Anglers who are looking to take the next step in their career are faced with the same challenges all new businesses, companies and individuals in any industry face. This is building, maintaining and growing a brand for themselves and/or their business.
Your brand is who you are. It is what you say, what you look like and how you act. The most successful organizations have both a recognizable and respectable brand. As you build your brand within the fishing industry, there are several important factors to consider that will help your brand grow and succeed.
Maintain a Unique Voice
Your voice is who you are and who your followers listen to. Whether you are communicating with them online via social media, blog, in a video format or even in person you always want your voice to be an authentic version of yourself. Your tone, your word choice and your message all are reflections of yourself, your brand and any other brands you represent.
Always stay positive. Even when things are not going your way. One negative message can disrupt an overall positive tone, always look on the brightside. You don’t want one or two negative messages to be how individuals remember you.
Your voice is who you are and who your followers recognize. Always pay attention to what you say, write and share. Your brand revolves around your voice, be sure it is a positive and unique one!
Be Visually Appealing
While sounding good is key, looking good is just as important. Sharing high quality photos and videos is a great start, but this is just one aspect of being visually appealing. For individuals looking to build their brand, a logo and branded material is one of the beginning steps.
Your logo is your most recognizable element of your brand. For many, this is the first thing they see and one of the first interactions they have with your brand.. You want your logo to reflect who you are and what you represent.
There is no one size fits all for what should or shouldn’t be included in a logo, but a successful logo leaves a lasting impression on individuals and helps connect them with your overall brand. Because of the importance of the logo in your overall branding, work with a professional graphic designer to help create a logo that properly represents you!
Share Promotional Material
Once you have your logo designed and ready to go, the next step in developing your brand is creating promotional material. Not only is this a great way to showcase your new logo, but it acts as an additional touch point between you and potential followers, clients and partners.
Promotional materials include business cards, flyers, stickers/decals and even other materials such as gift cards, banners or even digital and print advertisements.
Building your brand takes marketing and marketing takes money. Expect to invest some money into quality branding materials. From your logo to what you put your logo on, look at your finances and set a budget. Business cards are a cheap, but effective way to follow up to contacts you make and look professional in the process. By contrast, major marketing efforts including paid advertisements can get your brand and message out to thousands of individuals, but do come with a larger cost.
For many anglers looking to build their brand in the fishing industry, social media advertising is a good beginning strategy. Advertising costs on Facebook and Instagram can be flexible and accomodate all budgets. Select what you’d like to “boost” or “promote” and your target audience you wish to focus on, from there Facebook will automatically do the placements.
For anglers looking to expand into a guide service, sport shows are often a great place to begin. While the cost to attend the show can take a good bite into the marketing budget, these shows are the perfect opportunity to interact directly with your target audience. Having business cards, flyers, a banner and table skirt all get your brand in-front of the right people and allows for one on one interactions, often resulting in numerous bookings as well!
Ask for Advice
For many anglers, their passion is outdoors and on the water. Branding and marketing strategies are not their strength and if this sounds like you, that’s alright! Consult with a professional graphic designer on your logo and other branding materials. They will help guide you through the process.
Many also will be able to assist you with your marketing strategies. Lip Ripper Fishing offers full service branding and marketing services. This includes logo design, promotional materials design and other branding and advertising advice and assistance. If you are looking to begin taking your brand to the next level but aren’t quite sure how to do that, we are here to help! Good fishing!
Learn More About Building Your Brand
There are hundreds of thousands of anglers in the region, how are you going to stand out from the rest of them? The key to building your brand in the fishing industry is emerging from the rest of the pack. Find out how you can rise to the top in Standing Apart from the Crowd.
