Business
9 Clever Branding Hacks Secret Strategies for Success

As an entrepreneur, you know how important it is to build a brand. Your branding should be clever in the sense that it is memorable and moves your customers emotionally. It needs to live up to what you said about yourself on your website, social media posts, and business cards. In this blog post we will discuss 9 clever branding hacks that can help move people emotionally through clever design or marketing strategies.
1. The Power of Color
The colors you choose for your brand is one of the most important decisions to make when creating a powerful brand. Many studies have been done on how people are affected by certain colors, and this can help guide your decision making process.
For example, let’s say you want to convey trustworthiness with your company logo design or business cards. Research shows that red corresponds well with trustworthiness in many cases because it has historically been used as an attention-getter at traffic signals and stop signs which tells our brain “look here!”
2. Use Humor
Using clever puns or clever double meanings in your marketing content is another way to use wordplay to get people’s attention. Let’s say you own a coffee shop called “Rise & Grind,” it’s easy for customers to remember this name because they’re already used to saying those words every morning before work out loud.
The clever play on words brings them into your brand by making them think about their daily lives where there are many opportunities for clever brand hacks like these ones if you just look around with fresh eyes. A common way businesses incorporate wordplay as well is through hashtags, which often take advantage of popular memes or clever wordplay to get customers talking about them.
3. The Power of Stories
Everyone loves a good story, and this goes for your customers too. If you have interesting or funny customer stories that happened on the job or within your company culture, tell people because it’s engaging marketing content they like to read and share with friends as well. This is another great way to show off how clever you are through storytelling in brands without actually saying those words out loud.
4. Use your Name as a Marketing Tool
Another great way to use wordplay in branding that can also work well for small business owners or an entrepreneur running solo brands is using the power of their own name and personal brand story to overcome challenges together.
For example if you have the last name “Hill” for some reason but are named after another famous person with that same last name like Jimmy Hill who was known as an English soccer player, why not get people talking about it by making t-shirts featuring both names next to each other? This simple act would bring lots of attention from customers because they’ll be wondering how this clever play on words came into being which could make them curious about your brand and what you do.
5. Voice of the Customer Videos
Social media has given businesses a new way to show customers how they’re listening by sharing snippets of conversations with people who are talking about their company or product on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. These days it’s very simple for small business owners to set up video equipment in store or at special events where influencers may be present and record these clips while making sure there is little background noise so that quality isn’t compromised.
This marketing strategy will help get people more engaged emotionally because they’ll feel heard which helps build trust between brands and customers faster than ever before. Brands can also share this clever marketing content to social media platforms where customers are already talking about them, which will help amplify the play on words so that more people see and share it.
6. Mastermind Meetups
One of my favorite clever branding hacks is mastermind meetups because they’re a great way for entrepreneurs or small business owners who work alone but want to build their own brand community at least virtually if not physically as well by creating an online platform like a Facebook group or Meetup page while also getting involved in local communities through events such as “Open Mic Nights”.
During these mastermind sessions members can create wordplay together with each person having 30 seconds exactly to pitch brand name ideas or branding hacks to the group which can spark even more creativity in those who attend. This is a great way for small business owners to build their own marketing strategies while also making new friends, so it’s definitely an investment that pays off both emotionally and financially as well.
7. Slogans with Hidden Meanings
Another common way businesses use wordplay to help strengthen their brands is through slogan phrases where they enhance their taglines by layering on deeper meaning after first getting people talking about them because of how simple yet effective these strategies are at building stronger connections between customers and brands faster than ever before.
One example would be using familiar sayings like “Rome wasn’t built in a day” but changing it to “Rome wasn’t built on sales alone”, which not only cleverly reflects your company’s values and the mission behind why you’re selling certain products or services, but also layers deeper meaning onto what could have been just another boring slogan.
8. Create Brand Champions
One of the best ways entrepreneurs can build their own brand communities is by creating “brand champions” who are passionate about sharing what they love and believe in with others. It’s important to note that these customers don’t need to be influencers or celebrities because anyone who talks positively about a business on social media, forums, blogs, etc., while also engaging other people through comments will help spread word-of-mouth marketing faster than ever before which has always been one of the most effective forms of advertising for small businesses.
Each time you create an opportunity for your brand champions to talk up your company online such as sending them free products or inviting them to special events where they’ll receive VIP treatment it increases chances exponentially that this positive content gets shared more often with others which in turn helps spread your brand name further than you may have ever imagined.
9. Incentivize Referrals with Rewards
A great way entrepreneurs can build their own brand communities is by incentivizing referrals with rewards. For example, a business could offer customers who refer friends or family members $20 off their next purchase which helps increase the chance that they’ll spread the word about what a company does and why people should buy from them in return because it’s free money.
This marketing strategy will help get people more engaged emotionally because they’ll feel heard which helps build trust between brands and customers faster than ever before.
John Lawson is one of the most trusted and experienced eCommerce professionals in the industry. John is the founder of The Ecommerce Group, which he started in 2011 to share his knowledge with other entrepreneurs in the industry. It’s the oldest eCommerce group on Facebook with over 8,500 members from around the world!
John speaks at conferences all around the world, including Retail Global, South by Southwest, Etail, Digital Summit, Hubspot Inbound, Ad-Tech and more. He also writes for several international publications such as Power Retail, Small Business Trends and Disrupt Magazine.
