Follow This Brand Launch Template To Win Sales On Day One

A memorable, on-point brand is every bit as important as a good product or service.

And to launch an effective brand, you need to have a purpose, a connection with your audience, and a place in the marketplace.

In this guide, we’re going to show you exactly how to launch a brand – from defining your brand identity and creating your brand materials to building internal procedures and promoting your brand.

Whether you’re launching a brand from nothing, planning a product launch, or rebranding your business, this guide can help you build a winning brand launch strategy.

As we’ve just mentioned, there are many reasons for a brand launch campaign. Once you’ve defined why you’re rebranding, the next big decision is to decide WHO you’re rebranding for.

Before the Viddyoze brand launch, we spent a lot of time putting together detailed profiles (or avatars) of our dream customers, so that we could go out and get these people buying our product.

We ran focus groups. We looked at our competitors. We asked a lot of questions until we really knew our audience.

And by knowing our audience, we mean specifics. Specifics like their age, location, occupation, spending patterns, and general interests.

Pro tip: don’t have the budget to run focus groups? Login to Facebook analytics and Google Analytics, you’ll find a treasure trove of customer info.

Ultimately, the goal is to develop a buyer persona which you can position your brand against.

A classic sales mantra is: people don’t buy products. They buy solutions to problems.

By understanding the real problems your customer avatar is facing, you’re in the best possible position to market your brand as the go-to solution for those problems.

And thanks to your consumer research, you’ll be able to really hone your marketing messaging to your dream customer’s tastes. Because we’ve already established their interests, values, and communication style – all of which is crucial.

Once you understand your dream customer, you can begin to develop a brand identity that speaks to them directly.

Forbes reports that people are 4 to 6 times more likely to buy from and champion “purpose-driven companies”. In other words, people like companies with similar values to themselves.

Take the contents of your focus groups – the concerns, fears, issues, etc. – and decide how you can address those problems through your brand.

For example, let’s say you’re a coffee brand. The focus groups highlighted that consumers are put off because your product isn’t Fairtrade. The solution is to improve your supply chains and pay fairer wages to all employees and farmers.

Remember: Listen. Act. Position yourself as the solution.

The next step is to write your mission statement, which is essentially a set of goals you want to deliver for your customers, that’s displayed on your website. It’s where consumers go to see if your values are aligned.

Mission statements traditionally sum up a brand in 4 or 5 digestible, easy-to-understand points. This is ours:

• To help more businesses generate traffic, leads, and sales with online videos
• To help more people create better, faster, video content
• To help non-technical users make amazing video animations
• To fully automate the creation of personalized video content

It’s punchy, no BS, and conversational – a tone we maintain across our whole brand.

It’s also a reference point for everyone involved in the company to understand what direction they’re working towards.

Next, make the physical, visible aspects of your new brand. This is a set of branded materials that define you.

For example, a set of brand guidelines (fonts, colors, logos, etc.) and a tone of voice (how your written content reads).

Consistency is vital. It takes most people between 5 and 7 interactions with a brand for them to remember it, according to Pam Moore. To make consumers remember you, all of your assets need to match.

Here’s every asset a successful brand launch plan should have:

Company Logo

A minimalist logo featuring the company name is a must (think Apple or Amazon). This is your badge; your major touchpoint; the most important part of a successful brand launch.

The goal is to make a logo which will be instantly recognizable to your customer avatar.

If redesigning, try to update your logo but keep it recognizable to the continuity of the old one (Marriot, Visa, and Cadillac are great examples).

If you’re undergoing a full rebranding, which includes changing your company name, we recommend using a transition logo in the short-term.

A transition logo simply acknowledges the old company name in the current design. The most common design is to add a strapline such as ‘formerly X company’ beneath your image.

Company Colors

Brand colors are powerful. So powerful, in fact, that they increase brand recognition by up to 80% (Forbes).

They communicate and evoke emotions without using words, so choose yours wisely.

• Are you playful and fun? Orange might be a good fit.
• Calm and dependable? Go with blue – a favorite for banks.
• Bold and exciting? Maybe red’s your color.
• Maybe it’s none of the above – Airbnb invented its own color for its rebranding process.

If you’re unsure which colors to use, look back to your dream customer’s avatar. What colors would they enjoy? What colors do people in their demographic usually engage with?

Remember, this goes far beyond your logo. A brand needs a palette of colors that complement your major colors. This is used on your website, packaging, comms… everywhere really.

Brand Typography

Just like color, a new brand launch needs a stand-out font or set of fonts to use across all media.

Apple has San Francisco. The New York Times uses a classic blackletter typeface for its logo and Georgia for its copy. Nike and Omega use Futura.

The point is, a new brand launch needs a recognizable typeface that speaks to its target audience.

Going for classy and elegant? Maybe you want a Script font.

Expert in a serious field? Go Serif. Modern and cool? Pick a sans serif font.

Branded Video Transitions

Video is gold for new brands.

A whopping 93% of marketers said that it helped them increase brand awareness, according to Wyzowl.

But video content is only effective if it’s branded properly. That means using branded video transitions, branded intros and outros, and logos to really cement your brand launch in the minds of viewers.

With Viddyoze, you can create professional, scroll-stopping videos in a matter of minutes – and you don’t need any previous video experience or technical expertise.

For a one-time subscription fee, you’ll have access to thousands of epic video animation assets which you can use to launch your brand, raise brand awareness, and market your products.

New Website Design

Statista forecasts that e-commerce sales will grow by 50% in the next 4 years. In 2021, they accounted for $4.9 trillion dollars.

In short, you need a website for a successful brand launch.

Any new website design should be branded with the changes we’ve already mentioned. Every inch, from the about me to the product pages, needs to be written in the same tone of voice, on pages that fit with your color palette.

Social Media Banners

Your social media accounts are an extension of your website. In fact, for a lot of brands, it’s the first point of interaction with their consumers.

Ensure every channel you use has an up-to-date logo as the profile image and the same branded banners. All posts, big and small, should be written in your brand’s tone of voice.

It’s also worth creating a branded “Google My Business” as a part of your brand rollout.

4. Finalize Your Launch Date

Whether you’re launching a completely new brand or a new product, pick a hard launch date to show your new brand to the world – and stick to it.

That way, you can start building up the hype well in advance.

Check out Apple for inspiration – in the last 20 years, no one’s come close to them when it comes to launching new things.

A few other things to think about before you launch a brand:

• Don’t schedule your brand launch during a popular date or holiday – it will just get lost in the noise
• If you can, tie it in with a convention or an industry event. Launch live on stage if you’re a speaker, or at your booth (decked out in your new colors, of course). If you have the budget, you could even host your own brand launch event
• Launch with an irresistible offer – sales, deals, free training courses for your service, etc

Before your brand launch campaign goes live, you’ll need to pre-market like crazy.

Think about it this way: people can’t buy what they don’t know about.

To ensure you have a successful brand launch, you need to stir up a buzz about your brand, products, services.

Here are 7 pre-launch brand marketing ideas to utilize:

Start A Branded Newsletter

Email marketing is a key weapon in any brand’s arsenal. The DMA reports that for every $1 invested in email, you can expect $42 in return.

Pre-launch, begin creating a mailing list (more on how in a minute) and build anticipation by sending out regular content prior to launch. This could be something as simple as a countdown, or behind-the-scenes videos showing your team in the build-up to the big brand launch.

Email is a great way to track your “owned traffic” (traffic generated from assets hosted on your site).

Run Targeted Ads

Paid ads are a simple, easy way to create a buzz in the build-up to your brand launch.

Using Facebook and Google (YouTube), you can target your dream customer persona. Tell them about your USPs, how you’re going to solve their problems, and how you’re going to disrupt your sector.

This is one of the best ways to source email addresses for your mailing list, too. Encourage sign-ups to your mailing list with a combination of pre-roll and in-video ads (YouTube), social posts, photo ads, and video ads.

Sponsor Industry Publications & Use Their Mailing Lists

Old-school but effective. Major industry publications already have a relevant audience that you can tap into.

Reach out and place an advert, sponsor a page, or write an advertorial. If the magazine has a review section, you could send over a product pre-brand launch, too.

It’s also worth noting that most specialist publications have their own mailing list. Reach out and suggest a sponsored eBlast (email takeover). You’ll have to pay, but the exposure to you’ll get from this type of audience can be priceless.

Partner With Influencers (And Make Them Brand Ambassadors)

Seventy percent of millennials say that their peers influence their buying decisions (LinkedIn), and as they’re currently the largest adult cohort on earth (1.8 billion), it looks like influencer marketing is here to stay.

Form a partnership with one or more influencers in your industry and convert their audience into your audience.

Create brand ambassadors by having your influencers post about your product over several months, explain how it fits into their lives, helps them, and so on. It’s much more authentic and effective.

Be Active On Industry Forums

Quora. Stack Overflow. Even Reddit. These websites are crammed full of curious questions on a wide range of subjects.

At this point, you know what your customers’ problems are (thanks to your persona), so it should be easy to scour these sites, answering questions that relate to your product.

The key here is to position your brand as the solution by providing useful information. If there are specific industry-related forums (for example, Techist for tech, or WorldFitness Training for exercises and wellbeing) try these too.

Appear on Podcasts

Podcasts are everywhere. In the USA, Nielsen says that half of all homes are podcast fans – and that’s 60 million homes.

Chances are, there are already plenty of industry-specific podcasts out there that you can appear on. Like a sponsored ad in an industry publication, this allows you to tap into a pre-existing audience and build some hype for your brand launch.

To start with, look for several smaller, niche podcasts. Not only will it be easier to get on, but their audiences are likely to be hyper-engaged. As your new brand grows, you can reach out to bigger pods with larger download numbers.

Pro tip: Listen to the Viddyoze’s founders podcast Just 3 Clicks for expert insights and actionable tips to grow your business.

Consider Competitions Or Giveaways

Video giveaways and competitions are a great way to get customers excited about your new brand – because who doesn’t love free stuff?

The trick here is figuring out what your audience would actually want – not what you think they’d want.

For example, do you sell a software service? Consider a free product tutorial by your CEO. Is your product going to be competing in a crowded market? Giveaway a free trial to tempt customers to your new brand.

Getting attention is one thing – keeping it is a whole other ball game. Launch day is only the beginning.

To keep people interested in your brand post-launch, a solid content marketing strategy is essential.

Here are some of the content ideas you can use to keep people interested after launch day:

Video Content

Video content is the internet’s preferred way of consuming media. In the USA alone, 244.4 million people watch digital videos every year.

So how can you use video to keep your customers interested in your new brand? In short, show them how your product helps them. Address the major pain points of your customer personas.

Examples of effective video content include:

• Product videos (these are also great for a new product launch)
• Tutorial videos (make multiple videos, each one dealing with a different issue)
• Social media ads

Whatever type of video you create, you must ensure that it’s branded to a professional level.

Why? Because branded content stands out. Neilson reports that branded content creates 86% brand recall.

With Viddyoze, you can make world-class branded animations – intros, outros, transitions, and lower thirds – in a matter of minutes. It’s super easy to use, with no technical knowledge required, leaving you more time to focus on other areas of your company.

Keep Your Newsletter Active

Don’t slack off on your newsletter once your brand launch has gone live – like all things in marketing, consistency is key.

So how often should you send out a newsletter? Some research suggests weekly is the way to go, while others say monthly.

Really, it all depends on the content you’re able to put out. If you’ve got enough original, interesting stuff to say every week, do it. If not, go monthly.

Be Active on Social Media & Post In Relevant Groups

Chances are your brand launch has earned you tons of new followers. Engaging your following is the best way to promote growth, increase brand awareness, and gain more customers.

This requires an active social media presence. Be sure to ask questions, run polls, respond to comments (praise and complaints!), and so on. Remember, your social media channels should be an extension of your new brand.

Go one step further and post your video content, blog posts, and other materials in industry forums as a response to relevant questions and queries.

Blog Posts

For extra reach, supplement your videos with written content, such as blog posts. This type of content is perfect for email newsletters, social media posts, and launch follow-up campaigns.

Written content is also great for SEO. Blogging allows you to pull in additional customers with search terms related to your product (again, think about your persona’s questions and try to answer them in your posts). In general, SEO leads have a much higher close rate than outbound leads. This will work long after launch day.

From your email signature to your sales brochure, every single piece of material must be updated in line with your brand. Consistent branding is vital for a successful external brand launch.

That means liaising with all teams – specifically marketing, sales, comms, and HR – and conducting a deep, cross-department audit.

Start with the most used materials from each department and work backwards, checking off every piece of content, both external and internal. When it comes to strong branding, everybody has to play their part – even small issues, such as an old logo on a marketing deck can dilute the power of your new brand.

Although this is a bigger issue for rebranding businesses, it doesn’t hurt for new brands to run a similar check to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Branding isn’t just a marketing issue – every single person in the company needs to buy-in and understand the message.

Ultimately, the brand begins with your people; without their engagement, your messaging will come across as hollow and disingenuous. If the whole team isn’t engaged, how can you expect them to live the values?

Be sure to share key information, such as campaign release and launch dates, and early drafts of branding at all-staff meetings. Also, run regular workshops, feedback sessions and Q&As prior to launch.

Lastly, share the finished branding assets with your team before you go public. Have some fun; call it a mini internal brand launch.

When it comes to branding, measuring ROI can be tricky. For most businesses, it comes down to one thing: winning new customers.

Prior to launch, you should have a clear set of goals (for example, X number of new customers in X months), and a set amount you are willing (or expect) to spend to acquire a customer.

Remember that effective branding is an ongoing process. It’s important to recognize what worked and what didn’t during your launch campaign and the aftermath.

A powerful, instantly recognizable brand is priceless. It builds trust, pulls in new business, and, ultimately, makes money. Without a clear brand strategy, you’ll never make it to the top of your industry, no matter how good your product is.

Using these 9 steps, you’ll be able to establish a winning brand strategy, whether you’re launching one from scratch or refreshing an existing brand. With Viddyoze, you can easily brand or rebrand your video content in minutes, keeping things consistent, professional, and engaging.

Research suggests that companies with consistent branding can generate higher revenue levels than those that don’t. Make yourself the former with Viddyoze.