Growing a successful brand is difficult, there’s no denying that! 

Creating an established brand from what’s sometimes thought of as a commodity requires dedication and know-how. 

Two key elements that are essential to successful brand growth are relevance and responsiveness. 

They may not be the quick fixes you were looking for - and they may not sound exciting - but to deliver long-term, dependable brand growth. 

With brand growth, you’ll become seen by more of your target audience - which means more customers and financial success. 

Have you noticed how a brand will slowly become a part of our daily lives? It seems so seamless and sometimes we don’t even notice how much we use them in our day to day lives. 

Creating a relevant and responsive brand is essential to your company’s long-term success. 

How do you build brand relevance?

Building a relevant brand will help you expand your business and become better known within your industry. 

To build a relevant brand you need to: 

• Find a strategic purpose that creates shared value with those that come into contact with your company. This will help you inspire both your employees and your clients. 
• Your company needs to engage with your customers through positive brand experiences.
• Brands need to be powerful inside and out. You need to have a consistency that flows from your employees, through your brand message, and into your audience. 

Brands that know who they are and what they stand for, move past being a commodity, get positioned in the industry, and develop a purpose for their audience. 

By creating a purpose their audience begins to value them more and this will set them apart from their competitors. 

Having a brand purpose is a necessity and it binds your assets and aspirations to your customer’s motivations. You become something that your audience needs, wants, and trusts. 

Become (and stay) relevant by creating hyper-personalized experiences

Brands that are relevant to their audiences bring their customers on a journey so they get to know them better. 

They do this with constant engagement - online and offline. It allows them to anticipate, adapt, and respond to the needs of their audience as it changes and evolves over time. 

This is what allows brands to create hyper-personalized offers for their customers that encourage them to stay with them. 

By enabling your customers to learn more about your brand you can strengthen your relationship with them. The stronger your relationship, the more you can create empathetic content tailored to their needs. This will attract more people to your business and get you the results you want. 

By giving your customers a personalized look into your business you’re giving them the story behind your business. You’re showing them empathy and by using this strategy you can create an emotional connection. 

Relevant brands are relevant because they have a meaningful role in people’s lives. They give them something that they need or yearn for every day. 

These brands are staying in tune with their audience so that they can stay relevant. They keep up to date with what’s going on in their industry so they can continually evolve for the demands of the future. 

Does your brand play a relevant role in your customers’ decision to buy your product? Are they just purchasing from you because you’re the cheapest? Are you still stuck in the ‘commodity’ category?

If you don’t know the answer to this then try asking yourself these questions to find out:

1. How relevant is your brand compared to other aspects of your business?
2. How important is your brand to your audience compared to your competitor’s brand? 
3. What do you have that they don’t have?
4. Do customers buy your branded products? 
5. Will your customers buy a branded product if it’s more expensive than another?
6. How important do you think your branded product/service is compared to your competitors?

If you’re not getting the answers you were hoping for with these questions, it’s time to reevaluate your brand’s relevancy to your target audience. 

How does brand responsiveness affect your business?

Let’s say you open up a new store and you ignore your customers as they walk in and refuse to answer their questions. You don’t answer your phone and when your employees ask for help, you ignore them too. 

How long do you think a business like that would stay open? 

Not very long.

If you have a lack of responsiveness in your business then you’re going to experience a lot of issues with growing your business. You need to stay in contact with your customers, your audience, and your employees. 

We’re not suggesting that you respond to every spam email or unsolicited sales call you get - but any reasonable request should be responded to, especially when it’s customers asking you something. 

Responsiveness is an essential part of any successful business. It’ll help strengthen your brand’s reputation and make your customers more comfortable about working with you.

Responsiveness defines your brand

Our industry is based on relationships and client interaction - more so than most other industries. 

It sounds simple, but so many companies neglect this: staying on top of your emails and messages will help your brand grow in the ag industry.

Customers like to be replied to even if it’s just a simple reply. It makes them feel listened to - and will help their trust and confidence in you grow over time. 

Replying to comments on social media is also a huge help to your business. You’re not only replying directly to a potential customer but you’re also doing it in public - which will show others that you respond and engage with your audience members. 

By paying attention to both your relevancy and your responsiveness, your company will stand out from the competition. Showing your audience you care about what matters to them will help build a trusting relationship between the two of you. 

Staying responsive and engaging with your audience makes them feel listened to and important. In order to turn casual visitors into loyal customers, they need to feel like you care about their businesses and their lives. 

Working on your brand’s responsiveness and its relevance will help you create meaningful interactions with your customers - which will see your brand grow substantially. 

Here at Agtivation, we love helping ag businesses grow their brand. If you’d like to talk about how to improve your brand identity and become more relevant in the industry, get in touch with our team today.