Crafting Your Dream Branding Team: 4 Strategies for Business Leaders
Branding is one of the most critical aspects of any business looking to set up for success. It allows the audience to know a company beyond its products or services and to gauge the relevance and positioning of the brand to their needs and wants.
Many companies hire branding agencies to meet their needs, but having an in-house team has advantages — better brand knowledge, more investment and focus, and cost-effectiveness.
Building the dream team has its nuances, and it is essential to ensure your process is cohesive and results-driven. Here are some tips to create a top-notch branding team.
1. Decide on a Realistic Goal
Before creating an in-house branding team, consider what you want to achieve. Your goal should align with the company’s vision. After all, your plan will position you in the market with a competitive advantage, build your audience’s trust and develop your brand’s personality.
The goal should be measurable and actionable. This would make it easier for the team to track performance and monitor what’s working and what’s not. Use KPIs, marketing metrics and sales objectives to add substance to your objective.
Say your branding goal is “To increase website conversion rate by 30% by the fourth quarter through updated web content branding.” Your next step is to analyze if you have the means for it. Are you willing to set aside some budget? You could work on customizing your brand goals to reflect your resources.
2. Find the Right Internal and External Talent
Branding teams will not succeed without the right talent. Hiring people with specialized skill sets ensures a focused approach to the job and accelerates goal realization. For example, your marketing manager might double as a branding manager. Still, hiring someone else gets you a person entirely focused on the task, optimizing performance and maximizing the quality of work.
Team members should be creative and resourceful, have sound brand knowledge and have a sharp understanding of the goals. Hiring people with the specialized skill sets needed for the job will also improve performance, efficiency and collaboration across the team.
In addition to your internal talent, most businesses will need outside companies that specialize in areas critical to your branding efforts. Some of the most important to consider include:
- Public relations (PR) specialists: PR is a rapidly growing business, expected to surpass a value of $129 billion by the end of 2025. They exist solely to manage a brand’s public image and communication with the public, making them invaluable to a company’s branding efforts. They can help with media relations, crisis management and press releases, ensuring your brand maintains a positive reputation.
- Market research firms: Understanding who your target market is and what they value is a vital part of any business’ branding efforts. Market research companies provide insights into consumer behavior, current market trends and user preferences, allowing you to tailor your branding strategy accordingly.
- Search engine optimization (SEO) agencies: Most companies invest between $1,500 and $5,000 on SEO each month, which brings significant ROI as it enhances online brand visibility and effectiveness. Working with an SEO agency can complement your internal team’s efforts by providing expert insights and strategies to improve your digital presence.
- Advertising agencies: Likewise, ad agencies can help brands develop and execute campaigns across more traditional channels such as television and billboard advertising. By channeling both online and offline brand visibility efforts, businesses can attract new customers from a range of locations and demographics.
It’s just as important to make sure these companies are the right fit in terms of both talent and culture. Consider conducting initial “interviews” with each of the businesses you consider working with outside of your own organization to make sure the companies you choose are equipped to handle your unique business needs.
3. Invest in Training and Development
Staying abreast of trends is crucial in the ever-changing marketing world. This could be in strategy planning, media and communications, or IT and tech. The branding team conducts market research, develops strategies and analyzes key demographics. Training and development allow them to approach their duties with a better understanding and equip them with the industry’s latest developments.
Your team could consist of experts and job knowledge is usually built with experience, but even then, regular training is essential for having a competitive edge in the market. Optimize continuous learning to give the company and its brand the best outcome. You could opt for workshops instead of seminars and introduce individual coaching for those who need it.
Cultivate Communications Among Members
The team’s success in achieving goals depends on their ability to work together and nurture a collaborative environment.
Good team communication improves efficiency, allows resourceful problem-solving, enhances productivity, and builds a conducive and optimistic work environment. Collaboration ensures tasks are done efficiently, workload is optimized and goals are achieved smoothly.
Members should be comfortable sharing ideas, identifying a campaign’s strengths and weaknesses, and improving workflows. As a leader, you are often responsible for instilling these skills and empowering employees to troubleshoot together by organizing brainstorming sessions, project update meetings and regular catch-ups.
Empower Your Branding by Building a Proactive Team
Having the right people with relevant skills working toward a common goal will help you elevate your brand further. An effective branding team improves parameters like brand loyalty, recall and recognition, as well as KPI metrics like conversion rates, sales growth and search engine rankings.
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