitors is to really show your brand’s personality. You can do this through something as simple as the tone of voice you use in marketing materials. Just make sure your consistent which whatever it is you choose to do.
And even though many tech brands involve complex data or processes, that’s not what your customers want to see. They want to know how buying from you is going to make their lives better and easier.
So show them how you’re going to do that! This goes back to your customer personas and those key messages. Once you’ve got them down, it’s much easier to create a consistent brand image and identity that resonates with your target audience.
4. Be visual
It seems obvious but, when it comes to tech, using visuals is a much better way to concisely describe what you do than lots of text. It’s often easier for someone to see how a product works than when it’s described. You could use clear step-by-step diagrams, photos or videos of your product in use, or clear and simple infographics.
The way you use visuals should be clearly related to your brand values. A prime example of this would be Apple’s branding. It’s clearly aligned with the functional simplicity of its products, and the consistency of this runs throughout its product range.
5. Create engaging content
If your product is ground-breaking, this should be reflected in everything you do. This means sharing interesting, valuable content with your audience at multiple touch-points. Content plays a huge role in growing successful tech brands, especially when it’s done right!
You should create regular, relevant content that teaches your audience something when they read it. This can take the form of blogs, videos, infographics and social media posts. But as we’ve already mentioned – be consistent!
Building strong brand awareness requires a long-term investment, whether that be in your team’s time, or generating the content you need to stand out.
Feeling inspired?
We design websites and branding for tech companies that are doing incredible things all over the world. You can take a look at some of our work here, or get in touch with one of the team for a chat about your tech brand.
In the meantime, we share some of the cool and creative stuff we spot over on Twitter. Give us a follow here.