First of all the advice, the most important and essential, to create a Business Plan. But what is this "Business Plan"? It is very simple, a scheme, where investments, the budget, the actions to be performed and the peculiarities of the brand and its target are foreseen in the short, medium and long term. For example, if I want to open a new wine bottling and sales business, I will first have to understand what my target will be (i.e. people willing to spend money to buy my product), from this analysis I will be able to immediately understand the maximum price of my product and understand if the investment can have a return (if I have a low spending power target and want to sell a bottle of wine for € 200.00 each, also having high production costs, I will have to give up or modify strategy and target, otherwise it will be a failure). Having a clear understanding of possible buyers and their management costs (even hidden or unexpected ones) is the key to giving shape to a solid starting point. The next step in creating a business plan is to estimate a realistic budget for the various operations to be performed to create and promote the product and brand. Always returning to the example of the winery, if my budget is € 1000.00, but the rent of the shed where to produce alone amounts to € 2000.00, I will already be at a loss. They seem trivial, but they bring "the dream into reality", in this case, the analysis makes you understand the need to accumulate more capital or find partner investors. The Business Plan also compensates for this function, if you do not have a high economic availability, with a plan that also provides for the economic return and makes you fall in love with the project, you can attract investors or business angels to recover the necessary budget. Now that you have your Business Plan, let's move on to the next milestone.
The second step, inevitable and necessary, is to find a designer who has what it takes to give your brand a face. Remember that estimating the right budget is important to be able to work with real professionals and obtain results that allow you to reach the top. Skimping on communication is the mistake that leads to the premature decline of many brands. Relying on your "cousin", "friend", "relative", "colleague", who knows how to fiddle with photoshop is not ideal for creating a brand that works and has the right characteristics. A practical example: if I have to make an important medical visit, I will go to a luminary so as to be sure of the results, certainly not to my cousin who is a plumber but reads medical books in his spare time. Same thing goes for a brand, remedying the mistakes made at the start is much more complex and expensive than creating a brand from scratch, this is because it will be necessary to change the opinion of users who have already come in contact with it and do not have a good one. opinion. Many times, to repair the mistake made to "save", you go to spend 5 to 10 times more than the costs you would have incurred by contacting a professional right away. How to know if who I have found has the right skills? Unfortunately, the creative world is full of "gurus" and "fake designers" who fill their mouths with English and high-sounding terms just to impress users without having a degree or a portfolio to support their professionalism. It is good to look for professionals on Linkedin, a true creative professional has an updated Linkedin profile, with different experiences and confirmed skills, as well as having reviews on the same profile that make you understand his competence. He has a portfolio on Behance or Dribble and a website that reflects his character and style, allowing you to feel his professionalism. The only "trick" to save is to rely on a freelance or small studio and not a large studio, they will be able to support you in the same way but with more accessible starting costs and greater attention to the customer.
The third fundamental point is to understand which channels to focus on. Instagram is not always the ideal social network to promote your Brand, sometimes being on some social networks is more harmful than useful. There are several cases of high-level brands that burn millions of euros in advertising on unsuitable social networks. For example, if we are a fast food restaurant and we implement a campaign to communicate new surprises for free, it is useless to advertise on Linkedin, it is not the right social network for that type of communication. To understand which communication channels are necessary and the budget to invest in them, it is good to fully understand your target, create focus groups to test ideas and action models and do A / B tests on communication on specific platforms. These actions will in any case be suggested by the creative professional you will turn to.
Fourth and last tip, but not least, is to have an excellent SEO in the team, being able to be found by the right people without spending shovels of euros is essential to be able to invest in other brand developments. Having a professional who takes care of campaigns, indexing and best practices related to optimization, allows you to have an active control over the statistics of the site and social networks, understand where to direct resources and which keywords to aim for to increase engagement of the public and therefore sales and brand awareness. Ultimately, even with these tips, it is not certain that everything is fine, there are a thousand variables that can lead the project to failure or success. But if you follow these four simple (how complex) tips you will have the best chance of emerging and achieving success. Image credits: Pexels
