5 Tips to Elevate Your Brand in 2022 | Completely Moonstruck

We are in times of change, and if one thing is certain– brands that evolve with changing times stand stronger than those that don’t. 

While certain aspects of your brand identity should be set in stone, i.e. your logo, brand colors, and brand personality, how your brand interacts with people should remain fluid and respond to evolving customer perspectives, and trends. 

Let’s dive into some branding tips and trends for 2022 and how you can keep your brand front and center this year.

1. Take the Sustainable Route

Now more than ever, consumers are going out of their way to make more sustainable buying choices. You have the opportunity to be the business that makes it easier for them, bring sustainability to the forefront of your band by communicating how you’re contributing to more Earth-friendly practices with your audience and consumers.

The fact is, climate change is getting harder and harder to ignore, and consumers are looking for ways they can offset their carbon footprint. Sustainable packaging, eco-friendly products, reusable or compostable containers, ethical sourcing—all of these things matter to a modern-day consumer.

2. Imperfection in marketing

A great way to elevate your brand in 2022 is by doing away with perfectly photoshopped and curated images. People are growing tired of the flawless skin. 51% of consumers believe businesses lack authentic content, but 90% of consumers desire it. As a resulting trend, more and more brands are turning to images that haven’t been over-edited to better reflect reality.

With people, this means showing wrinkles and skin imperfections. With products, it means showing them off in real-life scenarios rather than overly edited studio shots. 

3. Let’s hear it for user-created-content!

User-created content is content created by users, not brands, and it’s the way of the future. This is original, brand-specific content created by customers and published on social media or other channels. UGC comes in many forms, including images, videos, reviews, a testimonial, or even a podcast.

A simple custom hashtag is a great place to start! Encourage your followers to post on their social media using your custom hashtag. This will make it easier for you to re-post people’s images, and also easier for consumers interested in your brand to find photos of what you sell!

Here’s a branding tip: put your custom hashtag inside or on your packaging, or in content like your newsletter so people are exposed to it.

4. Offer Freebies to Improve your Brand Image

People do business with people they like. And if you’re going to the effort to do something your competitors are not it’s going to get remembered. Giving gifts or free products helps to increases trustworthiness and positive perceptions of your brand.

There are plenty of brands that utilise “the power of free” to successfully market their brand. Why?

Mutual Influence – If someone gives you a free sample of something you feel a great obligation to “return the favour” and purchase that product or at least consider it.

Alleviates Uncertainty – Offering a free trial or sample allows you to instantly make uncertainties of the unknown disappear and greatly increase purchase likelihood.

The Power of Free – “Free” isn’t just a price tag, it’s a powerful emotional trigger that can tempt even the most rationale. To put things simply, people love free things and will do things they wouldn’t usually do because of this. Popular e-Commerce brands use the power of free all the time i.e. “Free Shipping” We know it isn’t really free. But the power of the words undoubtedly has a big impact on our value perception and our purchasing decisions.

5. Stay in touch with design trends

An outdated brand is like buying a dusty product off a shelf. Hard to trust and generally unappealing.  

Every five years or so, we see a shift in graphic design trends. This definitely impacts social media branding, visual marketing, and website design trends as well. 

While your logo and brand identity should stay largely the same (unless you’re dying for an update… IN THAT CASE GIVE ME A SHOUT!), marketing materials like newsletters, business cards, product photography, social media posts, and packaging should evolve with design trends.

This signals to your customers and potential buyers that you are in touch with that market and staying “current”.

Now go forth and conquer!

Thanks for the read. Have an amazing April!

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